[dave]

Right, having recently got a chromecast the issue of our domestic wifi has come to a head.

For years we had a basic Virginmedia adsl router which gave good coverage throughout the entire house. Life was good.

Then in the last year they "upggraded" the line which fucked our connection up as our old router wasn't compatible with the new line or some bullshit, so they sent us a new upgraded router. The problem is its fucking shite.

In our house the phone line comes into the front room (standard sheffield terrace) and then an internal phone extension runs to the upstairs landing. We have the router on that landing as its roughly central to the house, and it gives good connection to the imac in the attic. But with this new router seems to to give bollocks coverage to the front room where the chromecast is and we spend a lot of time with phones and ipad on the wifi. At times you can get great signal in on chair but not on the setee, or good signal at the tv but shit in the chair, or it comes and goes. Changing the channel on the router changes things but I've not found one that gives and substantial or consistent improvement. Some times the chromecast, and the controlling ipad, connect and work perfectly, other nights its a fucking nightmare.

Do has anyone had any experience of boosting wifi signal or owt like that? The antenna on the router is fixed so I can't add a bigger one. I could move the router into the front room but then no doubt would get fuckall signal in the attic. Virginmedia response in the past is to suggest timewasting bollocks like rebooting your router twice a day every third day for a month, then try every wifi channel, then try it again while rubbing your stomach and patting your head, holing eventually you'll stop phoning them.

Help a brother out here.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

We'll chat. Sure we can sort something for a few FAs

[tomtom]

MrsTT's folks have a couple of DLink extenders that seem to work fine? I can find out the make and model if its something you're thinking of doing? I set one of them up for them and it took 2 min... They'd had it plugged in for 3 months without having set it up (two button presses..)

[fatdoc]

Router in front room, D link  ( or some other use your own main cables variation) to iMac ?


Or BT infinity?..

Works, very very well!

[bigtuboflard]

BT were selling the mains wireless range kit recently, I took a punt on it and it's way better than the Plusnet router I've got (teach me for falling for Yorkshire patriotism), so much so that it's coverage now drowns the original router in every room except the one it's in.

[Bubba]

Have just completely redone our gaff.

- VDSL comes in via main BT socket upstairs. ISP supplied modem sits next to that.
- High quality cable runs to other side of house where the computers are, router is in that room near the door so that the wireless covers upstairs with a strong signal everywhere. It's also strong enough to give a decent connection on floor 3 (flat roof) which would be the same as an attic.
- Network switch expands router and a cable from that down to living room into another switch, one socket of which feeds a wireless repeater.  If I had got a strong signal downstairs from the upstairs router then I'd have just used the repeater in wireless mode but a cable works better for us (largish house).

I spent a bit over the odds getting wireless AC stuff which is a little unnecessary but means I won't have to buy anything else for years. That said new smartphones are ac capable, I'm sure the next generation of tablets will be and I've just ordered an ac card for the laptop for £21.

Bit of a weird mix of cabled/wireless but this setup means I have wired connections on both floors for gaming/tvs but also strong wireless all over the house.

Only downside is that there's two wireless SSIDs but an app like Wifijumper allows the swapping between them on phones/tablets to be pretty seamless. I'm sure there's an Apple equivalent.

[slackline]

The antenna on the router is fixed so I can't add a bigger one.

More seriously, get powerline wifi repeaters...

Plenty out there.

I've used a TP-Link router and WiFi dongle (for the Raspberry Pi) and found them to be solid kit so this one might be a good choice.

You could do it whatever way round you want, move the router to the living room and have the powerline extending WiFi to the loft, or leave the router on the landing and have a powerline to the living room, location of plugs permitting, but the caveat is that all sockets have to be on the same 'ring' in the circuitry.

[Bubba]

but the caveat is that all sockets have to be on the same 'ring' in the circuitry.

  meant these sort of repeaters weren't an option for us.

[Oldmanmatt]

I just ran a Cat 5 network cable to a network hub. Took all the PC/printers etc into a hard wired network (faster) and moved the wireless router to the front room (Virgin). When I dropped the number if devices on the wifi, we got better connection throughout the house (I was expecting to add a Dlink to the network for the conservatory/Wii in the back room, but they proved unnecessary). I spent £10 on a 15m cable and £50 on a basic network hub (a little more would have bought a Dlink type). Must have taken at least 20 minutes with a drill to run the cable....

[dave]

I do have a long ethernet cable somewhere so running that up to the attic is an option, although it'd leave us with sod all signal for using phones/ipad in the attic. Actually, if you can set up the imac to act as a wifi hotspot then that could work a treat.

The powerline repeater idea looks good, too, I think all our plugs are on the same ring. Be good if you can get some that you can plug-through, i.e. don't use up the socket for something else.

Anyone know if you can still cast to a chromecast from a computer thats wired into the router as opposed to wireless?

[slackline]

Be good if you can get some that you can plug-through, i.e. don't use up the socket for something else.

These are available, not got any myself though to can't recommend any (I actually use Belkin Powerlines not the TP-Link ones).

Anyone know if you can still cast to a chromecast from a computer thats wired into the router as opposed to wireless?

How the connection is made to your local network is irrelevant, as long as Chromecast is on the same network as the device you want to cast from it'll work (i.e. they're all connected to your router and getting their IP address' from it) .


On a tangent I've noticed that my Chromecasts kick out their own WiFi network.  The output from WiFi Analyzer lists both of them, I've blanked out the rest of their names (pink line is my home network which I'm connected to).  Both have IP address' assigned by my router and are listed on the DHCP client table of the routers configuration page.

[bigtuboflard]

This is the one I went for in the end. Highly recommend http://m.shop.bt.com/products/bt-wi-fi-home-hotspot-500-kit-9BRT.html?src=3


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dave]

Slackline - yeah the chromecast will do that, when you initially setup you have to connect to the chromecast wifi directly to configure it n shit innit blood.

[slackline]

Slackline - yeah the chromecast will do that, when you initially setup you have to connect to the chromecast wifi directly to configure it n shit innit blood.

Yeah I'd never really though about it and assumed it just started a DHCP client and connected to the WiFi network. The tablet/phone then scanned for devices on the network running a programme for configuration on a specific port that the device then loads and you configure it. Might also expect it to turn off the interface one configured.

[Bubba]

I do have a long ethernet cable somewhere so running that up to the attic is an option, although it'd leave us with sod all signal for using phones/ipad in the attic. Actually, if you can set up the imac to act as a wifi hotspot then that could work a treat.

If the iMac doesn't work as a hotspot then just bang a cheap network switch on the end of the cable in the attic (something like this).  From that you can run a cable to the iMac and another into a wireless repeater that will take an ethernet input - something like this.  Then you have wired for the iMac and wireless for anything else - that repeater would probably cover a lot of your 1st floor as well, it seems pretty powerful.

[mr__j5]

The Ethernet over power adapters that I just installed, certainly don't need to be on the same ring.

The just need to be on the same fuse box. I think that most of them have been like this for at least a few years now.
There is certainly an 2nd generation protocol that they are running, which I guess is one of the main things that they improved over the 1st version.

Work really well too.

[Jim]

sounds like you just need a good wireless router. I'm going to upgrade our crappy one that came with our plusnet fibre package with something like a D-Link DIR-645
A quick google suggests that virigin you can only use their routers but you can put theirs into modem mode and then plug that into a good router of your choice.

I don't think I really need a dual band router yet or an ac compliant one and by the time I do (ie in about 5 years time when the kids all have smart phones and computers etc... there will probably be something better worth upgrading to anyway

[a dense loner]

I'm with mr j_5 here. I haven't really understood what people were talking about so didn't say anything but I've got 120 Mbs downstairs which I couldn't get in the attic so I bought a device, on the advice of slackers, that plugs in on the first floor and I get full signal in the attic. People say it has to be on the same ring but it doesn't at all. I may be barking up the wrong tree when I see all these wave outputs tho

[Jim]

I think they just need to be on the same RCD circuit.
My quick googling of Virgin routers suggests that all of them are utter shit when it comes to wifi.
I believe using repeaters or extenders have their own problems which mostly can be overcome by just using a quality wifi router in the first place (certainly in your house dense I would think) but obviously doesn't apply to all situations

[a dense loner]

Ha I didn't even know I could get a new router! I thought you just got what you were given.

[dave]

Update: bought a TP link powerline/wifi kit today, as it seemed infinitely less gaff than running an Ethernet up two floors, and cheaper than buying powerline only and then a wifi extender, or as far as my limited phone Google would show whilst standing there in the shop with an impatient 5yr old.

Seems to work fine straight out the box, except that it won't do the automatic wifi ssid cloning since it seems virginmedia supply their routers with custom firmware which disables the router's WPS button. However I think I can get round this by installing the latest stock firmware update from the manufacturer

[rginns]

I thought the title said wife... thought I was in for a good read! !

[dave]

Yeah obviously she does I I don't post about it.

[dave]

Slackline - yeah the chromecast will do that, when you initially setup you have to connect to the chromecast wifi directly to configure it n shit innit blood.

Yeah I'd never really though about it and assumed it just started a DHCP client and connected to the WiFi network. The tablet/phone then scanned for devices on the network running a programme for configuration on a specific port that the device then loads and you configure it. Might also expect it to turn off the interface one configured.

Returning to this, having changed our chromecast onto a different wifi network. I realised why it kick out its on wifi signal all the time: if it didn't then if you ever turn off its current network/shutdown/move/point it at another network then you would have no way of communicating with otherwise between leaving one network and it connecting to another.

[dave]

Update: bought a TP link powerline/wifi kit today, as it seemed infinitely less gaff than running an Ethernet up two floors, and cheaper than buying powerline only and then a wifi extender, or as far as my limited phone Google would show whilst standing there in the shop with an impatient 5yr old.

Seems to work fine straight out the box, except that it won't do the automatic wifi ssid cloning since it seems virginmedia supply their routers with custom firmware which disables the router's WPS button. However I think I can get round this by installing the latest stock firmware update from the manufacturer

In my infinite wisdom I decided to circumvent the WPs auto cloning by manually accessing the extender's router setup page and manually cloning the ssid and password of our wifi network, setting it to a different channel, and hye pesto all phones and ipads see only the one network now but I assume are accessing it via either the upstairs router or the extender seamlessly. The problem is the fucking chromecast won't connect to our wifi network now, bastard. Re-set it up to revert to the "old" ssid of the existing wifi network which is now cloned by the extender, no dice. Any fucking ideas why?

[Jim]

probably because i've not understood a word of the last 3 posts you've put up

[dave]

Shouldn't you be reinstalling windows right now?

[Jim]

er no. IIRC its sounds to me like you've gone a ridiculous way around trying to make up for the fact you've got a shit router when the solution was a simple and obvious one, IE switch your virgin router onto modem mode and buy a decent router

[dave]

Decent routers looked to be similar money to the power line kit, would still have two supporting walls to get through, so front room would still have been a weak spot.

[mr__j5]

Sounds like everything that you did was perfectly sane.

No idea why the chromecast wouldn't work but I don't know much about them.

Certainly multiple access points with the same SSID, same encryption settings and same password should work fine.
Sometimes it might take a bit longer than you'd expect for a device to switch from 1 access point to another if you wander around the house, but otherwise should be pretty seamless.

[dave]

Cheers, I might try disabling the wifi on the router to make sure the Chromecast is connecting via the powerline.

[dontfollowme]

 Dave not sure if it helps but Chromecast has to be set up from a wireless device. My wired PC can cast to my TV but the initial set up had to be done via my laptop connecting wirelessly.

[dave]

Yeah I already set it up the first time round fine via iPad. Trying the same again just on a new instance of the old ssid.

[slackline]

You could try the Factory Data Reset.

[slackline]

If a Factory Data Reset doesn't work you could try soliciting assistance in the Official Google Chromecast Product Forum or perhaps on /r/Chromecast.

Not had this problem myself so can't offer any insight and as mr__j5 says you've done the sane/logical things already.