Broadband Relay - Problem

[ATNotts]

My tech-addicted daughter has recently moved away from home, and lives in a cottage adjacent to the landlord's house, and the broadband signal is apparently good outside the house, but when she tries to use your laptop inside the house to connect to the web she can't get any sort of connection.

The booster is plugged into the socket, at normal socket level, and the broadband goes into the "host house" about 25m away laterally, but probably 3-4 metres below the level of my daughter's cottage. They have recently had BT Superfast broadband installed in the village.

Could the problem be one of line of sight for the signal, or are we barking up the wrong tree? If that's not the problem what else could be causing the issue.

I am assured we can discount elementary issues like not putting the correct codes into her lap top to access the signal - she is reasonably tech savvy - unlike me!

Any suggestions would be much appreciated as she / we want to avoid acrimony with her landlord!

[gemma10]

I take it the booster is in the landlords house and the reciever is in your daughters cottage. The problem may be that your landlords` house wiring is on a different phase to that of the cottage and therefore the reciever is not able to see the signal. Every third house in a street is on the same phase.

[ATNotts]

I take it the booster is in the landlords house and the reciever is in your daughters cottage. The problem may be that your landlords` house wiring is on a different phase to that of the cottage and therefore the reciever is not able to see the signal. Every third house in a street is on the same phase.

Thanks, that's something I wasn't even aware of! However the cottage is rented all utilities included, and there isn't a separate electricity meter in the cottage, so I would assume the power is provided from the landlord's house.

The cottage is, incidentally a converted farm building that was part of the landlord's property.

[gemma10]

Mmmm. Are you sure you have "mated" the the reciever to the transmitter correctly?

[Saab Dastard]

There seems to be some talking at cross-purposes here.

ATNotts seems to be talking about a wifi scenario, while gemma10 seems to be talking about networking over power cabling.

Wifi signals are line of sight, with some ability to penetrate solid material (they are radio waves). If the LoS is blocked by sufficiently thick or dense material the signal will be blocked.

Assuming Windows laptop, run netsh wlan show networks from a command prompt to see what wifi networks are available, their channels and the strength of the signals.

You will also see if there are other competing signals that are swamping the desired wifi network.

SD

[Blues&twos]

Thanks Saab, not a command I had come across before.

Just a thought, if the broadband is being "sent" along power cables from the main house to the cottage, would the signal be able to get through the cottage consumer unit with whatever circuit breaker technology is installed?

The instructions for the powerline type network adaptors I've seen usually state that the adaptors should be plugged directly into a wall socket (not, for example, into an extension lead), so I imagine there might be an issue with equipment "in line" doing something bad to the broadband.

I've never used this sort of adaptor, incidentally.

[gemma10]

Blues and Twos, From what I gather now its not being sent via the mains cables, but via direct wifi radiation from the landlords house. It was the "booster " that confused me. Perhaps ATNotts can confirm this

[ATNotts]

Assuming Windows laptop, run netsh wlan show networks from a command prompt to see what wifi networks are available, their channels and the strength of the signals.

The machine is a Mac. In wondered if this could be a factor, but my daughter assures me that it won't be. She can connect no problem using the WiFi at our house so I guess she's tight about that.

I have suggested she unplugs booster and re-positions it higher up in the house to improve the line of sight.

Blues and Twos, From what I gather now its not being sent via the mains cables, but via direct wifi radiation from the landlords house. It was the "booster " that confused me. Perhaps ATNotts can confirm this

Can confirm it's being radiated not coming down the mains cables.

[Blues&twos]

Ah, well my guess then is that it's likely that the wifi signal does not have sufficient range for the "booster" to pick it up. I have an issue in one room of our house where the wifi signal disappears, and it really isn't very far at all from our BT homehub. Walls and stuff in the way though.

[Saab Dastard]

ATNotts:

For Macs try this: Find & Scan Wireless Networks from the Command Line in Mac OS X | OSXDaily (http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/28/find-scan-wireless-networks-from-the-command-line-in-mac-os-x/)

SD

[le Pingouin]

Given it's an old farm building the walls are likely to be quite thick so the signal is probably being blocked by the wall (and quite possibly the ground given the elevated position). I think the only hope is to place the booster in a window facing the landlord's place

I'd suggest your daughter turns the booster off and tries finding a signal using the laptop outside any prospective window first and if she gets one move inside and check if it can still be received through the window. Might need to try higher than the window sill.

If she finds a signal she'll have to position the booster in the window at the height she found signal.

[ATNotts]

Thanks for all your responses - it looks as though the line of sight issue is the first one to check out. I'll let my daughter know and I will report back.

Thanks again.

[Midland 331]

Telecomms is my day job, and I'm regularly involved with situations like this. At the risk of stating the obvious, have you considered running an external-grade cable from the master socket to the new location?

I've blogged on this. Search "how to move your master socket without actually moving it", and you should find it. If I still lived in Sawley, I could come and do the work!

You should not lose much speed down a decent-spec cable. Plus,if it's coming off a fibre cabinet not too far away, you'll will be starting off with a decent speed anyway.

[Hyph]

It sounds like the OP's daughter is intending to use the landlord's broadband via the WiFi in the landlord's house. As others have suggested, it is highly likely that the signal will not be strong enough to go through two sets of external walls.

A good signal meter app will confirm this. InSSIDer (http://www.inssider.com) (for Windows and Mac) is invaluable in this respect. Shows all visible WiFi networks and their signal strength in real-time, so you can walk around and see where the strong/weak spots are.

While I doubt the landlord would be happy to have his/her telephone master socket or WiFi router moved, running an external-grade Ethernet cable between the two properties would be an ideal solution.

Connect one end of said cable to the landlord's router and at the other end attach a WiFi access point (not a router!). Both properties then have independent high-quality WiFi on one broadband connection. Problem solved.

As much as I dislike them for the RF noise they throw out, power-line networking might also be an option - but probably not cheaper than the Ethernet cable and definitely less reliable.

[Midland 331]

Yes, it's often just as simple to run an external Ethernet cable. The BT Infinity "Data Extension Kit" is more or less that.

This week,I cabled from a router to a back bedroom/study of a professional photographer, and saw speed go from 1.6mb down to 16mb down.

I'm frquently amazed that ADSL works at all. Likewise wifi. All over a single pair of 0.5mm copper wires which hang off poles, sit in damp street cabinets, and are subjected to all kinds of interference.

[ATNotts]

Problem turns out to be too many thick walls between main house and my daughter's - reception immediately outside her house was OK.

Solution: Separate line courtesy of BT Open Reach! Being installed tomorrow. So far as my tech-addicted daughter is concerned; the best Christmas present ever!

Thanks very much for all answers and suggestions. Much appreciated.