BT Wi-Fi Home Hotspot 500 Kit

Hi.
Has anybody tried this kit for extending the wifi network at all?
Reading the user guide on the BT site it says "The new Wi-Fi Home Hotspot and your existing wireless broadband router will show up as two separate networks. You may want to try both wi-fi networks as one might be faster and more reliable than the other." which is sub-optimal when you may be roaming around the house.

Rather than that would you get a seamless switch if you configure the wifi hotspot with the same SSID and password? (I.e. device will automatically switch to the access point with the best signal?)

If the BT kit can't do that does anybody know any powerline kit with a wifi hotspot that will?
It's 100% for wireless signal strength and not wired connections (although one powerline device will be connected to the router via ethernet).

Many thanks.

I use Netgear XWNB5201 500Mbps Powerline Wi-Fi Extender/Access Point Kit and it works fine for me.

I configured it with the same SSID and password. This is from the manual (page 14).

If you want to clone your existing wireless network, enter the same wireless settings that your router or gateway uses.

If you want to create a new WiFi network, enter new wireless settings. Creating a new WiFi network lets you have a second network in another zone of your house.


I am sure there are others that will do the same job but my only experience is Netgear.

I use the TP-Link TL-WA701ND which is a repeater / bridge / AP with multiple SSIDs if needed - £21.73 from Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002YETVVE handles switch handover from one AP to the next flawlessly if the wireless device (laptop, phone, tablet) have implemented it corrently. The SSID is set to the same as the master router to allow this.

Alternatives are here http://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-WA750RE-Universal-Extende... for £16.98 and here http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wireless-Repeater-Extender-C...

SKY currently have an offer for a free repeater (called a WIFI Booster which it clearly isnt) for BB customers.

Standard items, dirt cheap, very very flexible.

EDIT: Insert URLs does not seem to work properly

Edited by greenglide (Thu 09-Jan-14 21:47:55)

Thanks for the reply...
Powerline stuff is my main plan at the moment as the wifi signal in this house deteriorates very quickly and there's limited places to put a repeater...to be perfectly honest the only place i could put it that'd make a difference it still wouldnt properly reach where i wanted it to

*EDIT* or how do you rate TP link stuff?
i've seen which is a powerline wifi extender...i've not used or read about TP link so i have no idea how good their stuff is (i've had linksys and netgear routers in the house that are flakey...linksys router was forever needing rebooting and the netgear tended to overheat)

Edited by NBK (Thu 09-Jan-14 22:24:54)

thanks i'll add that to my list of possibilities

Not sure if you sorted this or not but by using the BT Device Configuration Tool (search on Google for the link) you can reset the SSID and password on the Hotspot 500 so that it acts as an extender to your own system. Using the tool from BT it takes seconds to change and in effect it means you have one system rather that two networks.

The changeover for all your devices is then seamless but the only issue I have, whether as an extension to my home network or as a second network, is that download speed drops - in my case from 68Mbps to about 20Mbps. Looking at the technical stuff, it says this can happen with noise on the line from things like freezers, fridges, microwaves etc. Who hasn't got these nowadays?

Anyway, you can use the BT Hotspot as an extender to your home network and its very simple to do using BT's own tools.