WiFi Router recommendations

Afternoon,

I am looking for a new WiFi AP or VDSL Router.

Our WiFi is, well [censored].

I have the older HG533 From talktalk and also the newer "SuperHub" but both seem useless when it comes to WiFi.

In the living room is where the router is and even in the same room the WiFi is slow and unpredictable and rather slow despite having a strong signal and fast connection (300Mbps+)

And it's even worse upstairs... Around 5 meters distance through the wooden floor and a plaster board wall and it barely works.

I was looking at this:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/...

It's not to expensive. Budget is a MAX of £170. We don't need no fancy features either, VPN, Print server etc.

Any suggestions would be helpful!

Cheers

Modem side on the ASUS DSL series is not great.

You might be better with:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/...

There is a Mk2 version on Amazon for £11 more:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wireless-Connections-UK-Arc...

If your issue is Wifi consider https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ubiquiti-Networks-UAP-AC-LI... . Best tech thing I've done in my house for ages, bomb proof wifi ... they are hard wired with CAT5e but My neighbour has used one with powerline adaptors with great success.

Have you made sure that you don't have any conflicts with your neighbours?

I have.

There are no 5G networks at all near me, and even that from the TT router is useless.

I have to have a WiFi router IN MY ROOM just for my phone or it cant get a good enough connection to work. It will connect at only a few mbps.

I even have a WiFi extender half way between me and the router and even connecting to that gives a very weak connection that is unusable.

BUT If I plug in my Netgear wifi stick to my PC it will connect ok ish, I get about Mbps out of it but every other device struggles so much to get any speed out of the wifi.

Could it also be number of devices?? We have 4 phones 3 tablets 2 laptops witch most of are connected all the time.

Our TV is on power line adaptors as it wont even connect to the WiFi at all..

It's just all a huge mess. And changing channels is tricky as there is a LOT of 2.4G WiFi networks showing up on every channel going

A WiFi set up that has the power to cover the house and breakthrough any interference from other networks.. if such a thing sexists, would be great.

The ubiquity networks WiFi hub may be a good idea. I have hear good things from Lu

My talktalk router has better range than my £200 netgear night hawk, my BT homehub 6 and the virginmedia super hub.

Generally speaking my talktalk router got through 4 solid walls just fine and I could still stream 1080p YouTube on my PS4. The other routers could not even connect.

Your issue is likely due to the building materials in your property e.g. Using metal sheilding in the walls for insulation etc.

I would get a HG635 as a starting point as the hg633 has few wireless issues which are known and cannot be fixed easily. If that does not help you'll need to get multiple APs.

Regarding 2.4ghz choose either channel 1 6 or 11. Never choose a channel such as channel 3. If you need info why I can provide links later. Also only use 20mhz on 2.4ghz

I think your building is just constructed in a way that is bad for wireless.
Any concrete, metal or large amounts of water will pretty much stop wifi.

As for no of devices I've had 35 on my talktalk router back in the day just fine. All on the wifi. That's a hg635 though.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sun 26-Feb-17 04:15:41)

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Regarding 2.4ghz choose either channel 1 6 or 11. Never choose a channel such as channel 3. If you need info why I can provide links later. Also only use 20mhz on 2.4ghz

I've seen this posted before, but never really understood why, so would appreciate you posting the links.

My suggestion to the OP was to try two or three different WiFI scanners on his phone as mine all tell a slightly different story.

It should certainly be possible to see where the congestion is and how the signal drops from room to room, although I suspect he may already have tried this from what he has posted.

I did this, And I could see every other 2.4Ghz network using Channel 11.

So I set mine to 1.

The channel 1, 6 or 11 thing is to stop any "overlapping" of the networks.

A network on channel 3 and one on channel 1 will interfere with each other. but if they are on 1 6 and 11 they wont.

But then any networks that are on the same channel will fight for bandwidth as each device has to talk "in turn". If there is not to many devices on said networks its not usually an issue.

I understand how WiFi works but what I don't understand is why the WiFi in my house is so god damn bad.

The internal walls are plaster board upstairs with standard fiberglass insulation and the downstairs walls are all brick.

What I have noticed on my phone this morning after downloading some test files from TBB is that the download speed will start off at around 2.5MB a second and quickly drop off to below 1MB and then just fail.

In reply to a post by jaydub:

My suggestion to the OP was to try two or three different WiFI scanners on his phone as mine all tell a slightly different story.

Acrylic Wifi on Windows is another option if you have a wifi enabled laptop.

If you can't get a decent wifi connection between two pieces of equipment in the same room, then something is wrong, such as a piece of equipment not working properly or some sort of interference. If changing the equipment does not help, I would try switching off every electrical device that you can.