Range extender for ac wireless?

I have set my BT HH5 to broadcast ac wireless as my new laptop supports this. I have bought the BT ac dongle for my other machine but the signal speed (router to dongle) is recording at 72 Mbs. Actual download speed is about 20Mbs on the speed tester (figures from laptop two rooms away from dongle on same floor of the house). The newer laptop is clearly receiving the ac signal (speeds of 300Mbs plus) so is there a repeater/range extender that would provide similar to the dongle or do they all support ac nowadays?

72Mbps implies you're picking up the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi from your HH5, not the 5GHz Wi-Fi.

Edited by deleted (Sun 18-Oct-15 07:10:32)

Have you given the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz wireless configurations different SSIDs? That way you can control which wireless each device is using. You can make the changes in the Wireless section of the Advanced Settings in the HH5.

Edited by deleted (Sun 18-Oct-15 12:22:33)

Exactly. I downloaded WifiInfoview ( a cracking little programme, by the way) and it confirms that my HH5 is sending out the ac signal. If I put the 'dongled' laptop next to the router it does pick up the ac signal, but move it any distance and it drops to the lower speed. My new laptop always picks up ac, so I suppose that inbuilt cards are just better than USB dongles and I'll have to live with it unless I get some kind of booster. I looked in PC World yesterday and I couldn't spot one that specifically mentioned ac wireless so I don't want to buy something that isn't suitable.
Interesting that WifiInfoview reported mine as the only ac signal out of 18 it picked up.

Sorry brightd, I replied while you were posting. No, I haven't tried that, but would having two different SSIDs make the dongle any better at picking up the stronger signal? I'll give it a try though, as the whole point of buying the ac dongle was to get ac wireless on the older laptop (at least some of the time) and I'm going to persevere.

Currently you have the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz network named the same.

2.4Ghz is often much slower as it has lots more interference. However 2.4Ghz penetrates walls a lot better than 5Ghz.

If you are a distance away from the HomeHub, the 2.4Ghz will be a much stronger signal than the 5Ghz one. Your laptop will simply connect to the one with a stronger signal (the 2.4Ghz one). Despite the signal being stronger, chances are it will be slower. You would probably get a better speed using the 5Ghz signal, even if the reception was 2 bars weaker.

So yes, split the SSID, name one of them BTHomeHub-5xxxx2G and one BTHomeHub-5xxxx-5G

Force the older laptop to connect to the 5G one.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sun 18-Oct-15 13:56:05)

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try two SSIDs. Now next question, where did I write down the HH5 web interface password when I changed it......?(Only joking!)

Just to report back that having the two SSIDs makes it much easier to manage the two speeds and the dongle (when forced to use the ac signal via the SSID) seems to be giving a better connection. I had a bit of hassle re-connecting one Samsung mobile to the network as it didn't like the two options and kept telling me it couldn't connect to either but it seems to have settled down now. Thanks for all the help.

The network wouldn't make the phone behave like that... Something odd with the phone, try forgetting and reconnecting if the issue persists

Post deleted by BatBoy