Donate to Remove ads

Got a credit card? use our Credit Card & Finance Calculators

Thanks to johnstevens77,Bhoddhisatva,scotia,Anonymous,Cornytiv34, for Donating to support the site

Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

Seek assistance with all types of tech. - computer, phone, TV, heating controls etc.
PrincessB
Lemon Slice
Posts: 440
Joined: November 10th, 2016, 3:26 pm
Has thanked: 99 times
Been thanked: 175 times

Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341209

Postby PrincessB » September 18th, 2020, 2:05 pm

Spotted these today in Aldi
A double plug socket with USB charger (1) and wi-fi extender in a single unit £18.99

https://www.aldi.co.uk/wifi-extending-s ... 6371574800

Only two reviews, one says they don't know if it is working, the other says its great.

No need to buy one personally but might be of interest to some on here.

B.

mutantpoodle
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 1007
Joined: November 7th, 2016, 4:21 pm
Has thanked: 509 times
Been thanked: 122 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341303

Postby mutantpoodle » September 19th, 2020, 8:24 am

i'm no expert but I thought these wi-fi extender socket things required a plug at both ends?

how does this boost the signal if its plugged in..in a room with no signal?

xeny
Lemon Slice
Posts: 450
Joined: April 13th, 2017, 11:37 am
Has thanked: 233 times
Been thanked: 154 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341305

Postby xeny » September 19th, 2020, 9:03 am

mutantpoodle wrote:i'm no expert but I thought these wi-fi extender socket things required a plug at both ends?

how does this boost the signal if its plugged in..in a room with no signal?


There are a lots of different things that get called wifi extenders.

I suspect this is a simple repeater - it takes a wifi signal and rebroadcasts (sort of like an amplifier) it. You put them part way to the area with no signal, so it can "see" the router, and rebroadcast that signal. In turn the area with no signal can see the signal coming from the repeater.

The arrangement you're thinking of transmits the network across the mains wiring - so you need a unit near the router, with typically a wired connection to it.

The remote unit then receives the signal from the wiring and transmits it wirelessly, so you can put it right at the location with no signal.

The two approaches are comparable, and which is a better choice tends to come down to site specific factors such as how thick the walls are and what state the wiring is in. Sometimes either is a great solution, sometimes they're both terrible (thick walls and lousy mains wiring) and at that point you start thinking about running network cables.

richfool
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3492
Joined: November 19th, 2016, 2:02 pm
Has thanked: 1195 times
Been thanked: 1280 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341308

Postby richfool » September 19th, 2020, 9:28 am

xeny wrote:The arrangement you're thinking of transmits the network across the mains wiring - so you need a unit near the router, with typically a wired connection to it.

The remote unit then receives the signal from the wiring and transmits it wirelessly, so you can put it right at the location with no signal.


Plusnet recommended that type of arrangement to me in an extended telephone conversation I had with them a few weeks ago (about my internet speed). He spoke of it using the mains wiring, and told me to plug one unit in at a main's socket next to the router and the other unit at a socket closest to my computer (laptop on a desk). Thus the wifi signal has virtually no distance to travel.

I haven't got round to investigating it yet and wasn't quite sure what to call them if I enquire at the local Currys store.

scrumpyjack
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 4814
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 10:15 am
Has thanked: 606 times
Been thanked: 2675 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341316

Postby scrumpyjack » September 19th, 2020, 9:58 am

richfool wrote:
xeny wrote:The arrangement you're thinking of transmits the network across the mains wiring - so you need a unit near the router, with typically a wired connection to it.

The remote unit then receives the signal from the wiring and transmits it wirelessly, so you can put it right at the location with no signal.


Plusnet recommended that type of arrangement to me in an extended telephone conversation I had with them a few weeks ago (about my internet speed). He spoke of it using the mains wiring, and told me to plug one unit in at a main's socket next to the router and the other unit at a socket closest to my computer (laptop on a desk). Thus the wifi signal has virtually no distance to travel.

I haven't got round to investigating it yet and wasn't quite sure what to call them if I enquire at the local Currys store.


Powerline adapter kit

eg
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-PA4010KIT-P ... 147&sr=8-6

mc2fool
Lemon Half
Posts: 7812
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:24 am
Has thanked: 7 times
Been thanked: 3017 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341326

Postby mc2fool » September 19th, 2020, 10:30 am

scrumpyjack wrote:
richfool wrote:
xeny wrote:The arrangement you're thinking of transmits the network across the mains wiring - so you need a unit near the router, with typically a wired connection to it.

The remote unit then receives the signal from the wiring and transmits it wirelessly, so you can put it right at the location with no signal.


Plusnet recommended that type of arrangement to me in an extended telephone conversation I had with them a few weeks ago (about my internet speed). He spoke of it using the mains wiring, and told me to plug one unit in at a main's socket next to the router and the other unit at a socket closest to my computer (laptop on a desk). Thus the wifi signal has virtually no distance to travel.

I haven't got round to investigating it yet and wasn't quite sure what to call them if I enquire at the local Currys store.


Powerline adapter kit

eg
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-PA4010KIT-P ... 147&sr=8-6

That's for ethernet, doesn't do wifi.

scrumpyjack
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 4814
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 10:15 am
Has thanked: 606 times
Been thanked: 2675 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341331

Postby scrumpyjack » September 19th, 2020, 10:43 am

I used Solwise years ago, worked fine. Then attached BT Mesh wifi to it, also fine.

Ended up scrapping the lot when Sky Q came in and the wifi included with that and its miniboxes managed to cover the whole house so did not need powerline etc.

As mc2fool says , some powerline adaptors include wifi others don't so if you want it get one that includes it, though you can easily add a plug in wifi repeater later. They don't cost much.

bungeejumper
Lemon Half
Posts: 8064
Joined: November 8th, 2016, 2:30 pm
Has thanked: 2846 times
Been thanked: 3939 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341337

Postby bungeejumper » September 19th, 2020, 10:53 am

ReallyVeryFoolish wrote:Thoroughly recommend Devolo power line adapters. In this field, I would avoid cheap. I have previously used TP Link and another make I forget. The Devolo home plug adapters are head and shoulders above them. Look for multiple packs which can be very reasonable in cost.

What he said. :D We couldn't ever get our TP Link homeplugs to work reliably, but our Devolos (including a wifi outlet) have been faultless from day one. Definitely worth the extra.

Another wrinkle that can help is to ensure that your wifi socket is on the same ring main as your router. So our router was on the first floor circuit, and we got the best reception by also placing the wifi plug on the first floor, even though we wanted it to send the signal down to the TV set downstairs. If you mix and match your circuits, you may experience noise on the line. Fridges have a lot to answer for! :D

BJ

richfool
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3492
Joined: November 19th, 2016, 2:02 pm
Has thanked: 1195 times
Been thanked: 1280 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341343

Postby richfool » September 19th, 2020, 11:05 am

This is interesting. So is it advantageous to use such adaptors/plugs via the electric wiring and then "connect" wirelessly from the socket closest to one's computer by wifi, or to connect from that socket by ethernet cable? Do some products do one (wirelessly) and some the other (ethernet cable), or do they all do both?

Infrasonic
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 4479
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 2:25 pm
Has thanked: 644 times
Been thanked: 1260 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341351

Postby Infrasonic » September 19th, 2020, 11:26 am

These days with Gigabit symmetrical FTTP/H and cable internet becoming available bear in mind that things like powerline are going to get you about a third of their advertised headline bandwidth at best.
In the past not an issue as your ISP would be the bottleneck, but these days look for the latest spec powerline and read the reviews to see if it actually gets anywhere near it in the real world.
https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/c ... rline/view
https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/the-b ... e-adaptors

ReformedCharacter
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3120
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:12 am
Has thanked: 3591 times
Been thanked: 1509 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341358

Postby ReformedCharacter » September 19th, 2020, 11:55 am

bungeejumper wrote: Fridges have a lot to answer for! :D

BJ

That's certainly true, my son provides remote IT support for various large businesses and was asked to investigate a problem with a monitor randomly turning itself off. After his colleagues failed to diagnose the problem he asked for a photo of the cabling under the desk. Just visible on one side of the image was a fridge and when it was moved to another socket the problem disappeared. I think he was quite pleased to have fixed that one :)

RC

xeny
Lemon Slice
Posts: 450
Joined: April 13th, 2017, 11:37 am
Has thanked: 233 times
Been thanked: 154 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341364

Postby xeny » September 19th, 2020, 12:10 pm

richfool wrote:This is interesting. So is it advantageous to use such adaptors/plugs via the electric wiring and then "connect" wirelessly from the socket closest to one's computer by wifi, or to connect from that socket by ethernet cable? Do some products do one (wirelessly) and some the other (ethernet cable), or do they all do both?


Some products are wireless only at the remote end, some wired only, some both. If you've got the choice and it is convenient, I'd always pick wired - it is one less thing that may play up, but of course quite a lot of thin/light laptops don't have wired ethernet ports.

Infrasonic
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 4479
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 2:25 pm
Has thanked: 644 times
Been thanked: 1260 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341368

Postby Infrasonic » September 19th, 2020, 12:29 pm

xeny wrote:
richfool wrote:This is interesting. So is it advantageous to use such adaptors/plugs via the electric wiring and then "connect" wirelessly from the socket closest to one's computer by wifi, or to connect from that socket by ethernet cable? Do some products do one (wirelessly) and some the other (ethernet cable), or do they all do both?


Some products are wireless only at the remote end, some wired only, some both. If you've got the choice and it is convenient, I'd always pick wired - it is one less thing that may play up, but of course quite a lot of thin/light laptops don't have wired ethernet ports.


You can get USB to Ethernet adapters.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/usb-ethernet-a ... et+adapter

richfool
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3492
Joined: November 19th, 2016, 2:02 pm
Has thanked: 1195 times
Been thanked: 1280 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341393

Postby richfool » September 19th, 2020, 4:12 pm

Infrasonic wrote:
xeny wrote:
richfool wrote:This is interesting. So is it advantageous to use such adaptors/plugs via the electric wiring and then "connect" wirelessly from the socket closest to one's computer by wifi, or to connect from that socket by ethernet cable? Do some products do one (wirelessly) and some the other (ethernet cable), or do they all do both?


Some products are wireless only at the remote end, some wired only, some both. If you've got the choice and it is convenient, I'd always pick wired - it is one less thing that may play up, but of course quite a lot of thin/light laptops don't have wired ethernet ports.


You can get USB to Ethernet adapters.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/usb-ethernet-a ... et+adapter

This below appears to cover both options (wi-fi and ethernet cable connections), but doesn't one need two adaptors, - one next to the router and one near the computer? Otherwise, doesn't that one adapter just supplement the existing router?

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing ... 3-pdt.html

If so, would this be better?
http://www.broadbandbuyer.com/store/hom ... ine/?t=409

xeny
Lemon Slice
Posts: 450
Joined: April 13th, 2017, 11:37 am
Has thanked: 233 times
Been thanked: 154 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341402

Postby xeny » September 19th, 2020, 5:50 pm

richfool wrote:If so, would this be better?
http://www.broadbandbuyer.com/store/hom ... ine/?t=409


I'd have thought you'd want two units, one of each.

One with just wired to go at the router end, and one with wifi as well to go at the "far" end.

How fast is the broadband you want to extend? That will govern if the 550 is enough (essentially under 100mbit/sec), or you want to spend the extra on the 1200+

If you've got a home NAS or similar, you probably will want the faster speed regardless.

richfool
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3492
Joined: November 19th, 2016, 2:02 pm
Has thanked: 1195 times
Been thanked: 1280 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341415

Postby richfool » September 19th, 2020, 8:26 pm

xeny wrote:
richfool wrote:If so, would this be better?
http://www.broadbandbuyer.com/store/hom ... ine/?t=409


I'd have thought you'd want two units, one of each.

One with just wired to go at the router end, and one with wifi as well to go at the "far" end.

How fast is the broadband you want to extend? That will govern if the 550 is enough (essentially under 100mbit/sec), or you want to spend the extra on the 1200+

If you've got a home NAS or similar, you probably will want the faster speed regardless.

The starter packs include the two units needed.

My broadband isn't that fast, download speed using wi-fi is something like 30Mbs. The Plusnet engineer told me that the wi-fi within the house is the weakest link, so using these adaptors would enable me to use an Ethernet cable to my laptop in the living room and bump up the wireless speeds to the various phones and tablets within the household.

I have turned my attention to this starter kit, (the 9633 comprises the 9292 550 Duo+ and the 9626 dLAN 550):

http://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/ ... volo-9633/

didds
Lemon Half
Posts: 5244
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 12:04 pm
Has thanked: 3244 times
Been thanked: 1018 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341479

Postby didds » September 20th, 2020, 11:12 am

richfool wrote:
I haven't got round to investigating it yet and wasn't quite sure what to call them if I enquire at the local Currys store.



amongst other tjhings they get called is "homeplugs".

As mooted this aldi deal is more like a amplifier/relay ... it sits within range of existing wifi and rebroadcasts it "further".

You may also be interested in investigating mesh which is a siilar concept as i understand it to extenders

richfool
Lemon Quarter
Posts: 3492
Joined: November 19th, 2016, 2:02 pm
Has thanked: 1195 times
Been thanked: 1280 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341495

Postby richfool » September 20th, 2020, 12:36 pm

didds wrote:
richfool wrote:
I haven't got round to investigating it yet and wasn't quite sure what to call them if I enquire at the local Currys store.

amongst other tjhings they get called is "homeplugs".

As mooted this aldi deal is more like a amplifier/relay ... it sits within range of existing wifi and rebroadcasts it "further".

You may also be interested in investigating mesh which is a siilar concept as i understand it to extenders


This is what I've turned my attention to:
Devolo 9633 HomePlug AV2 500

The devolo 9633 dLAN 550 AV 500 WiFi Powerline/HomePlug Starter Kit with range+ Technology provides fast, high-performance Internet connections with significantly longer ranges.

This devolo 9633 dLAN 550 WiFi Powerline/HomePlug Starter Kit uses your household electrical wiring to bring you the Internet to any room. Thanks to the intelligent WiFi Move Technology in the HomePlug, all terminal devices are also automatically connected to the network, giving you top performance WiFi reception for smartphones, tablets etc. in all rooms and on every floor.

Key Features

Kit includes 1 x devolo 9292 550 Duo+ and 1 x devolo 9626 dLAN 550.
dLAN 550 WiFi brings the Internet to any corner of your home over the electrical wiring.
Top performance WiFi reception for smartphones, tablets, etc. at speeds of up to 300 Mbps.
Powerline connection over the electrical wiring at speeds of up to 500 Mbps.
devolo range+ for even greater performance and extended range.

LAN port lets you connect another Internet-compatible device (e.g. game console or smart TV) to the Internet.
Compact design for convenient placement throughout the home, at any power socket.
WiFi Move Technology can automatically connect multiple WiFi adapters to a single WiFi network.
Optimal WiFi reception throughout your home—entirely automated.
devolo app helps you perfectly manage your personal home network to meet all your needs.

http://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/ ... volo-9633/

mc2fool
Lemon Half
Posts: 7812
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 11:24 am
Has thanked: 7 times
Been thanked: 3017 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341505

Postby mc2fool » September 20th, 2020, 1:26 pm

richfool wrote:My broadband isn't that fast, download speed using wi-fi is something like 30Mbs. The Plusnet engineer told me that the wi-fi within the house is the weakest link, so using these adaptors would enable me to use an Ethernet cable to my laptop in the living room and bump up the wireless speeds to the various phones and tablets within the household.

I have turned my attention to this starter kit, (the 9633 comprises the 9292 550 Duo+ and the 9626 dLAN 550):

http://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/ ... volo-9633/

2.4GHz WiFi 300Mbps, Ethernet 10/100 Mbps. So, is your usage pretty much exclusively out to the wide world, i.e. the internet? Or do you also have some LAN usage, i.e. device-to-device within your home network?

If only out to the internet then the kit you are looking at should be sufficient (assuming it performs reasonably), as your broadband connection will be the limiting factor.

It would also be sufficient if you have within your LAN usage but all of your kit is old-ish tech, 2.4GHz 300Mbps WiFi and just 100Mbps ethernet. However, if you have more modern faster kit and more than just the occasional within your LAN usage then you might consider getting faster adaptors.

Of course, there's also the matter of real world performance. I have no experience with the devolo and folks in this thread have given positive recommendations, so I imagine they're ok. I've got a pair of D-Link ones (given to me for free by my ISP with my YouView box, as my TV is the other side of the room to the router), and on trying them out was disappointed to only get 40-50Mbps through them between two PCs. Wondering if that might be 'cos of the wiring in the house I plugged them both into a four way mains extension lead, side by side, and got the same result. (While that would be enough for the YouView box, in the end I just bought a long ethernet cable...)

didds
Lemon Half
Posts: 5244
Joined: November 4th, 2016, 12:04 pm
Has thanked: 3244 times
Been thanked: 1018 times

Re: Wi-fi extender socket at Aldi

#341620

Postby didds » September 21st, 2020, 8:04 am

mc2fool wrote:That's for ethernet, doesn't do wifi.


youc an get wifi homeplugs that use the mains power line connection to the router5 then provide wifi from their unit. Properly configured they provide a seamless wifi offering throughout a property on the same SSID and password

Or you can connect a local wifi access point (eg old b/band router suitable configured) to the homeplug for a similar solution.

didds


Return to “Technology - Computers, TV, Phones etc.”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests