In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Folks relying on “WiFi” only are on a bit of a fools errand. A good quality wireless install actually needs (at least some) structured cabling if only to the access points.

Unfortunately even corporate provided laptops are going the "apple" model, where you get no ethernet without extra cost. My large corporate has a "wifi everywhere" policy, however a proper entrerprise deployment with multi-gigabit connections to each AP.

At home I have wired most things, but the devices that can't (e.g. tablet, phone).

In reply to a post by Highland76:

Usually new builds with wafer thin walls are perfect examples where good spec wifi kit can work very well, without having tonnes of cables. My house (4 bedroom detached) is just over 10 years old and I've always found a single wifi 5/6 router to be more than enough to give full wifi coverage. Even 2 of our VOIP lines run over wireless with not a RJ45 cable in sight, other than a 30cm run from the ONT to the router.

I have never had issues with 2.4GHz that reaches the whole house from just the Virgin Router.
To take advantage of the internet speeds we need to use 5GHz and that doesn't reach.
I'm not sure of the age of the property but I know VM cable was installed when it was built.

Yeh 5 GHz beats 2.4 GHz hands down on raw throughout and lack of noise and congestion issues (for now at least) but crucially for range, and the ability to “punch through” 2.4 almost always bests it.

House with brick or stone walls...2.4 always wins on range unless the AP is in the same room, well just about. Open plan offices aren’t comparable to the (very mixed) housing stock in the UK.

Edited by Pheasant (Thu 27-Aug-20 15:42:33)

Our 50 year old house with concrete block internal walls blocks all wifi so I've used Devolo adaptors for five years with excellent results on ADSL then VDSL 40Mb (until recently when one adaptor wifi failed).

I read long ago on that copper wire in sockets etc will eventually flatten. I removed every socket in the house and each required a half-turn or more on the locking screws to ensure a tight connection. Didn't seem to affect the adaptors but the kitchen radio lost the hiss and occasional crackle which had annoyed us for years. Don't forget to turn off the mains before you start!