Virgin Media Broadband

[JAC]

Not at home so unable to confirm if everything is ok. Apparently plugging the booster into an extension wire is a no no as it effects the signal boosting massively!

The engineer phoned me with a few other issues he’d fixed and ran a test and said everything is working fine now as it should and the speeds are good.

[phenomlab]

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

The real issue is I don’t want a booster in the bedroom that’s why it’s in a different room what I would have thought would be close enough.

That solely depends on what’s in between those rooms in terms of obstacles

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

The real issue is I don’t want a booster in the bedroom that’s why it’s in a different room what I would have thought would be close enough.

That solely depends on what’s in between those rooms in terms of obstacles

It’s a tough one isn’t it, the hub is Downstairs next to the TV, but ideally you’d want the hub in the middle of the house wouldn’t you? I know it sounds silly.

[phenomlab]

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

ideally you’d want the hub in the middle of the house wouldn’t you?

Not necessarily. Much of this depends on the actual range of the WiFi. In most cases, 5Ghz will be faster but has less of a range. 2 5Ghz is slightly slower, but can stretch further. It may be a good test to see if the device you are connecting with can switch between these two frequencies.

Failing that, you can force the frequency on the hub itself.

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

ideally you’d want the hub in the middle of the house wouldn’t you?

Not necessarily. Much of this depends on the actual range of the WiFi. In most cases, 5Ghz will be faster but has less of a range. 2 5Ghz is slightly slower, but can stretch further. It may be a good test to see if the device you are connecting with can switch between these two frequencies.

Failing that, you can force the frequency on the hub itself.

Hmmm, I wonder if a Nvidia Shield can do this?

Failing that would a mesh system be any better?

[phenomlab]

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

Failing that would a mesh system be any better?

Undoubtedly, but then you have associated cost- have you tried WIFI extenders ?

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

Failing that would a mesh system be any better?

Undoubtedly, but then you have associated cost- have you tried WIFI extenders ?

No mate, just a booster.

[phenomlab]

@jac a booster is an extender

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac a booster is an extender
Ah I see, no mate just 1 booster as shown earlier in the thread.

[phenomlab]

@jac Have you considered powerline adapters ? I have a couple of these connected to my CCTV system at home because I didn’t want cabling everywhere and the Wifi connection wasn’t that great.

https://weakwifisolutions.com/how-does-a-powerline-adapter-work/

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac Have you considered powerline adapters ? I have a couple of these connected to my CCTV system at home because I didn’t want cabling everywhere and the Wifi connection wasn’t that great.

https://weakwifisolutions.com/how-does-a-powerline-adapter-work/

That is what we have with the booster I think mate?
It’s just a plug-in adapter that is synced up with the box downstairs.

[phenomlab]

@jac No, these are wired. Can you send me a picture or link to what you have ?

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac No, these are wired. Can you send me a picture or link to what you have ?

Sure mate.

[JAC]

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac No, these are wired. Can you send me a picture or link to what you have ?

Sure mate.

Apologies should have took a picture last night.

Here’s the setup anyway mate…

https://www.virginmedia.com/content/dam/virginmedia/images/Powerline_home.jpg

[phenomlab]

@jac Ok, so they are powerline. Back to the drawing board then, although I don’t understand why the Wifi signal is so poor when you have a booster in place. What is the speed when testing in close proximity to that booster ?

[JAC]

@phenomlab said in Virgin Media Broadband:

@jac Ok, so they are powerline. Back to the drawing board then, although I don’t understand why the Wifi signal is so poor when you have a booster in place. What is the speed when testing in close proximity to that booster ?

If I stand next to the booster and run a speed test it’s 200mbps at least mate.

[JAC]

https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/broadband/intelligent-wifi-pods-new

[JAC]

@jac said in Virgin Media Broadband:

https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/broadband/intelligent-wifi-pods-new

https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/broadband/intelligent-wifi-pods-queue

[JAC]

That would have probably been a better option than the booster? Same sort of thing I know but this seems to be something new or just a remarketed booster?

[phenomlab]

@jac Mmmm - I think that’s a “gimmick”. You could so something similar with an old NetGear Rangemax.

Essentially, you connect this device to same network, and then configure it. The range is 10x wider than usual, so usually good for between 600-1000m.

Cheap, not “Heath Robinson”, and would do what you wanted without high cost, or maximum effort.

I did something similar for a co-worker who shared a house with others. The signal to her room was so weak, I recommended this and it solved all her problems !