02-07-2022 03:21 AM
Recently upgraded from basic BT internet (with discs) to EE Full Fibre. We have a relatively large old house with thick walls. Router located at one, extreme side of the property. The router is wired directly to a 28 port TP Link switch which is, in turn, wired via CAT6 cables up to various ethernet ports throughout the house (mainly behind all the tvs). In terms of wifi, anything near the router is quick and direct wired connection is excellent.
The new router works fine and the hard wired connection to the TVs works very well. My issue and question relates to how i best deal with the distibution of wifi throughout the property which, (with no discs) is extremely poor as expected. I now need to add some form of extenders or boosters but my question is - do I have to do this using a mesh or linking system using wifi connected discs or is there a way I can take advantage of the wiring we have in place and plug the discs straight into the ethernet ports which are all wired back to the TP Link and provide a rapid directly connected source of internet into the far reaches of the property?
Given the existing cable set up it just seems illogical to try to create a better distribution of internet using wifi connected discs when we could easily use directly linked cables all over - the question is how best I can do this? Thanks
02-07-2022 10:22 AM
@JAStephenson Personally I’ll go for the EE Smart disks as that will retain the mesh network, it’s so much better then using repeaters. It’s one network from 2 or more locations plus it’s just the one pass phase to access Wi-Fi.
02-07-2022 06:36 PM
I agree with Chris, and most conventional wifi boosters are single band (2.4GHz) only so it would be subject to possible bottlenecks and interference.
02-07-2022 06:57 PM
@JAStephenson : You'd be better off asking this on the ThinkBroadBand Forum whose networking skills are far deeper than a mobile phone provider's.
03-07-2022 09:59 PM
@JAStephenson given you have already done much of the hard work, just to expand on your thoughts, you could connect a small switch to the end of a cable in each room. That way you can connect all your wired devices - TV, Sat Box, Firestick and so, and include a Wi-Fi disc.
As for which, that may be a bit harder to decide, but there lots of options. Netgear, TP Link and many others off suitable routers and mesh systems. ISP provided routers and the discs work for many people, others require more control and flexibility.
Switches can be quite small and discreet, and for short distances flat cables of the right length will deliver signal to the TV and so on. As you have TP Link, this is an example but there are others available. https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-SG1005D-Desktop-Gigabit-Ethernet/dp/B00ZOOJXEG/ref=sr_1_10?adgrp...