Having changed some of the devices we use recently I decided to reconsider our wifi coverage.
Currently we have a dual-band BT-HH5a (many thanks Newtronstar
) with separately-named networks for 2.4 and 5 GHz, located near the master socket by the front door.
At the back of the house reception is poor (better at 2.4GHz) and smartphones will often switch to using phone data which is not ideal.
I've got a lot of old Netgear routers so I reconfigured one as an access point with DGTeam firmware and used some old Devolo Homeplugs (max 85mbps) to link it back to the router. Located this in a room at the back.
Speed was acceptable, but only about a third of that attainable near the router which is often about 90% of my 18mbps broadband speed.
Then I realised that I was on a ring main in a part of the house extended many years ago, mostly on a separate small consumer unit.
As it happens that room has one group of plugs connected back to the main CU via a ring main, testing there got me about two-thirds speed.
The router itself is on a short spur from a ring main so not exactly ideal, though fairly close to the consumer unit.
Then I thought about our garden. We have an outhouse (once a garage!) at the far end of the garden by the vegetable patch and it has power! A direct armoured cable straight from its own circuit in the CU. But almost 40 metres long.
So I carted the kit up there, along with a socket adapter and plugged it in. The best speeds of all, same as wired to the router!
I'm not sure what lessons this gives, but it's opened up the options for us to have better wifi connection, even while digging the potatoes!
A bit more testing is required, but I'll probably invest in some smaller, integrated units suited to the job - one wired master and two wifi slaves.
