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I've recently moved into quite a large house (From where the router is based, it's approximately 22 meters to the other side of the house's door) and I've got the M500 package with Virgin Media. This guarantees an average of 500mbps download speed. I have confirmed this via ethernet.

What is the best possible way, excluding putting ethernet ports around the house/in the walls, to get the highest possible WiFi speed across all areas of the house?

I want a single SSID to connect to at all times.

I'm aware of WiFi Range extenders such as the TP-LINK RE650, which boasts speeds of up to 2,600 Mbps, but is there a way of forming a bridge of these so that even at the other end of the house, the signal is captured, duplicated and then extended that I can get 400 to 500mbps via WiFi?

Can I simply purchase multiple WiFi extenders and put them in every damn power socket that I see?

I have a powerline adaptor in another room circa 15m from the router and that is only getting circa 50 to 100mbps.

Cost is not a problem.

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    If "cost is not a problem," then do it right and don't half-a&& it... Get a few quality Wireless AP's and a POE switch and get some wire run. I would recommend something cloud managed like ZyXel Nebula or Ubiquity, and use one of their routers as well. Don't let that "2600 Mbps" extenders fool you, they don't work as good as you hope for... not even close.
    – acejavelin
    Commented Feb 26, 2020 at 20:37
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    +1 for Ubiquiti Unifi connected via proper wired ethernet with PoE. That's what you'll end up going for eventually anyway, so why wait
    – moo
    Commented Feb 26, 2020 at 21:38

2 Answers 2

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Estimate one AP of at least the AC1200 speed class, with gigabit Ethernet ports, for every 100 square meters of floor space, and at least 1 per floor.

Since cost is not a problem, hire someone to run Cat 6a cable inside your walls to wall jacks / faceplates, with all the lines running to a patch panel in some kind of wiring closet in a central location. Place a gigabit Ethernet switch by the patch panel and patch each of the in-use Ethernet drops to a port on the switch.

Either ceiling-mount your APs, or at least put them up at standing eye-level, out in the open, not in a cabinet or obstructed by furniture. Try to locate each AP in the center, not the edge or corner, of the floor space it's supposed to cover.

Wire up all your stationary devices, including smart TVs, APs, and IoT devices (especially video cams like video doorbells). This is to save your precious/scarce wireless bandwidth for actual mobile devices.

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    I can't reiterate the last paragraph of this answer enough... Hardwire EVERYTHING possible, not just because it's faster and more secure (A wired 1Gbps connection will outperform ANY commercial WiFi, period), but because it keeps that precious bandwidth available for devices that are actually mobile. So many people do not understand WiFi and how it works and we do evaluations and find 40+ devices connected to consumer grade router and people wonder why it sucks, always thinking it's their "Internet" connection when really they just don't have the proper solution for their needs.
    – acejavelin
    Commented Feb 26, 2020 at 21:45
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The best thing to do would be to get multiple wireless access points set up throughout the house, each with their own ethernet connection running back to the main router/switch (such as a Ubiquiti UniFi system).

However, since you said you don't want to run ethernet cables, you can use repeaters. You can configure most repeaters to rebroadcast the same SSID and password as the original network, although this can cause issues. You may also see limited speeds, even with the best repeaters. Repeaters are more of a band-aid solution than a real solution. This number will get even worse if you have one repeater repeat another repeater. You won't get anywhere close to 400Mbps.

It's probably best to just bite the bullet and run ethernet and access points if your home is that big. If you're paying for the fast internet, you might as well be able to use it all.

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  • Might want to make mention of dual radio repeaters, or this user will never reach 400mbps... Even in a perfect RF environment, there are theoretical speeds, like what is advertised. Then we have real world speeds, which would be much worse, and then be cut in half for a one radio repeater. Commented Feb 26, 2020 at 21:27

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