Wi-Fi and home networks
Poor Wi-Fi, dead spots and buffering — we find out what is causing it
Wi-Fi trouble is the thing we get called out for most. It is also the hardest thing to sort out over the phone, because the answer is usually somewhere in the building rather than in a setting. So we come to the house, find the cause, and fix it where it can be fixed on the day.
Not sure what is causing it? That is fine — tell us what you are seeing and we will work it out.
Sound familiar?
The problems people describe to us
You do not need to know which of these it is, or what any of it is called. Recognising your own house in the list is enough to get started.
- Wi-Fi that works in one room and not the next
- A film that buffers every few minutes, usually at the worst moment
- Everything crawling when the whole house is online at once
- Devices that say they are connected, but nothing loads
- A smart TV, doorbell or speaker that keeps dropping off the network
- A mesh system that was supposed to fix all this and has not
- Video calls that freeze in the garden office
- Wi-Fi that only comes back after somebody restarts the router
- A work laptop or VPN that will not stay connected at home
What we look at
A Wi-Fi visit is a measurement, not a guess
Restarting the router and hoping is what everyone has already tried. This is what we do instead, and roughly in this order.
What the line is really delivering
The speed arriving at the router, next to what you are paying for. If the broadband itself is the problem, no amount of Wi-Fi work will fix it, and you need to know that before anyone starts moving equipment.
Whether it is the line, the router or the house
Three very different problems that feel identical from the sofa. Separating them is most of the job, and it decides whether the answer is a phone call to your provider, a setting, or a bit of cable.
Signal in the rooms you actually use
Measured where the trouble is — the back bedroom, the kitchen, the top of the house, the garden office — not standing next to the router where everything always looks fine.
How crowded the airwaves are
In a terrace, a semi or a flat your neighbours' Wi-Fi is part of your problem. We look at which channels are congested and whether your router has parked itself on the busiest one.
Where the router is sitting
Usually wherever the engineer found a socket: a hallway, a cupboard, behind the television. It is one of the few things that can be improved in minutes, and it is often worth more than new equipment.
How your devices are behaving
Phones, TVs and smart devices choose which access point to hold on to, and they are not always sensible about it. A device clinging to a distant node looks exactly like a broken network.
What is still in the loop from last time
Old extenders, powerline adapters, a second router left in the wrong mode, a provider box doing a job it should have stopped doing. Removing something is often the fix.
Whether a cable could go where it matters
Wi-Fi has to cross the house; a cable does not. We look at whether a run is practical — along a skirting, through a loft, out to an outbuilding — because that is what turns a patched-up network into a reliable one.
What it usually is
What it usually turns out to be
Not a diagnosis — we have not seen your house. But if your Wi-Fi is misbehaving, the cause is very often on this list.
The router is in the wrong place
By the front door, in a cupboard, or behind a television — so half the signal never reaches the rooms that need it.
The house is fighting the signal
Stone walls, foil-backed insulation, a chimney breast, an extension or a converted loft. Older Wakefield housing stock is genuinely harder work than a new build.
Everyone nearby is on the same channel
Common in terraces and flats. The connection looks strong and still behaves badly, because the airtime is shared with the neighbours.
Extenders and powerline adapters
They keep the bars up while quietly halving the speed they pass on, which is why a house full of them can feel worse than a house with none.
A mesh system set up hopefully rather than deliberately
Nodes too far apart to hear each other, or so close they duplicate coverage, or joined to the network in a way that puts every device an extra hop from the internet.
One device dragging on the rest
An old laptop, a camera uploading constantly, or something quietly retrying all day. It shows up as everyone else's Wi-Fi being slow.
The broadband line itself
Sometimes the network is fine and the line is not. Then the fix belongs to your provider, and we will tell you what to say to them so you are not fobbed off.
Not the Wi-Fi at all
The app, the streaming box, the TV or the account. Worth ruling out before anybody buys equipment, which is why we test rather than assume.
How it gets fixed
Cheapest first, because that is often the answer
Nobody needs selling a mesh system for a problem that a better position and a changed channel would solve. We work down this list in order.
Move it, change it, remove it
Plenty of Wi-Fi trouble ends here: the router in a better place, a setting corrected, a channel changed, an old extender taken out. No new equipment, and nothing to buy.
Mesh Wi-Fi, set up properly
The right answer where running cable is not practical. It matters which system, how many nodes, and where they go — a mesh put in badly can be worse than the single router it replaced.
Access points and a bit of cable
The most reliable option, and the one we would choose for our own house. An access point on a cable, mounted where the coverage is needed. We run and clip the cable ourselves.
Getting a real connection down the garden
A garden office, workshop or annexe needs a connection that holds up for a full day of video calls. Usually that means a proper cable out to it rather than hoping the house Wi-Fi stretches.
We will not sell you equipment you do not need. Where new hardware genuinely is the answer, you can buy it yourself on our recommendation or we can source and supply it — and the cost is agreed with you before anything is bought.
Streaming, TV and VPNs
Buffering is usually the network, not the app
A film that stalls halfway through, a streaming stick that will not load, a work VPN that keeps dropping — these are network problems far more often than they are app problems, so we test the network first.
What we help with
- Streaming devices such as Fire TV, Roku, Chromecast and Apple TV set up and connected
- Buffering, freezing and poor picture quality traced back to the network
- Streaming apps that will not load, will not sign in, or keep signing out
- A VPN that will not connect or slows everything down, where the cause is the network or the device
We help with the equipment, the connection and the apps. The subscriptions themselves need to be your own, from the official providers. We do not set up or support unofficial or unlicensed television services, modified or preloaded streaming devices and getting around a provider's blocks, licensing or regional restrictions.
What happens
What a Wi-Fi visit actually looks like
Up to 60 minutes at the house, in four parts. You are there for all of it, and nothing gets bought or changed without you knowing why.
- 1
You describe what you are seeing
Which rooms, which devices, what time of day, and what has changed recently. A photo of the router and whatever it is plugged into helps more than you would think.
- 2
We test the house, not just the router
Line speed, signal where the trouble is, channel congestion, how the devices are connecting, and what is left over from previous attempts.
- 3
We fix what can be fixed there and then
Placement, settings, removing what is getting in the way, re-doing a mesh setup properly. Where that is enough, the visit ends here.
- 4
Anything bigger gets a plan and a price
If it needs cable, access points or new equipment, you get what we would do and what it would cost — as a decision to make in your own time, not a bill you did not expect.
Pricing
£49to start
That is where a home visit starts.
You will know the price before we come out
What a job comes to depends on what it turns out to be. A single device that will not connect is a very different afternoon from wiring a network through a house.
So we do it the other way round: tell us what is going wrong, and we will tell you what we think it is and what it will cost. If it turns out to be bigger than that once we are there, we will stop and talk to you before doing anything else.
Areas covered
Local, and we mean local
If you are not sure whether we cover where you live, just ask — it costs you nothing to check, and you will get a straight answer either way.
- Wakefield
- Ossett
- Horbury
- Sandal
- Walton
- Crofton
- Normanton
- Stanley
- Rothwell
Plus nearby villages and areas.
Get in touch
Tell us what the Wi-Fi is doing
Which rooms, which devices, and what it does when it goes wrong. A photo of the router and whatever it is plugged into is genuinely useful too.