Weak signal in student house

Again I ask for friends, they live in a old building and router was at back of building in living room (I assume the living room used to be kitchen as theres a modern extension which is now a kitchen and front would be a living room and dining room in past)

There is a single bedroom at back at property above the current living room and a room downstairs and upstairs in middle and 2 at front on both floors.

It was that the back room got a strong 5 bar signal before, and middle rooms got 3 bars and front ones 2 bars max but mostly 1 bar if not none so they moved the router to the front door where theres another socket but means a cable is running to nearest socket which is a safety risk and also means the tenant in back room has nothing who conveniently also uses a desktop so even worse signal.

I originally thought just a cheap range extender and put router back in living room might work, haven't tried it yet but I was thinking the distance to the nearest electrical socket in hallway is next to the rooms which would get no signal.

I MIGHT be lucky and put it upstairs on the landing but thats a risk.

I was thinking best thing would be a powerline with a built in range extender

Any objections? If not whats the cheapest.

Range extenders pick up a wireless existing single and rebroadcast it, halving the available speed in the process too, i.e. better range but speeds can be lower.

if you using a powerline to feed a range extender sounds like running it in a wireless point mode.

Ideal world you want - Ethernet cable to a better location where you install a dual-band wireless access point, i.e. those near can use higher speed less congested 5GHz band and others the 2.4 Ghz. Sample kit ASUS RT-AC51U at £39.99 and while its a router you can switch it (as with many Asus routers) into an access point mode.

If on a really tight budget you can even re-use a wireless router that does not have an access point mode by following a guide such as http://www.coolwebhome.co.uk/wap/configuring-wap.html

Given the problems with congestion on 2.4GHz spending money to improve wireless on just 2.4GHz only kit is money wasted in my view.

The current router is 5Ghz compatable but my friends wireless card is only 2.4 so would need a new one anyway.

I vistied him today, moving the current router a foot along helped with connection with laptop but desktop still weak which I expected as had similar experiences myself in past or at least desktop picked up 2 or 3 bars signal but either came up as limited or pages loaded very slow I assume as signal is getting blocked by furniture.

My ideal solution is put router in living room and a range extender in hall for the 2 rooms that have a problem as neither of them care too much about speed just a stable connection leaving 3 rooms getting good signal and speed.

I would assume greater stability on line too.

Is the desktop using a USB dongle? If so, get the user to buy a NIC card complete with aerial. I bought a Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I Network Card. Compared with the USB dongle I was using this really has a rock solid connection WIFI connection. I connect at 866.7Mbps, which is a good 400Mbps up on the dongle used from the same location.

Looks to be a good choice (on Amazon at £29) for an internal card, as got an external antenna, so can position them so the metal PC case is not an issue.

5GHz is generally more stable than 2.4 GHz, but can sometimes have a shorter reach, but until you try different hardware it is hard to know.

Its an internal card, only has 1 aerial though and not sure age as it came with a prebuilt though the prebuilt is only a month old and has upgraded the power supply as he likes to online game with it.

Its the type that the aerial can be removed though so may be worthwile looking at homeplugs I just thought that worse in one way as still means router is in a bad place (dangerous)

Right now he internet on the desktop by bridging the laptops wifi by ethernet but that takes up a lot of room on his small desk and of course costs electric and he has to pay for it

The desktop signal is so bad it only works at one angle and even then its 1-4 meg when the laptop gets 40 meg.

I did expect this sort of problem before, happened to me in past and other friends, I assume the main issue is the pc is right next to a large built in wardrobe (meaning either the bed goes against the heater but then light in his face first thing in morning or his pc next to jeater as thats where the window is meaning nice view but then weak wifi)

Actually I do remember from personal experience and when helping my other friend before the wifi works better if not perfect when the side of case is off.

I have managed to get a unused router (EE hub) for my friend, but how simple is it to setup for boosting signal? do I need to flash firmware?

My friend did order a new card from Ebay but had problems collecting as wanted DPD pickup and the shop refused to give him parcel and its not back to sender yet to be resent out.

At best right now he gets 4 meg if pc is in awkward location,. but its a unstable 4 meg.

I did have a WR710n to test but I think its faulty as it never seems to work as once its set I can't connect to it to check without resetting it (or I can if I use ethernet but the point of it is a wireless range extender)

You would need to get an ethernet cable between the main hub and the EE hubs location.

It will not wirelessly pickup the original signal and re-broadcast it.

Setup and configuration is easy, the hard part is getting a cable between the two hubs.

Keep in mind that most desktops/towers are fully enclosed in metal boxes/Faraday cages, hence the generally poor signals, if the WiFi aerial is inside the case.

Hence you removing a panel improving the performance.

Only my most recent desktop/tower has WiFi built-in; but with the aerial mounted directly centrally on the outer face of the metal front panel, with a full-size plastic trim panel covering all of that face. (HP Pavilion, 64 bit)

Its WiFi performance is better than I had anticipated; but still not up to the general level of laptops.

The laptops and netbooks I have opened up, tend to have the WiFi aerial/s mounted behind the top edge of their displays, so usually surrounded by plastic only.

The WiFi module tends to be below the keyboard, with a miniscule co-ax cable from there via the hinge area and up behind the display to the aerial/s.

I have noted with the main laptop when surveying WiFi in and around my house, that it is generally better to have the laptop display towards the source router, both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.

This case is the odd one out in my experience, maybe as its a prebuilt so different materials.

The card that came with it had a single removable aerial, that one got a slightly better signal if case removed but the biggest improvement was laying case on its side.

I had a (cheap) spare card I tried on it and that if anything was the opposite, with side of case off it got a worse signal.

When I was here last night though I noticed a strange turn of events, around 10pm I noticed the speed spike up to about 1.2 megabytes a second on a download and stayed stable, I thought it was just a fluke as about 10 minutes later the speed dropped to nothing and had nothing or at best 0.4 megabytes a second, and no browsing was working, then around 11pm it suddenly shot up to 1.8-2.1 megabytes a second download and was stable, I left about 12.15 to go home and by morning it was back to constant disconnections if got anything at all.

Did mange to get 3 meg in one position but every so often it said "limited" at which point you had to manually disconnect and reconnect the wifi and it wiorked again for a while.

So theres me thinking, he lives next to a VERY busy road (near motorway and main road into city centre) and at nighttime the road is quiet to the point its a car every few minutes.


Would that affect it?

Or is it more likely his flatmates are in bed and they are getting the main signal, I notice when I check admin page even for tenants who are away for the weekend it lists as CURRENTLY connected ipads/iphones and laptops and only like 1 disconnected laptop.

The 2.4 GHz frequency is used for various "unlicensed" transmissions, including microwaves particularly, as it is the frequency that water molecules absoorb the radiation most readily.

Basically that means that 2.4 GHz WiFi and the other sources don't travel very far, unless special efforts are made, such as Yagi/Beam aerials etc.

Also if anything with a lot of water in it, such as the bodies of humans etc, intervene in the path, the signal can be attenuated. Humans walk around indoors!

I am at present informally monitoring a WiFi repeater in my lounge, as it seems to have problems maintaining the router connection in very humid weather.

There is a waste basket near it; and if an metalised packet such as a crisp bag is dropped in the basket, the link is broken.

There may be problems from the vehicles; but I suspect that this unlikely, except for those with ignition and similar problems.

Another aspect might be if any of the occupants use folding beds of any sort, again unusual, but one never knows what might crop up when trouble-shooting.

Are any of the doors metal/metallic?

On the water absorption side - showers?

The more substantial the walls, the greater the absorbency and attenuation, particularly if concrete.

Plasterboard often is clad on the hidden side with metal foil as a moisture barrier, particularly on the outer walls; but that does not prevent its use on simple partition walls.

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WiFi is at an extremely low power level, think of trying to light up a room/building with a single, small LED.

It may also be affected by the way the router is set up, if it is capable of having several SSIDs, with various allocations of bandwidth and priority.

There are 1000 reasons the WiFi signal varies and it is pointless you trying to figure out why. The key point is that the signal is weak, therefore sometimes it's ok, other times it's too weak to use. The fix here is to get the signal strong enough that even during the worst periods it is working fine.

Reasons which may cause the WiFi speeds to change include but are not limited to:
Bluetooth devices being used ie wireless headphones, bluetooth speakers etc
nearby baby monitors
people walking around
microwaves in use
wireless doorbells in use
wireless mouse in use
keyboards in use
cordless landlines in use at 2.4ghz
wireless audio video transmitters ie sky in bedroom from living room tv
slight movement of router or client
router in use automatically changing the wireless channel
showers in use between the AP and client

The possibilities are almost endless and as I already stated it really does not matter, ultimately if the signal was good it would probably be fine at all times.

Theres a shower/toilet room right besdies where my friend lives which has a extractor fan in it, the disance between room and router is 20-25 feet in a almost straight line as the router is literally at foot of stairs and friends room literally at top of stairs (bar a few feet)

However even the people downstairs who would be about 8-10 feet from router struggle to keep a good connection.

My friend generally has a permanent connection it just doesnt get any speed to it

As ukhardy07 indicates, there are so many possible causes.

I have experimentally used a spare router as a repeater - it was quite easy to set up; but needs an Ethernet cable to do so.

I*t looks as though some form of repeater/extender is the only option open to your friend.

However, has your friend tried the laptop temporarily in close proximity to the router, to establish that the router itself is OK?

I brought my laptop down once which cost me £2000 3 years ago so top end one and apart from an initial connection issue it worked, I got between half and full line speed (so about 1.4-3.6 megaBYTES a second)

The ip profile is 38 meg, but even on the laptop it rarely downloaded that but this was being used in friends room.

But the tenants downstairs, one of which bedroom is about 2 feet from router (and his desk another 4 or 5 feet) says at best he gets "slow" speeds as of course he doesnt know about speedtests to him slow just means webpages taking a few seconds to load and a lot of buffering on internet.

So his solution which frustrates me and my friend, move the router a foot closer to his bedroom door meaning middle of floor next to main entrance and a tripping hazard, but the housemate says that point he gets zero buffering.

I have been thinking router problem as when initially connected the internet kept dropping every few minutes for the whole house and Openreach arrived (the first time I was visiting friend) and I was discussing with him and he told me there was a cabinet fault, line fault and the builders who just modernised the property had put on new faceplates and wired them the wrong way.

What also frustrates my friend is his housemates are refusing to chip in for homeplugs or a wifi extender saying it works therefore its fine and ignoring how my friend can't connect at all and often gets dial up quality at best.

It is frustrating how his flatmates expect my friend to pay for everything when hes the one on least income.

On the original plan thing, either way hes getting the new wifi card with that movable aerial but wanted homeplugs also to get the maximum speed, we were thinking of getting one of those kits that would mean the main router can be moved back into living room which means friend gets a good/strong signal in his room again and means living room and kitchen have a signal, then having a homeplug with the built in wifi in main hall so theres no cables to trip over, then upstiars outside 2 bedrooms and on same floor as friend have another homeplug and the spare router as a range extender.

This however I expect to be costly, I see a TP Link kit for around the £60 mark at Argos that seems perfect but again means my friend is the one paying for everything.

And that means he has no homeplug in his bedroom and relies on wifi.

Plus assuming its a router problem or just building materials would one of those homeplugs with wifi have a lower range than a router? Problem being where it is now theres only 1 socket against wall and its next to front door so any cables would be an issue.

In reply to a post by mittenkrust:

So his solution which frustrates me and my friend, move the router a foot closer to his bedroom door meaning middle of floor next to main entrance and a tripping hazard, but the housemate says that point he gets zero buffering.

What happens when you raise the router (i.e. off the floor)? Perhaps wall-mounting it would give a better signal.

Does your friend need full speeds, can he not live with 10Mbps? A cheap wifi extender for 15 quid should give him a good enough signal to make it usable. It will not be full speed but stable enough to use.

Bear in mind netflix can work with 2Mbps just fine and 5Mbps for HD.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-Mounted-Universal-Ex...

If the house is a "HMO" (recognised and licensed by the Local Authority as a House of Multiple Occupancy) the router on the floor etc; and any other Wi Fi Range extender connected to it by a cable, may contravene particularly the Fire Hazards and Exits conditions; apart from any direct conditions imposed by the owner/landlord.

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It may be that your friend should investigate the various Mobile/Cell dongles, so that he is completely independent - but these are dependent on the strength and reliability of the local Mobile signals.

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The price you paid for your laptop is not necessarily a good guide to its WiFi facilities. The various laptops and netbooks that I have taken apart, all had apparently the same or very similar WiFi Modules.

Also as in effect you have found out, the WiFi signal strength varies considerably in the one room, even with the router present. I have surveyed most of the rooms in my house, including cloakroom, bathroom, kitchen etc; and typically 5 positions in each of the other rooms and garden, finding significant variations.

It was also important that the the top of the LCD screen with the WiFi aerials was towards the router, that could give reasonably strong connections, whilst if I simply rotated 180 degrees so that my body intervened, the signal strength dropped considerably.

Hi.
Sorry, I haven't read all messages and replies here. All I understood is that you have weak signal. Sorry again, maybe my answer is absolutely not relative, but still, I will leave my comment.

I had weak mobile signal at my home. Not only voice signal was bad. my 3g was terrible too. So I've made some research and found out that there are some special devices that are used for signal improving. They are called mobile phone signal boosters. I will not name companies as it will sound like some advertisement. All I want to say is this device did really help me with 3g improving.

If this info is iirrelevant, then sorry

The difference with the laptop was that it it was on thet desk next to window and beside 2 large built in wardrobes (same as desktop) but still for the most part was able to get full 38 meg though it fluctated, never below about 15 meg

Yet the tenants downstairs have laptops and abour 6 feet from router (though goes through a wall which had a bed behind it, can barely connect though they have cheap old laptops.

I did try moving the router back and forth on the ground with no real difference, though router is literally besides a radiator which I assume will affect it.

He did in the end recieve that Gigabyte wifi card and it has helped, when I first installed it, I was getting 12-20 meg even with pc pushed back against wall so not taking up space around floor, though I had to move the desk a few inches to the left as his dual monitors didnt fit on desk so pc was moved a few inches to and it went down to about 5-8 meg, still impressive compared to what he did have but nowhere near as good as he should get.

He and I am more annoyed because the other tenants want to squeeze as much speed as possible out when my friend actually needs higher speeds as his course requires a lot of software downloads, and also video streaming and he feels like he is being forced to spend money and they just can;t be bothered and they are the ones who have money to waste and he is poor.

Im still unsure on homepluigs, but I reckon his flatmates will go crazy if they notice router moved even if signal is the same for them

Taking your last sentence including "building materials", generally their effects will be consistent.

I suspect that regarding repeaters, extenders etc, that their performances wrt to one another, will vary so much, it would be luck as to whether the "best" has been purchased/obtained, especially noting the variability of some well-known hubs.

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Re building materials, although probably not on this case, it reminded me that a housing estate built in the late 1970s near me, had harling/pebble dash applied to various exterior walls.

Within a few years, this was falling off in largish sections.

Not clear whether poor brickwork and/or the cement mixture used.

To rectify this, the relevant walls were covered by metal mesh, to give a good key/grip; and new harling/pebble dash successfully applied.

However today, this metal mesh is not obvious, so the occupiers could be suffering poor mobile/cell phone signals, without being aware why.

The mesh probably affects WiFi out in the gardens, thinking of that aspect -- whether welcome as an unintended "security feature" or not.