Do routers lose wifi broadcast range?  

Something to consider .... How to Extend Your Wifi Network With an Old Router

I'm just looking around.
The SSE supplied router seems to have a lot of problem threads.
This looks good and I'm reading through it now:
technicolor tg589vac owners thread | Overclockers UK Forums

Try this for logging into the router: Technicolor TG589vac - Wireless Settings

Just what I needed, thank you.
I'm still reading through vast comments on the thread I listed.
It seems that changing the wifi from auto to one of the other listed options gives better results.
I'll try that over the next day or two.
Broadband is like water in my house. If I cock something up I'm going to get killed.

Another factor that could be in play is other electronics using the same frequency band and interfering with the WiFi signal.

10 Ways to Boost Your Wi-Fi Signal | PCMag

Exactly what I'm thinking.
Next door neighbour has a BT router and 3 disc extenders. If I change my frequency I may recover.
You are a very bright and helpful chap.

For failing network hardware, I would run some tests and check for packet loss. It's very likely that packet loss will be a symptom of faulty networking hardware.

sean5302 said:

Exactly what I'm thinking.
Next door neighbour has a BT router and 3 disc extenders. If I change my frequency I may recover.
You are a very bright and helpful chap.

Thanks mate. Does your Android app show the different WiFi channels and router SSIDs? That would let you see the interference from other routers. I've used that before to set my channels as you're thinking.

Yes, there are 5 local wifi channels and 2 of them have signal strengths as large as my own.
Given that they are between 40 metres and 100 metres from my house I don't know whether that's good or bad. I mean, if someone can broadcast 100m with a strong signal through umpteen brick walls, it suggests the technology is good and the problem is that my router is on its way out.
I selected 4 different channels on my router (of 12) rather than auto. Nothing made any difference, so my router looks dodgy.

In terms of packet sniffing, I noticed that when I downloaded large Rar files, on attempting to unzip them using Winrar, the files were corrupt and I had to download them by Cat5 cable, so something's wrong.