Billion UK Forum

Hi, just replaced my Belkin N1 which was beginning to show signs of old age. I'm really struggling with the wireless strength and range compared to the Belkin. Upstairs about 15ft above the router using in SSID er for home, the 2.4 reports 65-70db and the 5ghz around 90db . 5ghz pretty much unusable upstairs.

On the tech itself, iphone and Surface pro, had 5 bars with the Belkin, now 3 with the Billion.

I've done all the obvious, change channels etc. Is this just a poor router for WiFi range and strength, perhaps a firmware update can improve it?

Hi

Try putting one of the antennas horizontal.

Newer routers tend to have better but more directional antennas which give a stronger signal along the horizontal at a cost to the vertical reach, i.e. more do-nut shaped than a sphere. This means reception above and below can be poorer. By putting an antenna into a horizontal position turns the do-nut vertical to improve reach above and below. You may need to experiment with once one you place horizontal.

Also the router may have picked a channel that has interference with neighbouring signals, try changing the channel from Auto to Channel 1, 6, 11, or 14.

5GHz has much less range than 2.4GHz. 5GHz is very much like a satellite signal where line of sight is required for maximum signal, and anything that blocks it's path very quickly reduces the range.

Regards

Phil

Thanks, played around but to no great effect.

I'm also suffering from limited connections on occasion which results in a reboot of the router. Kinda frustrating.

Hi

Thendrin wrote:Thanks, played around but to no great effect.

I'm also suffering from limited connections on occasion which results in a reboot of the router. Kinda frustrating.

A reboot certainly isn't good. Not had issues with rebooting here. Perhaps it is faulty?

Broadcom are looking into issues with Wi-Fi we've been told so may be worth waiting a while.

I think because Billion routers have no Wi-Fi certification they are essentially a BETA test platform for Broadcom, as they can throw any firmware on them without having to get it certified, and that is probably why we are having teething problems at the minute.

Regards

Phil

Sorry by rebooting, I meant I had to reboot it to get back a full connection with internet.

Thendrin wrote:Sorry by rebooting, I meant I had to reboot it to get back a full connection with internet.

Was this with both wired and wireless connection?

I have only experienced this on wireless.

Thendrin wrote:I have only experienced this on wireless.

Try changing the 'Bandwidth' to 20mhz and let me know if you still have issues