[El Mocho]

Found a few posts on here about extending wifi range but they were a) full of jargon I didn't understand and b) quite a few years old...

So: My mum is having issues with her wifi, half the time it doesn't work and even when it does it's costing her loads of £ for very little use (the network is not opened up (or whatever it's called) here so you pay full price for internet).

We live directly opposite her so I was wondering if we could extend the range of our wifi to reach her - our current router is pretty near the front of our house so it's approx. 10m to her front door (and further to get coverage in her kitchen on far side of her house). If this worked it would mean both reliable internet for her and also save a bunch of £.

I've looked at various wifi extender things but have zero experience, anyone have any info? Are we likely to be able to cover her house as well as ours?

Thanks for any help.

[abarro81]

The following comes with 2 caveats:
1. I know nothing clever about this stuff
2. I have a suspicion that this sort of thing may violate the terms of your contract with your internet provider

We have a little booster for the top floors of our house (attic study had bad signal before) and it works well. Cost about £20-30 off Amazon I think, just plugs into a plug socket. I imagine the easiest way to check if it's likely to work is to take your phone/computer over to her front room and see if you get ok signal on your network. I imagine if you do then boosters might work, if not then I imagine it wouldn't work well (all based on guesses - see caveat 1!)

[remus]

What barrows said. There's some fancier stuff you can do but it generally involves spending some money on higher end equipment and would probably get expensive fairly quickly.

[tommytwotone]

Looking at the Screwfix site it looks like they have a fair few (including some integrated with plug sockets), and that the more you pay the better data transfer rate you get:


https://www.screwfix.com/c/electrical-lighting/network-range-extenders/cat8800005

[tomtom]

Does she have a desktop PC as her main internet device or does she use loads of other WiFi devices etc..?

[tomtom]

Something like this might be what you are after....

Kuma WIFIKIT Internet Hotspot Package - Wireless WiFi Antenna kit for Caravan Motorhome Canal boat & Trucks at Campsites, Holiday Parks and Marinas
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00J5EGQ64/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_lJ1LDbB8ZNPFF

I suspect there are other ways of doing this - but this would be an antenna that you put outside the front of your mums house - that picks up your WiFi and then relays it to a router inside her house..

[Fiend]

+1 for plug-in boosters working to some degree. If in doubt give her your router and you use the booster 

[Franco]

Why don't you tension an ethernet cable across from the rooves of your houses? You could rig up a little tin can phone line whilst you're at it..

[Hoseyb]

We live in a sprawling single storey Welsh house so wifi is a pain. Tried plug ins and was ok, but most of the ancient wiring made it temperamental.  ended up forking out for a 2nd hand unifi system off eBay and it's the dogs genitalia. Did have to use Google and some hacking tips to initially set it up though,  although their online help desk was awesome. Think I spent £50