Extending TV to another room

There are 6 replies in this Thread which has previously been viewed 1,495 times. The latest Post () was by serafina.

1st Official Post

    I am currently in a furnished temporary apartment for six months. I have a couple of problems starting out and could use some help or advice.


    1. The internet connection is shared amongst the 7 apartments in the building. While it sometimes works ok, there are drastic dips where it disconnects or won't work for 30 mins. I have two kids doing Zoom classes, my wife studying online, and I work online. Not to mention, entertainment etc.

    • So, are there any devices available here that allow me to set up my own Wi-Fi such as from 4G?
    • And, what about Wi-Fi repeaters/extenders. Do these really work?

    Perhaps the owner will let me connect our own internet but I have my doubt.


    2. There is only one small TV in the living room. That's fine because I brought my TVs for the kids rooms and ours. Problem is, there is no cable in the rooms. Honestly, that's not a problem for me but it is for the kids and wife. I know I can extend the cable, but doing so in this apartment layout would require some holes and maybe drilling, which I don't want to do in a temporary place.


    Does anyone know how I can get the basic cable channles (mostly the Argentine ones would be fine), are there any products that allow it, or any online services. We all have smart TVs.

    I know zero about either question, Semigoodlooking , so am sorry I can’t help. But I do want to wish you well in your new apartment. During the quarantine, while I’ve accomplished exactly nothing, you have carried on with work and have located and moved into a new place. I hope it is a good fit for your family and you enjoy living there.

    • Official Post

    When you say 'shared', is that shared over WiFi?

    What is the average speed and who is it with?

    If you have a good 4G signal you could consider a a 4G modem/router, but your data allowance will be gobbled up very fast.

    If you have smart TVs, you can cast to them from your phone. I've done that with YouTube successfully.

    Quite frankly, you're much better off getting your own Internet service, but of course, it depends on how long you plan on staying in that flat.

    • Official Post

    About temporary internet, when we used to go the Mar del Plata apartment we put Cablevisión for three months and it worked well. Provided you can access the cable box of the building, of course, and so you'd need the owner's permission to do so.

    We returned the modem-router the day before leaving to the Cablevisión office directly.


    Since it was a old building, the first year the technician had to update some cables/filters.


    About Wi-Fi, here in Argentina I have only the Telecentro modem-router and the coverage is good enough for the whole apartment (our unit is on two floors). There is a normal network and a 5G network. The last technician explained that 5G is faster but has a shorter range. This matches our observation because on the upper floor all devices are connected to the normal network, which has 2 bars out of three on our phones, whereas the 5G only has 1 bar.


    In Italy I used a repeated over electric plugs. I can't remember how they are called in either language, I think it was something like ethernet over electrical network (?). They are basically plastic boxes that you plug in the electricity socket with a RJ door.

    The first box is cabled to the router through the RJ connector, the other boxes are plugged to the electrical socket where you want, and cabled to the end-user device.

    At my mother's, I cabled it to a Wi-Fi repeater. The reason why I didn't simply buy a WiFi repeater was because I didn't want an antenna under her bed (the main internet access was in her bedroom, next to her night stand).


    This was 8 years ago and perhaps the technology has improved.

    • Official Post
    Quote from Splinter

    TP Link call it Powerline and it's very effective.

    https://www.tp-link.com/uk/powerline/

    But you need cable access to a router.

    That's it! Exactly.

    Also to keep mind: for better performance, only the powerline box should be connected to a single plug. It shouldn't be connected on multiple plug adapters or similar devices.


    From the link Splinter posted, I can see that now are available Wifi Powerline devices, so that there is no need to buy a second router/access point.


    And Splinter is also correct about home 5G router and devices.

    My Brother laser printer doesn't work on 5G, so my main computer is connected to the normal WiFi network, although 5G would be better downstairs. I can always switch between the two, however the difference in internet speed is not noticeable for my internet usage (no gaming, no movies) so I don't mind staying on the non-5G wifi.


    I see there are starter kits from 12 k ARS and upward on ML


    https://articulo.mercadolibre.…88-4c15-b268-88e65dfda842