Bit of a rant, sorry. Had my router swapped last week because the old one kept rebooting. The new box is honestly worse in the bedroom upstairs. Downstairs near the TV it's fine, but upstairs video calls freeze and my son's gaming keeps kicking him out.
House is a standard 3-bed semi, router is in the hall by the front door because that's where the engineer put it years ago. I've tried turning it off and on again, moving the router a little, changing the Wi-Fi name, all the usual stuff. I don't really want to pay extra for anything if I can help it.
Any actual tips for dead zones? Or is this just what broadband is like now?
You don't need to do anything drastic. If your router is on the floor, lifting it onto a shelf or table can make a noticeable difference straight away.
On the Wi-Fi name: if you only see one network name, your router may be using one combined name for both bands. That's fine. We can still try the following in order:
1. Move the router up off the floor and away from the TV/console.
2. Keep it in open air, not behind metal or inside a cupboard.
3. Test upstairs again after a full minute.
4. If the router has a 'Wi-Fi optimisation' or 'smart steering' setting, leave it on for now.
If it's still poor, the next step would be a Wi-Fi pod or extender if your package supports it, but I won't push that unless it's needed. If you'd like, reply with your router model and I can give more specific steps.
You don't need to do anything drastic. If your router is on the floor, lifting it onto a shelf or table can make a noticeable difference straight away.
On the Wi-Fi name: if you only see one network name, your router may be using one combined name for both bands. That's fine. We can still try the following in order:
1. Move the router up off the floor and away from the TV/console.
2. Keep it in open air, not behind metal or inside a cupboard.
3. Test upstairs again after a full minute.
4. If the router has a 'Wi-Fi optimisation' or 'smart steering' setting, leave it on for now.
If it's still poor, the next step would be a Wi-Fi pod or extender if your package supports it, but I won't push that unless it's needed. If you'd like, reply with your router model and I can give more specific steps.
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