Re: WiFi Extender or Better Router

1) Could my present setup be improved in some way?

The rule of the thumb with wireless is that best possible performance is obtained when the wireless router and wireless devices have line-of-sight with each other, or they are in close proximity to each other with a minimum of obstructions in the signal path. So, relocating the Sky router might improve things substantially depending on where you use your wireless devices most often.

2) The Sky router gets a very bad review and is way behind the competition. Would replacing that help my problem and if so recommendations of replacements would be appreciated.

Without more testing, it is not really possible to say whether your performance is being limited by the Sky router or the Home Plugs. Connect your computer directly to one of the LAN <--> Ethernet ports on the Sky router and check the download speed that way. Then, connect your computer directly to one of the home plugs in the location where you normally use your devices and check the speed at that location. Report on your results.

3) would a wifi extender, solve my problem?

If the Home Plugs are working well in the area where you need more wireless coverage, then adding another router at that location to the Home Plug and then configuring it to provide more wireless coverage in that area might help your performance. It all depends on your Home Plug tests in 2) above. If the signal at the remote Home Plug is slow, then the remote wireless router that you install will receive a slow signal and little to no benefit in performance will be realized. On the other hand, if the remote Home Plug exhibits good speed in 2) above, then you will have stronger and faster wireless coverage if you connect a remote router to the Home Plug.

The bottom line here is that if you are thinking of an Apple router...or any other router....its performance will only be as good as the signal that it receives through the Home Plug network devices that you have installed. Almost without exception, connecting devices using a wired Ethernet cable is going to yield better results than a connection through Home Plug devices.

If you are saying that the Time Capsule is providing your wireless network, then an AirPort Express could connect to the Time Capsule wireless and "extend" or "repeat" the wireless signal, so you would have a stronger and faster wireless signal in the lounge area.

The Time Capsule will normally run circles around a wireless router supplied by most service providers, so if you are not using the Time Capsule wireless at this time, you might want to try that to see if provides more range of signal than the Sky router. Depending on the construction of your home, the Time Capsule might provider a stronger signal in the lounge area without any other devices being needed.

If you are saying that the Sky device is providing your wireless signal, then an AirPort Express would not be able to connect to the network using wireless and then 'extend" or "repeat" it. But, if you have a HomePlug device located in the lounge area, you could connect an AirPort Express to the device using a short Ethernet cable and then configure the Express to create a wireless network that uses the same wireless network name and password as the Sky network. That would result in a much stronger wireless signal in the lounge area.

If you want to have another device connect to the Sky wireless signal and "repeat" or "extend" the network that way, then you will need to check with Sky to see if they have the type of device that you need that would be compatible with your current Sky router.

But, don't confuse a stronger signal with a faster signal. The speed of your wireless Internet connection will never be any faster than than the connection that Sky provides. In that regard, if you need a faster wireless signal, you will need to speak to Sky about a faster connection plan.

Can you confirm that the speed of the Sky router is 9 megabytes MB/s (as stated by you, and very fast) or 9 megabits Mb/s.

Well that's kilobits, also known as 9 megabits, and every much slower than 9 megabytes, accuracy helps.

9 megabits is slow, and as the range increases it gets slower. Extending it won't make it faster (in fact the opposite is true), so I would look at increasing the speed before increasing the range.

A better router in other words (and maybe a better location for it)

So, the Sky router is delivering 9 Mb/s.

How does that compare to the Internet connection plan that tells you what speed your plan with Sky is supposed to be delivering to you?

If you don't know what your connection speed is supposed to be......and for example it turns out to be 30 Mb/s......then either Sky is not delivering what they promise to the Sky router.....or......the Sky router cannot deliver the 30 Mb/s signal that it is receiving from the Sky service.

There is not much point in going any further with this until we have a starting point......that being whether the Sky router is doing what is is supposed to do.

The Time Capsule is only going to be as good as the signal that it receives over Ethernet from the Sky router. It cannot make the signal that it receives from the Sky device go any faster.

OK, thanks for the clarification. The Sky router is doing its job, so a "better" Sky router would not offer any improvement in terms of signal speed.

Now, we need to talk about wireless signal strength. If you want to leave the Time Capsule where it is currently located, there are two basic methods that would deliver greater signal strength to the lounge area.

Method 1......Best performance......Add an AirPort Express in the lounge area (preferably where it will have line-of-sight with the wireless devices that you will use in the lounge area. Connect an Ethernet cable from the AirPort Express back to the Time Capsule. With this setup, you could expect about equal wireless performance and speed as you have now when you are in the study.

Next Best Performance......if you cannot run the Ethernet cable between the Time Capsule location and AirPort Express in the study, use a pair of HomePlug adapters to send the Ethernet signal in that manner. IF.....the Home Plug adapters will deliver 8-9 Mbps speeds to the AirPort Express, then the AirPort Express performance will be quite close to the performance of using an Ethernet cable.

Method 2......Significant Compromise Performance......If you cannot run the Ethernet cable or use Home Plug adapters to send a signal to the AirPort Express, then, the Express does have the capability of receiving a wireless signal and "extending" or "repeating" it toward the lounge area. To do this, the Express would need to be located about half way between the Time Capsule and the lounge area. This type of method will deliver more wireless signal strength to the lounge area.....but.....and this is a big BUT......there will be a signal speed loss of at least half when you use this method. So the best performance that you could hope to achieve would be a signal that is both weaker and slower in the lounge area that it is now near the study.

There will be an improvement in the signal quality in the lounge area, so Method 2 might be good enough to accomplish your goal of a better signal quality in the lounge area. But, you will not know how well this method might work....or IF it might work.....until you try it out in your home.

Now, it is up to you to decide if you want to proceed and how you want to proceed.

Or contact Sky and buy a better connection, you are at their lowest speed, higher speeds are available. The range problems will still need to be addressed.

I was hoping that someone would say, just get a £25 wifi extender,

Apple uses proprietary settings for their "extend" feature, which are designed to only allow another Apple product....like an AirPort Express....to extend the wireless signal from the Time Capsule. So, while it might be possible that a 3rd party product would "extend" the signal from the Time Capsule, it is also unlikely that any given product that you try will work.

Do not buy unless the salesperson will guarantee that the extender will work with an Apple product. Frankly, I do not know how that they can do this unless you are lucky enough to find a salesperson who has an Apple router and has used a 3rd party extender successfully to extend his network.

An AirPort Express can be configured to work with the Time Capsule in a matter of minutes and few mouse clicks....since the products are designed to work with each other seamlessly.

or replace my Sky Hub with a better router

A "better" router will do nothing to improve your performance unless you also increase the speed of your Internet connection. Even if you do this, the broadcast power of routers is limited by law, so I doubt very much that a "better" router would reach the lounge area any better than what you have now. But...the signal would be a bit faster than you have now.

I also have the same problem. Just buy a wi-fi extender from Sky Hub if you

do not want to spend on an Airport Express. It should work.