Move Master Socket or WiFi Booster?

[MRY99]

We recently moved to a new house where the master socket is in Bedroom 1 at the top right of the house. Pretty much the worst location for WiFi signal. 

We both work from home, and the signal in the Snug and Office is temperamental and too slow at times.

We're getting enough speed to the hub (65mb/s +) but the signal drops to 5-9mb/s at the front of the house which is proving insufficient for streaming, video calls and multiple devices.

Should I get a WiFi booster, pay the money for a 3P Mesh WiFi system or am I better off getting someone to move the master socket to the downstairs?

[TimmyBGood · Accepted solution]

@MRY99 

Moving a master socket has a cost, but at least gives a known result (as in it's then where you want it)

Whether that will help towards solving WiFi issues is still uncertain, but personally I wouldn't want a router in a bedroom anyway.

You'd book such a move through Sky, but it's usually Openreach which completes the task.

[MRY99]

Having run speed tests at the various points in the house, there isn't an issue with speed or quality of service at the hub but the speed drops off (and is variable) in the rooms furthest away (which happens to be where the office is). I'm sure the 1970s wiring that runs through the loft doesn't help much either.

I've got no problem paying for a relocation, but Sky make it incredibly difficult to achieve it. They make you jump through many online hoops before a 30 min wait for an advisor... and you then get cut off.

Guess step 1 is pay for the relocation and then if then if we still have problems getting service in all the rooms we need, set up a mesh...

[Aaln]

We're in a new build. The fibre openreach connection is in a utility cupboard next to the front door. 

There's no other port for a router in the house. 

Everything is fine for us using Glass and Stream pucks, and the peed is good. 

We just can't do ANY FB Messenger video calls.   You get every other word, the picture is worse than 56k days. 

It's only in this house that it happens and it's not a one off. It's been this way for 3 years. 

Spoke to sky 3 hours this evening, 3 different people,. 

They blame it being in the cupboard with the boiler and the fuse box. 

They made me put it outside the cupboard. Only thing is, we have nowhere to put it outside the cupboard 

They wanted me to leave the router like this for 24 hours. 

It's the only way upstairs or into the downstairs rooms, and out of the house. 

I refused, when asked to speak to the manager, he got s&-_£ with me and wanted to put me back in the normal customer service queue. I really lost my patience and he was supposed to be in priority team. 

That's terrible service. 

The 2nd one I spoke to wanted to put me though to device technical support as he was blaming apps and updates.

The third I got transferred from disconnections.  I had my fill of it by then but an hour after being then out through to broadband and glass technical whatever, I got absolutely nowhere. 

Round and round in the same circles. 

Sky won't do anything as they want the router out of the utility cupboard. 

I can stand right in front of it, even out of the cupboard, looking at the router, and the Voice calls drop (worse than being at the other end of the house)

It's stupid and I'm not going to pay Sky monthly for their sky life camera to do what I can already do if I'm not using WiFi. 

Our glass occasionally dips from the 5ghz band apparently but it is again as far from the router as possible I our small house. Signal string still. 

Even if we had paid (did pay) for Boost. It is now £7.50/month with a new router and things. Called something else that I forgot right now. They wouldn't do anything about our service because there no faults other than how many devices are connected.   Lots of smart bulbs mostly.   Only 2 of us in the house. And our setup isn't their preference.

There's no room to put the router outside the cupboard as it's the with of the front door next to it, only, and the kitchen the other side.

So I don't know what to do next.   Actually, we're trying a Sky hub thst works fine in another house soon, to see if the problem is with the router, which was my guess.

The only other thing I can think of is putting up tin foil to block interference from behind the router from the boiler and fuse box, What do you think?

[Aaln]

Sky will pay half to move a master socket if needed. But it isn't the customers fault where the thing is. 

[Chrisee]

@Aaln developers seem keen on placing the ONT in cupboards as your's is, so its not an uncommon issue but it just about the most stupid place they could choose. However given the mess they make on cabelling generally its pretty much confirms builders dont understand tech.

The best solution is to get a simple ethernet cable run from the "comms cupboard" to wherever you want your hub which ideally needs to be near where you need the wifi signal. If there is an ethernet port in the cupboard that might work if it runs directly to where you want the hub but you cannot mix the traffic from the ONT to the Hub (WAN) with ant traffic from the hub to your devices (LAN). Length of the run doesnt matter (Sky advises 1.5m max when technically up to 100m works!). This will be cheaper and probably easier to arrange with a local network company than getting the ONT moved. 

[jamesn123]

@Aaln 

You can rant at Sky all you like but unfortunately it is not their responsibility as to where Openreach decide to bring your line is. Nor is it their responsibility to provide good WiFi coverage when the router is tucked away inside a cupboard. You pay Sky for the line into the property and ethernet based reliability, not WiFi so you might want to look at purchasing a 3rd party mesh system that will likely be able to provide better coverge out of the cupboard. 

[Aaln]

My rant was 100% valid.

Tonight my friend bought her sky router (same model)  over for me to test on our home connection.

We unplugged our router. 

Set up the other one and changed the said and password to match so all our devices were connected. 

We did a video call text 4 different times and there was no degradation in video or audio. 

My router was taken to her house and she plugged it in, not in a cupboard but in the living room where hers was before. 

The details were not changed so she could test it with only her phone connected to the router. 

Her test of a video call to me just after this was my usual experience of video calls at my address with that router. 

I'm calling sky tech support to get this sorted tomorrow. 

[Aaln]

Outcome. 

Got a new router from sky... Problem resolved. 

Ex housemate's router went back and e now have no problems with video calls. 

Our router remains in our utility cupboard.  We are problem free. 

I complained to Sky and hopefully they'll change their support training to use a little common sense going forward.