The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: sokel on April 01, 2015, 07:05:36 am
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Has anyone any ideas on a way to boost our wifi signal at home
Most of the kitchen does not have a signal so makes life difficult for following recipes online and the bedroom above the kitchen most of the time does not have a signal at all. If your very lucky you can get 1 bar up for a few minutes then loose it.
It's a big old stone house with walls nearly 2 ft thick
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Slightly different approach -have you considered powerline adapters?
We use these to provide internet access in our outbuildings which are a long way from the house - too far for the Wifi signal to reach.
In our cattle shed we have a small camera installed that we use to watch the coos over night during the calving period. We can control the camera from a laptop, or smart phone, from indoors. It's great.
My OH has a internet router in his workshop too, plugged into a powerline adapter, and it gives him Wifi access out there - good for checking 'how to' videos etc when he's making stuff.
Sue
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Thanks for the reply. So how do the powerline adapters work ? Is it wifi ? It's just in the bedroom that has no signal only iPads would be used so can't use any cables
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The powerline adapters 'transport' the data signal along via your mains cables, i.e. you plug in one adapter into the mains and into your original modem/router, wherever it is positioned, and then you plug another one into a mains plug where you want the signal to be. You can then either access this via an ethernet cable between adapter and device, or you can connect a wifi router/transmitter to the adapter, and presto you have a wifi signal where you want it. Yiu could also use additional adapters if you need the signal boosted in several locations.
They really do work very well, are not expensive, and no cables involved at all.
We use them to get wifi into OH's studio, which is away from the house.
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This is really interesting. Thanks
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Ok been browsing and its a mine field :o can anyone recommend a make or model that works well ?
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this is something I am needing too. thanks for opening the thread!!
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I got a pair of those:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0084Y9N3O?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0084Y9N3O?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00)
I'm not a specialist I just choose stuff by looking at reviews and comparing a bit. These seem to work well.
Initially we got a different brand (Zyxel) but they seem to get blown every time there was a thunder storm, but these have held up well through 2 winters so far.
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I got a pair of those:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0084Y9N3O?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0084Y9N3O?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00)
I'm not a specialist I just choose stuff by looking at reviews and comparing a bit. These seem to work well.
Initially we got a different brand (Zyxel) but they seem to get blown every time there was a thunder storm, but these have held up well through 2 winters so far.
So I am guessing you use yours with a laptop or something using a Ethernet cable ?
I am needing something that you can use wireless as it's mainly for connecting an iPhone and an iPad air as that's all that's ever used in those rooms and you can't connect them with an Ethernet cable
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I use TPLink Homeplug's to get to hard to reach areas. They also do a hopeplug which acts as a new WiFi location. Revolutionised out internet, I've even got one plugged in outside (covered with a bag) and I now get WiFi 4 acres away!
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This seems to be the 'all in one' bit that GB mentions:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-WPA4220KIT-Powerline-Configuration-Smartphone/dp/B00DHB2T44 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-WPA4220KIT-Powerline-Configuration-Smartphone/dp/B00DHB2T44)
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This seems to be the 'all in one' bit that GB mentions:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-WPA4220KIT-Powerline-Configuration-Smartphone/dp/B00DHB2T44 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-WPA4220KIT-Powerline-Configuration-Smartphone/dp/B00DHB2T44)
That's the ones, the good thing with them is if you need to reach another part of the house or an outbuilding, as long as the sockets are on the same ring main you can just keep adding HomePlug adaptors. I'm currently running two of the standard adaptors inside the house for Smart TV's and one WiFi one on an outside socket so I can access the web whilst around the smallholding; and another WiFi one in the office in the shed for the computer in there.
Best decision I#ve made in a long time.
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the outbuilding I am in is on a different circuit, any ideas for that?
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the outbuilding I am in is on a different circuit, any ideas for that?
They may be ok, I believe as long as both go via the same consumer board (fuse box) they will work. I'm not electrician or IT guru but I found they work for me in most places.
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OH studio has a separate fuse box (but is on the same meter as the house) and it works.
I think it's worth trying.
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basically if there's is a continuous copper wire less than 300m long between 2 points it will work... remember you measure along the route of the wire not in a straight line...
fuseboxes etc dont stop it unless of course they trip....
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the house only has internet in the owners bedroom.. which is where I am just now , lol... they tried a £60 plug in thingy as they were told about the electric circuit thing... its managed to get the Wi-Fi as far as the kitchen which is two rooms and one gable end away. it wont go into the living room off the kitchen as that's another gable end and on a different circuit apparently, the shed I am in is another 20ft past the living room and my walls are 3ft thick... different circuit and separate fuse box again.
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Probably not too important for smallholdings but a friend using power line adapters was recently told by his neighbour that he had shared his internet with people nearby. Apparently the signal goes through the electric cabling but does't stop at the house wall :-) The solution was to link the powerline adapters (he has three) by syncing them via a small button on each adapter. Once that was done the three adapters only allowed connections through the synced units.
HTH,
Mickey
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If you have some signal (and a wifi router that takes screw in external antenna) you can improve the signal strength a bit with a longer antenna.
With thick stone walls I have solved our problems of wifi signal with a mix of poweline adaptors (TP-Link 500Mbps) and additional wifi access points (also TP-Link; one in kitchen, one downstairs living room and one at the top of the house). Even wth this, we still didn't get very good signal in one of the bedrooms.
However, having bought a much longer 12dBi rod antenna ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00LC1H73O?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00LC1H73O?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00) ) for the wifi access point at the top of the house it has improved things considerably. As well as improving the signal it also seems to have considerably decreased the rate of battery drain on our iPads where we did have reasonable signal.
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Ok been browsing and its a mine field :o can anyone recommend a make or model that works well ?
If you're still pondering on the best solution for this, I've got some spare "Devolo" powerline adaptors lying about the house and perhaps even a wi-fi base station/extender somewhere.
Some combination of these will probably help the situation you have described - You're not far away from us so I could probably drop them off so you can try them out if that helps?
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I have been provided with a mobile wifi thingy... made by Huawei, I know nothing about it though believe it has a sim card that will need paid a fee for every so often... so I am on the internet with a reasonable speed.. it needs plugged into the laptop to work so I am sitting on the windowsill which is the only place it picks up a signal...
its meant to be 'wifi' but I can't get my laptop to connect to it .. grr... technology... it was just a thought to plug it in and it worked so I will search for answers to that problem. I woke up at 1.30 in the morning with that thought.. funny how your mind works!!
glad I can get on the internet at all!!
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Thanks for all of the replys. I ended up getting a TP Link range extender. It was easy to link into the bt home hub ,just a case of plugging it into an electric socket, pressing a button on the hub then pressing one on the socket ::) and away we go . Full strength wifi in the whole house . You can also plug stuff into it via cables if need be :thumbsup: