Creating a better WiFi signal in basement

Can I add an Airport Express in the basement to an Airport Extreme located on the main floor to create a better WiFi signal in the basement? Thanks!

Yes, you can.
This is called "extending" a network. There are actually two ways to do this.....one much better than the other.
The "best" way to extend is connect the AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express using a permanent wired Ethernet cable connection.
The "maybe it will work" way is to try to use wireless to connect the AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express. When you do it this way, the AirPort Express can only extend the quality of signal that receives, so if the wireless is poor now in the basement, the Express will receive a poor signal to try to extend, and things will likely not work very well.
Wireless is worth a try, I suppose if you don't want to run the Ethernet cable. Be prepared to experiment with different locations of the AirPort Express.
It would also be a good idea to make sure that you understand the store's return policy before you buy, as it is possible that things may be worse, not better than they are now.

Similar Messages

Any suggestions for better wifi signal?

Hi everyone,
So I live in a bit of an older home, and since the walls are pretty thick and everything is compartmentalized, my wifi signal doesn't reach everywhere with the best signal. Below are the details of my set-up along with additional potentially-relevant information to provide context:
I have FiOS internet with basic cable (just downgraded from FiOS premium cable to save $$$)
The FiOS console is in basement
I have coax cables from the basement console going to: (internet) one router (the MI424WR Verizon FiOS Router) in office, and (cable TV) three TVs - one in the basement, one on 1st floor and one on 2nd floor.
My internet is only 2-3 bars in the location of the TV on the 1st floor. This is probably where we spend the most time using our devices when I'm not working, and would need the greatest signal boost.
Since I've downgraded to basic cable, I'd like to be able to stream on-line content in the location of the 1st floor TV without too much lag.
It would be very difficult to string an ethernet cable from my current router in the office to another router in the 1st floor TV room.
In the past I've tried relatively cheap [$30] wifi extenders with no help.
I've read a bit about installing a second wireless router, but not sure if I can do it by just splitting the coax going to my 1st floor TV into another wireless router without an ethernet cable from the office-router. (I'm okay with technology, but am somewhat behind in my understanding of wireless networks).
I'd like to spend less than $100 (assuming I'd need to buy another router - any recommendations?) to do it, if possible.
All suggestions (including non-second router recommendations) are greatly appreciated!!! Also, details on how to hook up the configuration would be especially welcomed. Thanks again and have a happy holiday!

phillyrx wrote:
Hi jsk2,
Thanks for the suggestion. No, I haven't tried to move the router to the 2nd floor. Is that supposed to improve the signal house-wide? The 2nd floor coax is on the opposite end of the house of the 1st floor coax.
Also, might be a really stupid question, but can the coax cables be used interchangably? (ie: the coax for my TV can be used for the router, and the coax for my router can be used for a TV)?
Thanks!
You don't mention what your tier is but I assume it's under 100mb?
any of the coax connectors can be used for tv AND router by adding a splitter - up to a max of 8 I believe.
Go onto ebay and get a couple of old fios routers and add one on each floor
Of course using ethernet would be a far better coice but I guess that's not an option

I have a new comcast modem i have connected to Time Capsule with cable, TC in double NAT. As when I tried it in bridge mode I cannot use Sonos, the units will not connect to the wifi network? I thought Bridge mode would make the wifi signal better??

I have the TC connected to the comcast modem, with TC in Double NAT mode. I set up the sonos music players ok. But I read that to incresae the wifi signal the TC should be in Bridge mode. Then I cannot get any of the Sonos units to connect to the wifi network.
So two questions, does the Bridge mode give a better wifi signal then double NAT?
Why will sonos not connect to the network when in Bridge mode?

A PC can have more issues connecting than a Mac.
But it really should not matter.. so just try it in situ.. press and hold the reset.. once it starts up, it will return to default IP, 10.0.1.1 the PC should then be able to find it via the airport utility.
If not drag it over to the Mac and plug in there by ethernet.. or since it is a laptop, really should not be that difficult to drag the Laptop and plug it into the TC.
Important thing is to get access to the TC.
The Mac if it is running lion, then you MUST download and install 5.6 airport utility to do anything useful.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482

I'd like to alter my Airport Extreme/Airport Express wireless network so that the 3 Expresses connect to the Extreme via Ethernet. I've been told this will create a more stable wifi signal. How do I configure this using Airport Utility? Thanks.

I currently have an Airport Extreme Base Station connected to my DSL router by Ethernet. Because I have a long, sprawling home, I have 3 Airport Expresses configured to "Extend the Wireless Network" I've established. Because of my home environment--thick walls encompassaing wire mesh, sprawling rooms, etc., it is hard to maintain a continuously-strong, stable WiFi signal. I've been told that I can create a much more stable network by connecting the Express units to the AEBS via Ethernet cable. Since my home is already wired for Ethernet, I'm considering making this change. If I proceed to establish the Ethernet connections, how do I then set up Airport Utility to accomodate this switch from a Wireless-based WiFi network to an Ethernet-based WiFi network?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Phyllis

I don't see anyplace in the Utility to designate HOW the Express units are connected, only how they relate on the network to the Extreme,
As I mentioned in the previous post, when you click the Internet icon in AirPort Utility:
Connect Using = Ethernet (This tells each Express to connect to the Extreme using the ethernet connection)
Connection Sharing = Off (Bridge Mode) (This setting allows your AirPort Extreme to function as the "main" router on the network, as it must for the setup to work correctly.
You do not need to configure anything differently on the AirPort Extreme (as long as it is working correctly now) to connect the AirPort Express devices.
The only other question I have is the following: I'm currently already using one of the Ethernet ports on the back of the Extreme-- for my husband's iMac. I really don't think he gains much in performance over how the iMac would run through wifi, so I could disconnect the iMac. If you think the iMac would do better to stay on the Ethernet connection, should I use a switch/splitter to add an extra connection?
Since each AirPort Express must connect using ethernet, you will need to use the 3 LAN <-> ports on the AirPort Extreme for the AirPort Express devices.
I would suggest that you try connecting the iMac using wireless to see if that will work. If the wireless connection is not satisfactory, then you can add a 5 port ethernet switch to one of the LAN ports on the Extreme and then plug all the devices connecting using ethernet....the iMac and the 3 AirPort Express devices...into the remaining 4 ports on the switch. That will leave you with 2 open ports on the AirPort Extreme for any future devices that may need to connect.
When you test out the system, here is a trick to find out which device your computer is actually connecting to at any given time as it "roams" around the house.
When you have AirPort Utility open to configure each AirPort Express, jot down the AirPort ID for each Express. You can do the same for the AirPort Extreme.
As you move around with your laptop, hold down the option key on your Mac keyboard while you click on the fan shaped AirPort icon at the top of the screen. Look for the BSSID. That is the AirPort ID of the device that the laptop is connected to at that time. it should also be the ID of the closest AirPort Express (or AirPort Extreme if the laptop is close to the Extreme at the time).
Let us know how things are working when everything is up and running.

Just got a used airport base station. Set it up and getting wif signal. when I try to hook up on a computer it asks for a security key. where can I locate key?

just got a used airport base station. Set it up and getting wif signal. when I try to hook up on a computer it asks for a security key. where can I locate key?

If you mean the hexidecimal equivalent of the alphanumeric password, then you can find this via the AirPort Utility, as follows:
AirPort Utility > Select the AirPort > Manual Setup
On the AirPort Utility's menubar select Base Station > Equivalent Network Password

What is the most sensible way to extend a wifi signal. I am in a cinderblock house and I have to buy something that will give me a single network but added range from my airport extreme base station.

What is the most sensible way to extend a wifi signal. I am in a cinderblock house and I have to buy something that will give me a single network but added range from my airport extreme base station.

Use an Airport Express. Configure the AEBS to allow it's wireless network to be extended. This is a dropdown menu option under the Wireless tab. Configure the Airport Express to Extend an Existing Network also under it's Wireless tab. You will need to provide the name of your network used in the AEBS as well as the network's access password.

Problems with poor wifi signal strength, need help?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated? This is a lengthy explanation. Thanks in advance.
I have a 3rd generation Airport Extreme wirelessly bridged to a 4th generation Time Capsule. I have noticed only mild increase in signal strength. Surprisingly I have only 1 – 2 bars of signal strength when standing next to the bridged Airport Extreme. There are areas of the house that continue to have very weak coverage ranging from 0 – 2 bars depending on the day and others that continue to have no wifi coverage.
The house has Cat 5 cable in all rooms. Most rooms only have a phone jack wired to the end of the Cat 5 cable but two rooms have data ports. All the wires (phone and data) run to the same junction box and are connected to, what appears to be, a simple parallel bridge. (There are a couple unused access points on the bridge. A few years back, I ran an additional line for a phone by simply pressing the colored wire into the corresponding site and the phone works fine)
It was suggested to plug the two routers directly into the data ports rather than have them communicate wirelessly. When doing this, I had no signal at the other end and the phone stopped working.
What is the best way to fix the weak wifi signal problem?
1.     Do I need to tweak my current wireless set up? (FYI, In the Airport Utility, both devices are listed and have green dots)
2.     Do I need to buy an additional Airport Extreme to bridge to the Time Capsule to cover the current dead areas? (unless there is something I should do different in the set up, hesitant to do this, since I have only seen a marginal boost with my current bridge)
3.     Would it be better to use the existing cat 5 cable and create a functional “hard wired” network that I can use to connect the two wireless routers? (If this is the answer, is this something relatively simple that I can do myself or should I hire a professional?)
Thanks again.

The house has Cat 5 cable in all rooms. Most rooms only have a phone jack wired to the end of the Cat 5 cable but two rooms have data ports. All the wires (phone and data) run to the same junction box and are connected to, what appears to be, a simple parallel bridge. (There are a couple unused access points on the bridge. A few years back, I ran an additional line for a phone by simply pressing the colored wire into the corresponding site and the phone works fine)
It was typical awhile back, where you have "whole-house" Ethernet running back to a patch panel to use the cable runs for both data and phone service. This works fine as long as you only wanted 100 Mbps Ethernet (or Fast Ethernet) connections for data. Gigabit Ethernet requires all of the twisted pairs in the CAT-5 cable and cannot share any of those pairs for phone lines.
So any wall outlet that is wired for both phone & data will not provide Gigabit Ethernet ... unless there are at least two CAT-5 cables going to that outlet. I am only mentioning this as to the potential for reduced bandwidth on some of your connections as all of your AirPort base stations are Gigabit capable.
As far as "weak" signals, I am assuming that you have configured all of your AirPort base stations for a roaming and NOT an extended wireless network ... correct? Even if you already have, please review the following Apple Support article to make sure you didn't miss anything. Please post back your results.

Boosting o2 Wifi signal with Airport Express

Dear all,
I had read that one could boost our o2 Wifi signal with the Airport Express. I don't seem to be able to do it! Can anyone help.
Detsky

It is possible if the wireless network is created by another AirPort Express (AX), an AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS), or a Time Capsule. Otherwise it is not possible.

6.1.2 and still wifi signal problem

I bought iphone 5 yesterday in London.I update my iphone to 6.1.2 and i saw a problem.My wifi signal is too weak and its drops the connections few time later.I restore my phone but still same.What can i do for this problem.Is it a hardware problem ?

I had problems with wifi in 6.1.2 on my 4S. Namely, I'd go to my general/wifi settings page and get to watch the checkmark cycle visible/invisible (wifi on/off) every few seconds. After a while it would apparently go permanently off for that connection. I scoured the net and found I should:
Toggle WiFi off then back on.(on phone)
Forget network for my home network and then log back in (on phone)
Reset network settings (on phone)
Reboot router
And perhaps a few more. I tried them all with no positive results.
I got frustrated and visited the local Apple store genius. She said I'd pretty much covered the whole enchalada and so it was time for the dreaded FULL RESTORE. God I hate that. I was hoping she could wave a magic apple over the phone and it would start to work or something.
She asked about backups etc. so as to not totally ruin my life. I was good and told her it was ok to infantalize my phone. A few minutes later I was walking out of the store with a "brand new" phone. At least my phone was behaving that way.
In a weird way this was a good experience. My phone was in such a state of new phoneitis that the only stuff on it was my cell data to let me make calls and get on line and a few things that I store in the cloud (I don't fully backup to the cloud, only contacts and my calendar). So I had lost all my apps, my nice directory structure, all my folders segregating my apps into neat categories etc.
So, why a good experience? Well when I got home I first restored the backup, then restored the apps and media previously stored on the phone. I've never done this before and I was TOTALLY Delighted to see that the phone was basically indistinguishable from its state prior to the wipe. All the apps were back in their designated spots and all the useless Apple stuff had been moved to purgatory on the last screen. Why can we NOT put newsstand and such into a folder or better yet simply dump it from the phone? How lame is it that Apple is so un-confident they force us to stare at those Icons in the desparate hope we start to use stuff that some of us simply are not interested in? Anyway it was nice to get my phone back to its original state.
Now the test, I turned on WiFi and selected my network, gave the wpa2 password and voila, the checkmark beside my home network started to blink again. Oh well, 2 to 3 hours of restoration was needed anyway but I was really hoping a fresh virgin install of the OS would have cured this problem.
SOLUTION:
You know, I'm fairly certain I didn't try much beyond toggling wifi on and off and doing the forget network thingies before I stumbled across a series of reports online about this problem that changing wifi network security from one type to another might do something good. So, I started with the most benign router network change, I simply changed my wifi wpa password on the router. I didn't even start with a switch from wps2 to wep or whatever else might be available as an alternate security protocol. Back to my phone and I tried to connect to wifi and entered the new password and I got access. I watched the checkmark beside my home network. No cycling on and off. I went to safari and visited a bunch of bookmarks. No starting and stopping the network connection. It appeared to have been healed. I went back into the router and reverted the password to the original. I loaded up a couple of my security cams. Everything was working. I checked my "Nest" thermostats and they were working.
So far it's been around 18 hours and things are still good with my 6.1.2 IOS iPhone. Hopefully they will stay that way.
Although the iPhone is so locked down as to not really qualify in my mind as a true computer, it's important to remember all the disabling Apple does on the phones doesn't mean they aren't computers. Just that we can't use them that way most of the time. And with computers there are unending interactions between different services that are running in the background where we can't interact with them on the phone but are totally able to keep an eye on them on a true computer with full access by the user allowed. So... point is, it really is a computer hiding under the covers and all kinds of stuff is happening in there. So, while one person may find a simple toggling of the wifi on and off will solve this problem others may have to do really strange things to get things working again. In my particular configuration I'm guessing that the install of the new OS somehow messed with the prefs file for wifi and perhaps did something funky to my wifi password. changing the router password and requiring me to thus create a brand new connection to it may have cleared up this problem. It's a good thing there wasn't something inherently wrong with my standard wpa password. I have BUNCHES of stuff running on wifi around the house and I seriously would hate to have to connect to everything besides the router and enter in new passwords.
Anyway, so far for me, a happy ending. Luck to you all.

Time capsule wifi signal and possible extension by airport extreme

Hi all,
I recently got a TC to replace my speed touch dsl modem/router as I thought the TC is much better. Unfortunately to my surprise, the wifi signal of the TC seems to be less powerful + Internet is more slow. I wonder if I have some settings that are not quite correct. I wrecked my brain over the net looking for settings and everything seems correct. Any ideas on this issue?
Anyway, I am now considering either an airport extreme or airport express to extend the coverage. My questions are:
1. Is the wifi signal of airport extreme, airport express and time capsule the same or one is more powerful than others?
2. I'm thinking of getting an airport extreme to be the main wifi hub (ie the adsl modem would be connected to it) and putnthe TC downstairs to extend the signal. With this in mind I would connect it to a western digital tv live and stream videos.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Kind regards
Aldo

Apple needs to create a configuration tool that configures all the Apple devices one owns by creating a network diagram using drag and drop symbols...
Sounds like a cool suggestion. If you want Apple to hear it, go to www.apple.com/feedback/timecapsule.html

Time Capsule wifi signal suddenly fades with distance

My Time Capsule's wifi signal has suddenly started fading the farther I am from the box. If my Macbook Air is in the room with it, the signal is fine. But suddenly, if I'm two rooms over, the signal is very slow -- much too slow to stream video, for example. This is a relatively recent problem. I tried downgrading the firmware from 7.6.3 to 7.6.1 on the advice of someone on these boards but that hasn't helped. Any ideas?

After you downgrade the firmware. do a full factory reset of the TC.
Then redo the setup from scratch.. give it fully SMB compatible names,, short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric.
Eg TC name.. TC
Wireless name for 2.4ghz TC24ghz
Wireless name for 5ghz TC5ghz (yes, set a different name in options for this)
Do not hide the wireless name.
Use WPA2 Personal security with 10-20 character password is usually enough. pure alphanumeric of course.
Now the important bit. Test using fixed wireless channels.. 11, 6, 1 in that order for 2.4ghz.
5ghz is probably useless from 2 rooms away, but set to the lowest channel, 36 or 40.. will work better.
It is only because you have had it change that I recommend it.. otherwise I would say get something to extend wireless or more powerful. See how the above goes.. and give us actual numbers.. in the airport icon on the top right hold the option key when you click it and you will get signal level.
If you want more info the older v5 utility is far more useful as it will give you logging of wireless signals.
All logging access is totally removed from v6 toyland utility.
So install v5 which is possible by a trick on Mountain Lion.
How to load 5.6 into ML.
1. Download 5.6 for Lion.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
Click to open the dmg but do not attempt to install the pkg.. it won't work anyway.
2. Download and install unpkg.
http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/
Run unpkg on the desktop.. it is very simple.. drag the AirPortUtility56.pkg file over to unpkg.. and it will create a new directory of the same name on the desktop.. drill down.. applications utilities .. there lo and behold is Airport utility 5.6 .. drag it to your main utilities directory or just run it from current location.
You cannot uninstall 6.1 (now 6.2 if you updated) so don't try.. and you cannot or should not run them both at the same time.. so just ignore the toyland version.. the plastic hammer.. and start using 5.6.. a real tool.
For screen shots see this post.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4668746?tstart=0

2g Touch's Wifi signal strength

Ok, about a week ago i posted about getting strange behaviour with my 2g Ipod touch's wifi signal meter: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8098190#8098190
I finally downloaded Wifinder (which measures the signal strenght) and find im getting really low readings in comparison to my Imac's wifi. Standing right infront of the router i get a reading of 60 (the scale being from 1 to 100) and in the next room i get a reading of 35-45 where my imac gets around 75. Im not having problems connecting or surfing (the routers if tested are all WEP) but I am concerned with the signal strength. Can anyone give me any reference of the signal with Wifinder on their Ipod Touch? Is the touch's wifi reception significantly lower than other wifi devices?
I might just go back to the apple store tomorrow, still thinking about it though (i hate having to prove to the guys at the store that my unit has an issue).
Thanks in advance
Adrian D

I haven't actually used that app, so I can't speak to its reliability. However, I can tell you that when I visit my parents' house (they live in suburban NJ - tons of houses about a driveway apart from each other) my Toshiba notebook picked up on a bunch of networks, my MacBook picks up on a few less networks, and my iPod touch finds only the one I created with my AirPort base station. So the iPod touch's Wi Fi antenna is certainly not as strong as what one would find in a computer.
CG
Message was edited by: CasperGemini (typo)

Does an AE connect to my router's wifi signal or my Mac's?

My Mac is connected to my router via a DLAN device for a solid network connection, but my AEs are flaky - should I try and extend the Mac wifi signal with the AEs (and can I connect to AirTunes at the same time), or should I try and extend the router wifi? Not really sure how this all works, sorry if a really stupid question!

There are a number of DLAN devices, but I am going to assume that you are using a Powerline-like device to connect your Mac back to your router. As you know Powerline devices are used to create a pseudo Ethernet connection using your home's electrical wiring. If this is what you are referring to, then you can share this connection via the Mac's wireless adapter. However, you cannot extend this wireless network with an AirPort base station.
For iTunes streaming, you need either a wired or wireless network for the iTunes host to stream to an AirPlay speaker. That speaker could be an AirPort Express base station, Apple TV, or a device that supports AirPlay.

My MacBook Air says it in connected to my wifi, but my wifi signal has a "!" sign on it. My computer will not allow internet access, help?

My MacBook Air says it in connected to my wifi, but my wifi signal has a "!" sign on it. My computer will not allow internet access, help?

When you see an exclamation point in the Wi-Fi menu, from the menu bar, select
 ▹ System Preferences... ▹ Network
Click the Assist me button and select Assistant. Follow the prompts. You may get a warning that Wi-Fi is not available, that you're too far from the base station, or that you're using the wrong password.
Assuming that you've ruled out those possibilities, restart the computer and try again. If there's no change, click the lock icon in the lower left corner of the preference pane and authenticate, if necessary. From the Location menu at the top of the window, select Edit Locations. A sheet will drop down. Click the plus-sign button to create a new location. Give it any name you want. In the new location, set up the Wi-Fi service with the same settings you used before. Click Applyand test.
If there's still no connection, and if you have control of the router, compare its settings to Apple's recommendations. Some third-party routers may be incompatible in 802.11b/g/n radio mode. Try setting the mode to 802.11n only.

Cancelled Infinity. Wifi signal did not reach rest...

Short synopsis:
Before buying Infinity, try your current wifi hub plugged into your master socket, and see if your wifi signal can still reach the rest of the house. If your master is at the wrong end of the house to your computers, like me, then BT will offer you pretty much no solution. And once you discover this to be the case, they make it extremely difficult to downgrade the contract to DSL, let alone cancelling the (useless) broadband connection.
Long rant:
The engineer came to install Infinity. We talked briefly about moving the Master Socket from a small room at the front of the house. Initially he said that it was not possible to move the Master at all, but when pushed he said that in doing so he'd have to disconnect any internal wiring, meaning all the rest of the telephone sockets in the house would no longer work. I didn't want that. I also didn't want an ethernet cable trailing round my house, and he couldn't plumb one outside. _But_, he said, the wifi range of the Hub is excellent and will easily cover the house. And also the speed difference between wifi and wired is negligable. Sounded great. After switching it on he pretty much ran out the house before I could even connect with a single PC.
From then on the troubles started. After I had a lot of drop-out connections from my upstairs office, I used iStumbler on my MacBook Pro and found that signal strength was 50% in the tiny room with the master socket, 25% in the _room_next_door_ where I have a PS3, and upstairs in my study the signal was only 18% and every couple of minutes the connection would completely fail.   Incidentally, the Home Hub 3 signal strength is quite a lot _less_ than my old Thompson router that I got from my previous ISP (Be Unlimited).
The problem is obviously that the Hub is too far from where I have my computers. And yet there is no way to move the hub from the Master Socket, and no way for me to move the Master Socket (although if I sacrificed my other phone points and paid some cash then possibly I could have done this).   And I don't want to move my office to a poky tiny room next to the front door where the Master is.
With my previous ISP, I had my router in an upstairs bedroom, and got great signal both in the lounge and in my upstairs study. I could even sit in the back garden and use the Internet. And indeed when I run the Home Hub 3 in that same room, I get the same reception (although 5% less than with my previous router).
So at this point I started calling BT Tech Support.
The first call ended in someone telling me they were off to run a "line check" that would apparently not only check my line but also my entire wifi network (!), and they'd call back in 10 mins. They never did. Tech Support, by the way offers no Incident Support number, and seemingly no one ever writes down your issue, so I've had to explain the same problem to every single person I talk to, and face the same instant defences.
The next call was for an hour where the guy very painstakingly made me go to the room with the Master Socket (to get reception), change channel, go upstairs, prove I lost the signal. Despite the fact that I'd tried all channels before, he insisted. Don't worry, he said, I'll fix your problem. He was completely sure that the Hub signal would reach all parts of the house. Ultimately, having failed to find a better channel, he put it back to 11 and said that I should "Wait 24 hours to let the wireless signals _propagate_ round my house, which is very important with a brand new router", which very much sounded like BS to me.   After this time there was no change in signal.
The next call to Tech Support resulted in the following possibilities:-
1) Run a big ethernet cable throughout the house from the Hub to my _main_computer (ignoring my other wifi devices I guess).
2) Buy a "wireless booster" (by which I think they meant "range extender"). This support guy very seriously told me to "Get PCWorld to come round your house and work out where to place the device, but don't buy it before you try it because they'll try to sell you it even if it doesn't work". Apart from that hilarity I didn't want a range extender _purely_ because my Hub was forced to be in a stupid place, and I didn't want to spend £60 on it. And the support guy said that BT could not recommend _any_ device or make that would work with their Hub, so it was between me an the PCWorld guy who'd come home with me.
So then I called Customer Services with the reasonable proposition (I thought) to exchange Infinity for DSL. The idea being that the Home Hub 3 worked fine in the bedroom from a telephone extension. I was a new broadband customer so it was still business to them. Customer Support said that I could not cancel the Infinity contract without a penalty. I dread to think what that was because later on they told me the penalty for early termination of a DSL contract is £8 per month left of the contract, and I was here 2 days into am 18 month Infinity contract. I objected, saying that Infinity clearly did not work for my house. They then put me through (as a special treat, it usually costs money) to Home IT, saying that if those guys could not help then they'd waive the charge.
So I talked to Home IT. They had one last suggestion that I already had considered. A Powerline connection from Hub to another wifi router somewhere more central in the house. The problems there are that Powerline bandwidth is highly dependent on your house wiring (and after all the point of Infinity is to get that super fast bandwidth), and that they were suggesting I pay £100 for Powerline, and £60 for another router. And again, there would be no technical support for setting this up.    I declined and they said they'd put a "note" on my account telling Customer Services that they agreed that downgrading to DSL was the best solution.
So I called Cust Services again. Explained the entire thing again. Again they said there was _no_way_ to cancel the Infinity contract (not even to change it to DSL) without a large financial penalty.   So I told them my other option was to cancel the entire thing because it just didn't work, and I guess that triggered some thought that I probably _could_ just cancel legally, so after talking to their supervisor they came back and set up the DSL alternative for me.
Now I have to wait a week for the DSL to be activated, which hopefully will happen without problem. Aparently I don't need the engineer to come back and "disconnect" Infinity from the Master Socket. And BT don't want my 2 day old Infinity modem back either.
What gets me about the whole thing is that no one ever said "oh yeah, we get this sometimes". I think it would be amazing if every single person who buys Infinity just happens to have their Master Socket either in the same room as all their computer equipment, or close to it, or is happy to accept all their internal phone wiring to be rendered useless just to get a few extra Mb download speed, or is techie enough that they're willing to spend another £200 on additional wireless solutions just to get the signal from their front door to their PC.
Meanwhile to be able to write this, I'm sat next to the Master Socket in a room that is small enough that we've been using it as a very messy storage cupboard. It's not exactly condusive to work.
My Infinity download speed, by the way, varied (when I sat near the Hub to actually get the signal) from 12Mb to 20Mb. DSL speeds were 7 or 8Mb prior to that.

Points taken guys!
I wanted to change ISP to BT, and took a few seconds to convince myself that it was worth "going large" with the Infinity package.   I knew about the master socket thing. I'd read that some people had got the engineer to move this, which was my initial plan to move it to the lounge. I also read that the Home Hub 3 had "excellent" range, so that seemed fine. I didn't _imagine_ that with a hub in the room with the master socket I'd have no signal at the other end of the house, so I didn't test this. In fact I've never had any problems with wifi signal where my router used to be so I never even investigated signal strength before or even downloaded iStumbler.
The engineer immediately talked me out of moving the socket for reasons mentioned, and said again that the wifi signal strength of the Hub was great and would reach the whole house. The moment he connected up the socket there was just time for me to wifi connect with my laptop in the same room before he said that his work was done and he was off. He _did_ turn up early just before lunch so perhaps that was more on his mind. I had no time to test signal anywhere else in the house before he left. Hence I said "ran off".
Using another router. I didn't try this. The Home Hub has a very ominous red lead connecting it to the Infinity modem. And the red lead comes out a socket marked Infinity rather than the other socket marked ADSL. As such I've assumed that one could only use the Home Hub with the Infinity modem, and not some other DSL modem. Perhaps I was wrong. I'm not that technical about networks and I've also bought into a package by a vendor and so don't really feel like messing around replacing parts of that package.
My house is a medium 4 bed house. The master socket is in a small room next to the front door. My study is in a back bedroom, from where I get 18% signal as reported by iStumbler. The lounge is next door to the master socket room, where I was getting about 25% signal. I also only get a max of 60% signal when I'm touching the Mac to the Hub, so maybe the hub is defective, or the Mac is.   No BT tech support guy has raise any sort of eyebrow at these figures, or suggested that either the Mac or the Hub is broken. I also have a MacMini in the office that shows similar signal strength there, and the iPhone won't even see the hub at all from there, but can connect if in the same room as the hub.
But regardless, everything was fine with my old router setup with my old ISP. Except that the 3 year old router seemed to occassionally crash and drop the line. So rather than get tech support from Be Unlimiter, or buy a new router, I though the _easy_ option would be just to move provider to BT and get a fancy new router as part of the deal.   Also I've always perhaps nievely thought that if you have BT for phone and broadband then if something goes wrong then they can't tell you it's not their fault. Shrug. If I'd known that I'd have been on the phone to tech support for hours anyway, I'd have just talked to Be in the first place. Now I kind of want things to go back to the state that I actually _had_ internet access in my study, which is why I settled on again the easy option of convincing BT to downgrade me to DSL.
Apart from coming here to vent (apologies), I think it's actually quite an important fact to consider when thinking about Infinity whether moving your hub from a central point in the house to your master socket (usually a point closest the street) will affect your wifi reception throughout the house.
I didn't consider that. And it's caused me two days of frustration. And I'm now sat in a cupboard.

Creating a better WiFi signal in basement

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