Questions about WiFi installation

It depends on the building, not a flat package. A small plasterboard house with the router in the right room is a different job from a three-storey Cotswold cottage or a shop with a guest network. AKM Aerials gives a free estimate before any work starts, and the quote lists the access points, cabling and what the 5-year guarantee covers. Call 07825 913917 and describe the property.

Yes. We are based at 7 Sherwood Road, Tetbury, GL8 8BU, and install WiFi across the county: Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stroud, Cirencester, Tewkesbury, the Cotswolds and the Forest of Dean, plus the villages between them. If you are on the county edge, call and we will say honestly whether we can take the job.

A shop-bought mesh kit can be enough in a compact modern house with light walls, if the pods can talk to each other. In stone, thick plaster, barn conversions and anything with an annexe, wireless hops usually disappoint. We prefer access points with a cable back to the router wherever a route exists. The survey decides it — we will not sell you a mesh system that the walls will defeat.

Not reliably, and not by adding another booster. Stone, flint and lime plaster stop 5 GHz quickly, and 2.4 GHz only crawls. The fix is a designed layout: cable to an access point on each floor, and a separate run for a garden room, office or annexe. We do this every week in cottages around Tetbury, Cirencester, Stow, Painswick and the rest of the Cotswolds.

Yes. We design the WiFi around the connection you already pay for, whether that is Openreach fibre, Virgin Media, a local alt-net or satellite broadband such as Starlink. If a speed test next to the router is already slow, that is a line problem and we will say so before you spend money on more access points.

We fit the system that suits the building. That is often UniFi or Omada where we want cabled ceiling access points, DrayTek where a business needs tighter control, and Eero or Deco where a simpler mesh with wired backhaul is the right call. We are independent of those manufacturers.

Yes. Indoor routers do not survive weather and they do not punch through a stone gable. We fit outdoor-rated access points on a proper cable, aimed at the terrace, hot tub, office pod, stable or holiday annexe. Tell us which outdoor areas actually need a signal so we do not overbuild.

Yes. Shops, offices, cafés, pubs, salons, workshops and holiday lets need a guest network kept apart from tills, card machines and private files. We plan capacity for a full room of phones, not just a quiet Tuesday, and we test roaming so calls do not drop between rooms.

A straightforward home with two or three access points is often finished in a day, including the room-by-room test. Loft pulls through a terraced roof, external runs to a barn, or a live shop that has to stay open can take longer. Same-day visits are sometimes possible — ask when you call 07825 913917.

For a one-bedroom flat, often a phone conversation is enough. For stone houses, offices, lets and anywhere an extender has already failed, an on-site survey saves buying the wrong kit. We look at where the broadband enters, how the walls are built, and where people actually work and stream.

That pattern almost always means the WiFi, not the provider. The router is often in an understairs cupboard at the wrong end of the house, or a booster is repeating a weak signal. We measure it, then cable access points to the rooms that matter.

Yes. AKM Aerials is the Gloucestershire aerial, satellite and networking company. This site is the WiFi installation side of the same business, on the same number. TV aerials, Sky, Freesat, home cinema and CCTV are still available — mention them when you call, or see akmaerials.co.uk.