Wi-fi range shrinking

[dudwell]

The wi-fi range of my Billion-8800NL router has diminished. It's over 4 years old, would it be sensible to replace it?

With a preference for keeping things simple I imagine one of those marketed by IdNet, the Billion 8200AXL would be ideal?

[nowster]

Could it be that your neighbours are using the same channels?

[nowster]

Incidentally, my parents' "Router" on iDNet is a Raspberry PI (their connection is 4Mbps) and the modem is running in PPPoE pass-through mode. Their WiFi access points are re-flashed D-Link DIR-614 boxes (really cheap off eBay). There's no need for anything fancier. Their nearest neighbour is 200yards away.

What I'd suggest is separating the WiFi access point from the router function.

My own situation at home with Virgin cable is that I've set their smarthub box set to modem mode, with a Linux mini-ITX box (with two 1Gbps ethernet ports) as router (and other things) and a couple of UniFi UAP-AC-Lite access points.

[dudwell]

Could it be that your neighbours are using the same channels?

Nearest neighbour is on a different channel, the rest are a good way away.

Thanks nowster but your other suggestions are a bit too advanced for this techno-idiot!

[peasblossom]

Not sure how this could be done with a router supplied by IDNet but this article suggests updating the firmware, amongst other things.

https://uk.pcmag.com/wireless-networking/9609/10-ways-to-boost-your-wi-fi-signal

[nowster]

I'd suggest experimenting with the placement of the all-in-one router-and-access-point.

Low power radio waves at 2.4GHz and 5GHz are extremely fickle things and are affected by pretty much anything in a room.