Bad wifi signal

[Arobase]

Not getting too much response in the Geeky stuff forum, so I hope it's OK to try here.

Zoom meetings have really shown up the problems with our wifi signal, in that I can really only have them reliably in the room where the router modem is. I tried getting one of those things that boosts the signal, which helps but hasn't remedied the problem completely.

I'm wondering about moving to something like BTInternet which claims it will ensure you have a good signal in every room in the house. Does anyone have any experience or other recommendations? Do they provide a router? If not, can anyone recommend a good router that's reasonably straightforward to install?

I am as far from geeky / technically knowledgeable as you can get, but my understanding is this is going to be dependent on where you live?
I live in a City where there is superfast cable, but I'm aware that many parts of the country just don't have that available to them.
There was something on the news about it the other night, giving stats and calling for the Government to step in.

Might it help if you say (vaguely) where you are, as in rural / coast / town / City and 'South West England' / North West Wales / Central Scotland' or whatever, as people might be able to give more appropriate advice?

South East, outskirts of London, so there shouldn't be a problem in terms of area.

Clarity of WiFi signal isn't dependent on where you are in the country.

Before changing provider, have you thought about boosting your WiFi signal around the property? There are several ways of doing it. Have a search online about boosting WiFi signals.

I've done it in the past with a couple of home plugs that allow you to use your ring main as a network and then having a wired WiFi access point upstairs (I used an old router for this).

I live rurally where there isn't anything fast (no superfast cables etc.) but I use BT and it's really good. They send out their own router and it covers the whole property, no problems anywhere.
I have also used them previously in a different part of the country and again, impressed.

Hi, there are a few things you can look at:

Location of your kit: is it on the floor as the hub / router needs space to bounce the signal around (not the most technical description!)

Do you have other equipment that would block? Our old set up used to go weird when the microwave was on for example

Power lines that PPs have mentioned - the cat 5 cable is plugged into the hub/router and wall socket for one half of the power line and the other power line plug is paired/put into a wall socket in another room

Are you using the original kit supplied by your internet supplier? These are generally low quality and a combination of modem and router - also known as a hub. You can buy a far more powerful router and set the original hub to modem only. You'll need to set the router up on your PC and then connect your devices to it but it's not too hard to do.

We tried the power lines and they did not work for us. Our kit is in the loft and we have steel support beams which didn't help. We also had a faulty cable so that stopped everything!

We now have a powerful separate router instead and are able to have both of us online / video calls plus two xboxes running at the same time without issue.

I agree this is likely to be down to the equipment rather than the area, hence wondering about upgrading it. Any recommendations for a good powerful router?

We have a Netgear Nighthawk router that can take upto 50 devices and a huge range.