No Wi-Fi upstairs : what are the options ?

Wi-Fi travels poorly through three things : concrete, metal and water. A concrete floor between two storeys, an old load-bearing wall or a metal services cupboard stops the signal far more effectively than distance itself.

First, the free options

Move the router. Sitting on the floor, in a closed cupboard, behind a television or in the hallway of a long, narrow home, it loses much of its range. High up, in the open, as central as possible : that move alone is sometimes enough to cover the upper floor.

Then separate the two bands in the router's interface, giving the 2.4 GHz network its own name. It carries further than 5 GHz : in distant rooms, connecting to it deliberately gives a slower but steady link, which is better than a 5 GHz that keeps dropping.

The four solutions, and when to choose them

• A Wi-Fi repeater. The cheapest, and the most disappointing. It halves the speed and can only rebroadcast a signal it receives properly : put it where reception is poor and it achieves nothing. Keep it for small flats with a single weak spot, placed halfway to the router.
• Powerline adapters. Two units that carry the network through the electrical wiring. Excellent value for reaching an upper floor or an isolated room, provided both sockets are on the same circuit and the same meter. Performance falls off if the consumer unit is old, or if the adapters are plugged into a power strip - they have to go straight into the wall.
• A mesh system with several points. Several access points that coordinate with each other and let you move from room to room without dropping. The best answer for a house on several floors, and the most expensive. Ideally the main unit is linked to the router by a cable.
• A network cable. The most reliable and the cheapest per metre. A discreet cable along a skirting board or through an existing conduit gives a result no wireless solution will match. Combine it with an access point upstairs to cover the area.

Check before you spend

A signal-measuring app on a phone lets you record the strength room by room. That saves installing a repeater where it will receive nothing, and discovering after purchase that an upstairs socket is on a different circuit.

If the connection is poor everywhere, including next to the router, it is not a coverage problem - see slow internet or unstable Wi-Fi.

Letting us handle the installation

We measure the coverage at your place, test whether powerline will work on your electrical installation, and propose what genuinely suits rather than what costs most. Supply, installation and setup in Lyon and across the Rhone.

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