wifi to our extension

[brums evil twin]

We have a nice Nighthawk router that works really well - I got it as the virgin router is crap as we all know. One of the reasons is that my son's bedroom is in our extension and the furthest away from the router, he gets such little signal.

We have tried power lines - but the problem is the extension is on a separate ring (own fuse box) so that does not work - even tried ones with a wifi end and plugged it in to the nearest socket in the original house that is closest to his room - but still no good.

Any other suggestions - I think I am down to either run a cable all around the house and give him his own access point. Or consider changing the nighthawk to a mesh set up

[BigTZ4M]

You've picked the two best options (assuming there is no line of sight between the extension and where you're router is).

Always cable first if you can but IME mesh is a suitable substitute in many cases. Just be sure to dot mesh units along the way to the extension to provide a solid wireless backhaul.

[Captain_Morgan]

If you go mesh get a tri-band unit especially if you have to chain the units to reach the black spot.

Though if he’s a gamer then a wired connection would be the better option.

[brums evil twin]

I am really hedging to run the cable - as I am fearful of another solution that just is not up to task.

Okay, thanks - thought I would check to see if there was another magic solution I had not thought of - Was really hopeful of the power lines but hit that brick wall!!!!

[Up_North]

If you have the option to cable this would always be my first choice and then as you say, an access point or wired backhaul mesh.

Any chance you could move the router a bit more centrally?

[mikef]

Or stick a second router in WiFi repeater mode closer to the extension. My main router is an Asus WiFi 6 jobbie and the old Asus WiFi 5 router acts as a repeater at the other end of the house

[Shiv_P]

Get 2x Ubiquiti Unifi AP's, wire them both in and set up device handoff properly (not particularly complicated) and it craps all over a mesh network

[somouk]

Cable would be the option for me. I used Mesh for some time to the garage and it worked okay, recently put a cable through with a POE access point and it's a lot more stable. Especially if I am using video or voice calls.

[fat80b]

Cable for me too. I spent too long with cheap rubbish Wi-Fi (eg power line) waiting for a better solution

I have 4 ubiquity APs and ran cables under floors / through the attic etc to cable everything I could (TVs, office etc) plus the access points. I have a couple of switches and have spare cables routed to useful places to future proof a bit.

The only downside is you get quite used to having 200/200 across the whole house and garden as do the kids friends who like to come to ours when they need to download large files!

[sgrimshaw]

brums evil twin said:

We have tried power lines - but the problem is the extension is on a separate ring (own fuse box) so that does not work - even tried ones with a wifi end and plugged it in to the nearest socket in the original house that is closest to his room - but still no good.

I use TP Link AV1300 Powerlines across rings, with no issue.

This set in fact.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Passthrough-Confi...

The modern Powerlines should work across wiring as long as everything is on the same meter, TP Link are more reliable than most in my experience.