My home WiFi is slow and has dead spots. Can it be fixed?

One room where video calls fall apart. The far end of the garden where nothing loads. A bedroom that works if you stand by the window.

This is one of the most common things we’re asked about, and it’s worth saying up front: it is usually not a broadband problem, and upgrading your broadband package usually won’t fix it.

Slow broadband or bad coverage?

These are different problems with different fixes, and people spend money on the wrong one constantly.

Run a speed test standing next to the router, then run the same test in the bad room.

Slow in both — that’s your broadband. Talk to your provider.

Fine by the router, poor in the bad room — that’s coverage. A faster package makes no difference; you’ll just have faster broadband that still can’t reach the back bedroom.

Why coverage fails

WiFi is radio, and it doesn’t travel well through certain things. In a typical house the culprits are thick or stone walls, anything with foil-backed insulation, mirrors, large appliances, and — very commonly — the router being in the worst possible place.

Routers usually sit where the phone line enters the house, which is often a hallway corner or under the stairs. That’s convenient for the installer and terrible for coverage.

Free things to try first

• Move the router. Higher, more central, out in the open. Not in a cupboard, not behind the TV, not on the floor. This alone often fixes it.
• Check the 5GHz band. Modern routers broadcast two networks. 5GHz is faster but travels less far; 2.4GHz is slower but reaches further. If your device clings to the wrong one in a distant room, that’s your problem.
• Look at what’s nearby. Microwaves, baby monitors and cordless phones all interfere.
• Count the devices. A modern household can have thirty things on WiFi. An old router struggles.

What actually fixes it

If moving the router doesn’t do it, there are three real options, and they’re not equal.

A mesh system. Two or three units around the house acting as one network, handing your devices between them as you move. This is what we recommend in most homes — it solves coverage properly rather than patching it.

Powerline adapters. Send the network over your mains wiring to a distant room. Good for one stubborn room, and cheaper. Performance depends on your wiring, so it varies house to house.

A WiFi extender. The cheapest option and usually the one we’d steer you away from. Extenders typically halve the speed and often create a second network you have to switch between manually. They’re better than nothing and worse than everything else.

Some routers supplied by broadband providers are simply not very good. If yours is several years old, replacing it can transform things on its own.

What we do

We come out, test the signal properly in each room rather than guessing, and tell you whether it’s a placement problem, a router problem, a coverage problem or genuinely a broadband problem. Then we fit and configure whatever it needs — one network name, one password, working everywhere.

Homes and businesses both, across Gerrards Cross and the surrounding area. Ring 01753 884700 and describe which rooms are bad — it’s usually enough for us to tell you what you’re likely looking at.