

to expect my wifi to work in my back garden?

(26 Posts)
freddiefrog Mon 22-Apr-13 11:22:36

Its a lovely day here so took my laptop and a cup of tea out to the garden to catch up on emails.

Except I can't get wifi out there

I was sitting on the patio by the back door, so not at the bottom of a 200 foot garden or anything and I live in a 3 bed semi so the router is a dining room and a living room's-worth away from me

Sky seem to think I'm unreasonable for wanting to use the wifi anywhere other than sitting on the sofa right next to the box.

freddiefrog Mon 22-Apr-13 16:12:16


Cailinsalach Mon 22-Apr-13 16:11:31

I was going to say yabu. Expecting your wife to do the gardening.
Then I put my glasses on......

freddiefrog Mon 22-Apr-13 16:08:32

We did try moving the box to a more central position in the house, but it didn't make it any better.

We ended up with extension cables all over the place, so moved it back to it's original position - corner of living room next to the BT socket.

We don't have particularly thick walls, our downstairs is open plan and from where I was sitting there was a completely open run between the router and me.

Sky seemed to think that wifi that could only be used a few feet away from the box was perfectly acceptable, so I'm guessing it's just the way it is, the didn't suggest it may be a dodgy box or anything iyswim. Am on the hunt for a booster so will give that a try


StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes Mon 22-Apr-13 14:54:06

we recently got Virgin and it works everywhere but upstairs in the study. engineer came out and found if he moved the box to our kitchen it would work but would involve lots of drilling through walls and cable issues, he assured us that when he gets the new routers that they are going to use he would call in with one and thinks that will work, if not let the drilling commence.

nokidshere Mon 22-Apr-13 13:13:43

Mine workes all over my house and garden and next door at my mums grin

freddiefrog Mon 22-Apr-13 13:11:23


We did try and plug the old BT router in but it didn't work.

I'll get one of those boosters

Failing that, I have a techie friend who I'll ask to have a look at it for me. I haven't got a clue what GHz it is, it doesn't say on the box and there aren't any switches that I can see

Thanks again!

MiaowTheCat Mon 22-Apr-13 12:51:59

Our Sky router was crap (but does work in the car parked outside our house - not at the other end of the living room though) so we ended up piggybacking our old router onto it a bit of a distance away so we've basically got two wifi networks in the house - wifi in garden, wifi halfway down the street as a result.

Snorbs Mon 22-Apr-13 12:02:07

I don't know about the Sky router in particular but modern wireless routers often can operate at two different signal frequencies at the same time - 2.4GHz or 5GHz. 5GHz is better in some techie respects but it doesn't penetrate through walls etc as well as 2.4GHz does.

It might be worth seeing if you can turn off the 5GHz option on your laptop or in the Sky router to force it to use 2.4GHz and see if that improves matters.

LondonMan Mon 22-Apr-13 11:53:55

I think the Sky router is a good one, so it's probably something about your property. Either the signal is getting blocked, or maybe someone elses signal is interfering. In the latter case, using a different channel can apparently help. Don't remember the details, but there may be some help on the Sky site.

Mine used to work in the front room of my local across the street. grin

I don't think there's a lot they can do, though - sometimes you get a blind spot because there's a really thick wall or a lot of interference, I think?

Mine works in front and back garden, in my neighbours house and gardens and so far down the street!


MrsDonaldDraper Mon 22-Apr-13 11:49:29

We've got a booster for ours - we plug it in upstairs which gives a better strength

OvO Mon 22-Apr-13 11:48:39

I can sit at the bottom of my garden 60ft away and get online. <smug bastard emoticon> wink

We had a million problems with ours for the first 3 years of moving in so this is my payback. I'm totally due some wifi luck from B(astarding)T.

Jins Mon 22-Apr-13 11:47:41

Have you still got your bt router. You may be able to put the sky connection details into it.

LiquidCheese Mon 22-Apr-13 11:45:06

Lead lined walls?

HoneyDragon Mon 22-Apr-13 11:36:42

I'd like it in the bathroom. Because its small and not out the way and its weird that it doesn't work there.

Jins Mon 22-Apr-13 11:35:17

Some routers are useless. I've got a repeater on mine which cost about 15 on ebuyer but I'm about to buy power line plugs with built in wifi. That should cover everywhere

freddiefrog Mon 22-Apr-13 11:32:15

No, I don't live in a massive house, I was no more than 7 metres away from the router.

It does work upstairs in my bedroom, where I'm probably further away than I am on the patio.

We used to be with BT and it was fine, I could get it from my next-door-but-1 neighbour's house, DH changed to Sky and it's been rubbish.

ScarlettInSpace England Mon 22-Apr-13 11:30:08

Mine works everywhere in the house, and when I'm sat in the car on the drive but stops as soon as I set foot out of the back door confused as the crow flies the distance is shorter to SD's bedroom than it is to the back door not that any crow would last 2 seconds flying through my house with 2 cats and a puppydog

Has been the same with EE as it was with Sky so who knows - maybe the back wall is thicker than the front confused

livinginwonderland Mon 22-Apr-13 11:28:40

we have TalkTalk and ours works everywhere. we have a three storey, four bedroom house and a TINY garden, but it still works even if it cuts out at least three times an hour

IllegalYoniFarm Mon 22-Apr-13 11:26:27

I would expect it to yes, but like someone else said, i live in a bungalow and it doesnt work in our bedroom or one end of the kitchen, im not more than 5m away in either case!

Mine doesn't work outside either (BT)

LiquidCheese Mon 22-Apr-13 11:25:42

Mine does. I am right now. Do you have a massive house?

5madthings Mon 22-Apr-13 11:24:42

Mine works in my back garden but not my front garden...

raffle Netherlands Mon 22-Apr-13 11:23:35

Mine doesn't even work upstairs never mind outside, it's a PITA

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