I'm after some thoughts on the best way to wirelessly connect once my extension is built.  I live in an 1800's cottage and the wifi in poor to say the least.  My current setup is the Netgear 'N' router in the louge (connected to my Sky, Wii, Media Player) with a wired connection in the wall, going upstairs to the study.  The wired connection was put in when the house was renovated 5yrs ago and has worked very well with my 8mbps broadband.  When my extension is completed, i will have a study downstairs (current study will become the nursery) but no wired connection.  The study isn't too far from my router but no wifi signal is availble.  i already have a Netgear WN3000RP repeater and Homeplug, my options are;

 

1) Use a Homeplug (I already have a set)

2) Put the wireless repeater half way betweeen router and PC and buy a wifi dongle for the PC

3) Option 3??

 

I do alot of downloading to the PC and stream alot of media from the PC to the TV in my lounge via the router.  I'd need to make sure that I could play a 4gb media file without any stutter.

 

Any help or thoughts would be appreciated

Never been a fan of wireless repeaters, by and large they are flakey and perform badly at best.

 

Homeplug would be the easiest, but the one that makes the most sense, especially as your having an extension built is run a couple of cat5e cables to the study. It will give you the quickest and most reliable connection.

^ wot he said.

 

Wireless is always a compromise and you never get near the performance you would like.

 

Copper such as Cat5E will always give the best performance and is well worth putting in if at all possible. If you get shielded cable you can run it next to power cables if that is easier. You also get armored cable you could run outside the building.

 

As mentioned powerine adapters are probably the next best option but they will very much be dependent on the quality of the electrical wiring in you house. Make sure you get a model that encrypts your traffic since the power cables will actually emit your data as radio signals. I think they pretty much all do this as standard now.

Unfortunately cat5 isn't an position as the extension is being built the other side of the house. Hopefully I can get it installed in the future but it sounds like power lines are the way forward

Powerline may be flaky if the wiring in the old part of the house is not good. Have tried it before with variable results. You may wish to try them out first before buying.

 

A future option would be to put a cat5e /cat6 cable upto the point where the new extension is and then see how you could do the rest of the cabling later. 

^ +1

 

A mix and match option is perfectly reasonable. You might be able to run cat5 to a point where wireless/powerline is viable.

New construction materials actually make wireless harder to use. Foil backed insulated sheetrock is pretty good at attenuating the signal.