Question : Problem: Best wifi solutions for large old houses with  really thick walls

I regularly set up home wifis for business clients and unlike me they tend to have large houses and do not want wiring running to access points all over the place. Office installations always have an abundance of network points, but obviously homes (at least in the UK) are different.

I normally use Netgear wifi routers as I find these give the best reception and I have read here about the Netgear antennae with "half a mile range" - anyone tried this? What is the best solution for older houses where one wifi router has to send a signal through several walls/floors? And at what point do we get into the professional wifi systems and how much are these? Do prices suddenly leap from sub-£100 to many thousands for a proper system or is their a gradual performance to £ growth?

One home wifi I am look at doing is a Victorian house with seven bedrooms and four reception rooms. All eleven rooms plus the kitchen have wall socket for two telephone lines. One bedroom has hard wired broadband. I know one line can only use one router, but is their any hardware solution to attach a second wifi router/access point using the other connectors to share the broadband?

Thanks for any ideas.

Mike

 

Answer : Problem: Best wifi solutions for large old houses with  really thick walls

My own experience of WIreless bridges/repeaters is fine on the same level, but poor on different floors. You'd have to consider the wireless signal which is normally omindirectional but on a mainly horizontal plane.
Booster aerials (the physcially larger type) are moderately better. Directional aerials may be better suited.
Rethink the cable option - outside on the wall of the house - up the service elevator - there's generally more choice than you'd think, and the results are far more consistent.
Brian