Sep 4, 2018
1
0
10
I have a Virgin Media Hub 3.0 (not out of choice) provided by my ISP giving me a stable 100+Mbps download speed even at peak times.

In total there are 4 of us in the house. We each have various devices (laptops, consoles, internet enabled TV sticks,etc)

My dilemma: We have a 3 story house. The VM router HAS to be in the unused bottom room since the copper point is fixed to that location. I wish to extend the wireless signal capabilities of the network to provide stable WiFi across all floors.

My solution: I’ve purchased a Netgear gigabit LAN switch. I’ve connected via cat6 the VM router to the switch up to the middle floor. From this switch I’ve put in another router, namely, an old Sky box. I’ve configured the Sky box to stop acting as a DHCP server and gave it a static IP address in order so acts like an AP. On the VM box, I started the DHCP server to distribute IP addresses beginning from 20 onwards to avoid any conflicts. I also disabled the 2.4Ghz mode on the VM router as the Sky AP only puts out on this band so I didn’t feel the need to keep this on.

My problem: Every single device can connect to any AP and then through to the internet. Except my laptop. The laptop I used to configure the network. I really can’t figure out why. Is it an IP address issue? When I connect to the wireless signal of the VM router, my computer still thinks that it’s connected to the Sky AP because when I go to a browser, it brings me to the Sky self heal. This occurs if I try to access the Sky AP too.

Or is it something to do with the access connections program on my Lenovo laptop? I’ve tried automatically leaving the IP address association to the router / windows wireless service and I’ve also tried manually inputting the data into a new profile for each SSID’s but alas nothing is working. The wireless signals are different (5Ghz/2.4Ghz) but I can’t see why this would be a problem.


It’s been a real head scratcher for a few hours now !

Any suggestion(s) would help a lot!
 
Solution
I would try powerline network adapters to bring a wired network upstairs. Anything else will have poor performance. The AV2 MIMO powerline network adapters will usually get 100Mbit performance.
Otherwise I would run ethernet cable on the outside of the house if you can't/won't run it in the walls.

kanewolf

Judicious
Moderator
I would try powerline network adapters to bring a wired network upstairs. Anything else will have poor performance. The AV2 MIMO powerline network adapters will usually get 100Mbit performance.
Otherwise I would run ethernet cable on the outside of the house if you can't/won't run it in the walls.
 
Solution