I'm trying to set up a wireless network in an old building with very thick walls. The 80Mbps VDSL2 connection arrives in possibly the worst place in the building - a router placed within a sensible cable's reach from the phone socket will still leave at least 3-4 feet of solid stone wall between it and most of the client devices. I've been experimenting with Powerline to extend the network into other parts of the building but this is proving unreliable and some older devices have difficulty switching between the two wireless networks.
I have been thinking of relocating the router to a more central location and installing a basic modem next to the incoming VDSL2 line and running a gigabit ethernet cable to the router's WAN port to distribute it, but I'm getting out of my networking comfort zone and don't have much time or budget to experiment much. Would this be a good solution, and if so, are there any particular features I should look for in a modem? I'm in the UK.