I’ve found myself in a situation where I need a home office, but the room where I’ll be based has very poor WiFi signal as it stands. We have a Virgin Media Super Hub 3.0 at the front of the house downstairs; the ‘office’ is at the rear of the house one floor up.
I’m debating between range extenders (such as the Netgear N300) and a mesh system (such as the BT whole home WiFi or Linksys Velop).
The latter two mesh systems currently run at around £150-£160 for three nodes.
Does anybody recommend one solution over another (mesh vs extender) or have a preferred product?
I am quite techy but networking isn’t a strong point so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Agreed. I’d definitely consider powerline – it’s what I use, and it has a pass-through socket so it doesn’t take up one of my (very few) available sockets.
Mine’s a TP-LINK 500Mbps (no link, sorry, it’s been a while since I bought it, they’ve no doubt moved on by now) and each socket can support 2 network connections, so I use one socket for both the TV (for my Netflix) and for the PS4. Never had any issues.
Yeah I’d recommend powerline adapters as well. Cheaper than whole home Wi-fi solutions and works well. I’d recommend getting one which will double as a second Wi-fi hotspot and not just a hardwired connection.
Edit: I wouldn’t recommend a standard range extender which doesn’t work via powerline tech. Too much hassle to get location just right to extend it exactly where you want, and risk dropping speed too much.
Obviously with the powerline options just need to make sure the socket near your existing router is on same electrical circuit as socket where you will be plugging in the other adapter!
I would avoid mesh networks, they really arn’t great performers at the lower end of the consumer market, you need top notch commercial grade networking gear to get a fast mesh network. Either replace your router with a much better one that provides extended WiFi for the whole house, get a booster, or use power line. I would use a combination of the two… Power line to a signal booster in your office. So all your devices, printer phone, pc can take advantage of the wifi, but you also use a more reliable poweline circuit.
I had a brief look at the Amplifi system - seems a little pricey for what I’m after. Looks stunning from a design perspective! Certainly better than BT’s branded disks.
I find it depends on the electrical circuits in the house, if it’s an old house, 1970 or earlier I would do my homework before buying powerline, else agreed it’s the most reliable it just works.
Fair point, ours is pre 70’s but the powerline works perfect. I’ll admit I took a bit of a gamble when I bought it as I’d no idea if it’d like the wiring or not.
I am using a power line tp-link with a superhub and it works well. I got the cheaper option with only one ethernet socket but it was a pass through so I didn’t lose a socket. I then bought a cheap £12 switch off Amazon which means I can run several devices from the one socket. Works fine for me.
I use two Google WiFi points with my Virgin Hub 3.0 and it works flawlessly. I have approx 18 devices connected at anyone time and it handles all the traffic brilliantly.
Isn’t the cheapest solution but it’s completely hassle free and the app is really nice to use in comparison to a web interface.
I have a powerline that takes a connection from the main building to an outbuilding. It’s a fair distance, so there’s a significant loss in speed, but it works well enough to stream 1080p HD. It’s a really old house, (there’s still sockets without switches and sockets in the skirting board)…
having tried numerous solutions a mesh worked best - one set of log in details around the house and moves as required to strongest satellite module - start with main and one satellite and add more if required - plug in difficult equipment direct
