Poor wifi range

[jedgley90]

My wifi range isn’t very good. The wifi works fine with great speeds in the lounge room (where the modem is) but in the bedroom at the front of the house (it’s a unit so like 15m) we can’t steam videos or use a laptop. The modem we have is over 3 years old, is there a newer model or something that we can do to get better range? I have read the articles about improving range and have already done all the tips suggested.
Thanks

[david64]

Hi @jedgley90 . What model of wifi router do you have? And what type of NBN connection?

A simple wifi extender might fix the coverage. You would place it partway between router and bedroom. 

[jedgley90]

The router we have is the original one we had 3 years ago, it is the black one with 3 antennas, sorry i can check it because i am at work.

We have a wifi extender but even that doesnt assist in increasing the coverage to the bedroom. Is there no better hardware ie router or modem that we can get that will increase range?

[jedgley90]

Sorry. The nbn connection is wired nbn. We live in a newish place. We also pay for tpg nbn100 so would expect more output

[david64]

@jedgley90 . Does your router plug into the telephone wall socket or into a NBN box?

Where is the extender relative to the router? How close?

You can get mesh units with a base plus 1 or 2 remotes.

I can't say whether a new router would work better.

Being a newish unit, are the rooms wired with ethernet outlets?

[jedgley90]

The router plugs into the nbn box.

The extender is in the bedroom so approx 15m from the router, due to the layout of the house and power points there arent many better positions for it to be in.

What is a mesh unit with base and remotes? Is this a way to increase the signal of the router?

The rooms are not wired with ethernet outlets so we are unable to use a wired connection in the bedroom

[david64]

@jedgley90 . You can use a longer ethernet cable between nbn box and router if there is another position in the loungeroom.

The extender is getting the same weak signal in the bedroom as your wifi device. As an experiment, try the extender in a power point (or use an extension cord) closer to the router and check the signal strength in the bedroom. Should increase.

You could consider a power-line extender. One unit plugs into power outlet near router. It sends the wifi signal through the house wiring to another unit plugged into power in bedroom.

Mesh devices set up their own wifi networks between them. They still need wifi coverage between the base and remote.

[jedgley90]

Power line extenders? They seem like a good solution.

Are there power line solutions where the reciever sends out a wifi signal so that you dont have to be plugged into the second power line adaptor.  For laptops and smart phones if they were being used in bed?

[david64]

@jedgley90 . As an example, Netgear have ethernet only and ether/wifi models. Don't know if you can have an ether only unit at router and ether/wifi unit remotely.

There is advice that the units must be on the same electrical circuit. If you have your fusebox in your unit, this may not be a problem.

[jedgley90]

Is there anything TPG can offer that will resolve the issue? I would rather not pay 100 dollars for a powerline when i already pay for top internet coverage.  For 100 dollars i can change service provider and get a router and a mesh service which would offer better coverage