Advice on what wifi mesh setup I need for my home please

[cmc47bp]

Hi

I'm hoping someone can advise me on which of the various Netgear systems I should buy to best suit my home wifi needs, and solve a problem I currently have of poor signal throughout my house.

My internet signal is provided via a reasonably new Sky router. Its not superfast, I typically receive in the range of 20+mbps upstairs, but this tends to drop off a lot as I get further away from the router, despite two range extenders. The telephone line comes into the house on the top floor of a 3 storey building.

I have attached a very rough (not to scale) sketch of the layout of the house.

On the first floor landing I have a Devolo wifi range extender device, and I have a similar device on the ground floor landing.

As you can see from the sketch, there is quite a distance from the corner of the house where the router is sited, to the opposite side of the house on the ground floor. I often find that at the further point the signal is almost non-existant.

A contributory factor (I'm assuming) is that the house is made from thick granite blocks, which are fairly unforgiving when it comes to allowing signals to pass through. (I can get almost zero 3G/4G celluar coverage inside the house, but outside its fine.)

When Im working from home (which is every day), I work on my laptop in the room that the router is in, so presumably Im hoovering up a lot of the signal. Nonetheless, even on days when Im not working, the signal can get pretty poor downstairs.

So a couple of questions....

1. Will any of the Netgear systems available make a significant  difference to connectivity in the ground floor of the house, which is where most of problems occur. (Family members losing signal on laptops, ipads, Xbox etc)

2. Which is the best system for the problem. I'm not really looking to spend any more than I have to, and probably a limit in the region of say £300.

thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

Campbell

[FURRYe38]

It's recommeded to have most wifi routers on the main or 2nd floor. Then Extenders or satellites on basement or 3td floor levels. 

What is the size of your home? Sq Ft?
What is the distance between the router and satellite(s)? 30 feet or more is recommended in between RBR and RBS to begin with depending upon building materials when wirelessly connected.
https://kb.netgear.com/31029/Where-should-I-place-my-Orbi-satellite

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Orbi/Find-Your-Orbi-With-the-NEW-Orbi-Product-Selector/m-p/1907267/...
https://www.netgear.com/orbi/default.aspx

I have a 5000 sq ft home and 1 RBR an 1RBS works well. Though I have two RBS deployed. 

[cmc47bp]

Hi FURRYe38

Thanks for the reply

The router is on the top floor of the house. I cant move it somewhere else, as that is where the phoneline comes into the house.

In sq ft terms, the house is ca 3,000 sq ft. 

The issue I think is to do with the volume of very thick granite in the walls, which presents a significantly stronger barrier to airborne signals, and therefore difficult to compare with a "normal" brick house.

Is the 30-feet measure as the crow flies (ignoring walls etc) ? Sorry for my ignorance on this subject.

[schumaku]

Hello Campbell,

Honestly, the best investment for the hardy earned money would be to figure out options to install some network cables. What comes into my mind can be tubing as in use for a TV antenna installation, is the phone wire really coming into the house on top from a pole, is there an area where the AC power rings on each floor are feed from the distribution panel, ... Minimum would be one network able to each floor, from a central point, yes, e.g. from near the phone wire hand-over point, and where thee is the best chance that a future fiber installation would happen. This is an investment into the next decades, while just swapping tech might be for a year or so. 

Then we can talk about the tech boxes - it does not have not be expensive.

Regards,

-Kurt.

PS: Just heading to for network-wiring a cold war bunker ex. Swiss Army.