I have a wireless BT Home Hub router to connect to the internet and signal strength has always been a problem showing between 2 and 3 bars out of a possible 5. The reason for this is quite simply the distance from the hub. The only practical place we can have the hub is on one side of the house whereas we use our laptops on the other. To bring the hub any closer would mean rewiring through the attic, an extra power point and a lot of aggravation. So we have plodded on with our poor to average speeds.
Then I noticed on Amazon a thing called a Huawei Wi-Fi Repeater[Image] WS320, which boasted a dramatic increase in your signal strength by simply plugging in the device closer to where your laptops, desktops or any other wireless devices are located. No wiring is required, just a spare three pin electric socket.
I read the reviews for this item and they were all pretty good so I bought one. Once arrived, the set-up wasn't that easy, as warned in several of the reviews but patience is rewarded. The simplest method described in the manual is to plug in the Wi-Fi Repeater into an electric socket close to your router and wait for the light on the front to turn from red to yellow. Once it is yellow press the WPS button on your Wi-Fi router (most modern routers have one) and then the button on the front of the Repeater. The Repeater yellow light then blinks and should turn solid green after 20 to 120 seconds. This means it is connected OK and you can then unplug the repeater and move it to a socket closer to your Wi-Fi devices. Your laptops etc., should then connect to the internet using the same details as before but the signal is now being boosted.
Unfortunately this method didn't work for me, even after discovering that a BT Home Hub router requires you to press and hold the WPS button for at least 20 seconds until all the front blue lights flash and then press the Repeater's button. I still got a solid yellow light instead of a green one. This means the connection failed, so I had to do it manually. Taking my laptop through I looked for the Repeater wireless signal and connected to it. Then I typed 192.168.2.254 in the address bar of Firefox. This connected me to the admin section of the Repeater and it started looking for my wireless internet connection. It came up with a list of ones close by and I chose my BT one. I then needed to just type in my password key and I was connected via the Repeater. The light on the Repeater turned green and all was well. I moved back to where I work and plugged the Repeater into a nearby 3 pin socket. It started up, the light on the front turned red, then yellow, flashing yellow then solid green. A reconnection to my BT Home Hub gave me 5 bars i.e. excellent signal strength as promised. Yippee! For the price of just over £25 and a little bit of aggravation it was and still is, well worth it.
"Increase Wireless Signal Strength To Excellent"
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