How can I improve my wifi upstairs in an old cottage with thick walls

[HGrant]

Hi I live in a old cottage with thick walls and a lot of children trying to access the WiFi at the same time!!  The WiFi isn't working great upstairs so my son is having issues connecting or staying contested on his play station any advise re using a booster 

[jamesn123]

Hi @HGrant 

If you have the broadband boost or Sky Max addons and you cant get a good WiFi signal in one or more rooms then you can claim free boosters from Sky. This can be done over the phone or over chat.

[TimmyBGood]

@HGrant 

The key thing to remember is that 'boosters' aren't allowed to be more powerful than any other wireless device, so cannot blast a signal through thick walls (and you wouldn't want to share a room with one if it could ; )

What they can potentially be used to do is zigzag a signal path through a less resistant route such as wooden floors, which are typically far less attenuating than stone walls.  'Booster' is something of a misnomer: they are better thought of as repeaters or relays.

You might also want to investigate hybrid Powerline-WiFi boosters, although their effectiveness is limited by the mains cabling which may not be ideal in an older building unless it's been rewired more recently.

[HGrant]

Thank you for you help, I spoke  to sky and they have advised I try their new better router!!  I had been paying for the boost for years but to be honest hasn't made any decisions reference to the upstairs rooms!!  So we will give this new product ago and hope it helps.  They did say if it's still not great I can ask for additional boosters from them that plug in,  so we shall wait and see x

[TimmyBGood]

@HGrant 

I wouldn't necessarily expect any improvement from the Max Hub: given WiFi 6 relies on 5Ghz which attenuates faster through building fabric it may actually be worse.  The pod boosters may help if you can locate them somewhere useful, but note they don't use Powerline networking at all.