Omi Posted December 17, 2006 Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 New laptop arrived yesterday, and it's lovely. Thing is, my front room is downstairs at the front and my wi-fi router is upstairs at the very back of the extension on the back of the house, hardwired to the cable modem and the PC. Can't maintain a connection when sitting in the front room on the laptop. How can I improve the situation without a) having ethernet cables all over the house b) continuing to use the neighbour's unsecured AP c) spending too much? Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarMad Posted December 17, 2006 Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 I got a booster for mine. I could get a signal everywhere but it wasn't the strongest. Now its almost the same all over the house. This one > Hawking Antenna I did impove things for me.. it says its omni-directional but I found that pointing it up to the office from downstairs did help loads. Get netstumbler and walkround with that it will show if there are any differences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruiser647 Posted December 17, 2006 Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 You could try just replacing the aerial first. Or get the booster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollox Posted December 17, 2006 Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 Play around with your antenna....some netgear routers work better with the antennas flat as opposed to pointing upwards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollox Posted December 17, 2006 Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 Also, try a few different channels manually.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarMad Posted December 17, 2006 Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Also, try a few different channels manually.... [/ QUOTE ] Ditto, I found that the lower channel numbers on mine gave a better signal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rs32 Posted December 17, 2006 Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 [ QUOTE ] found that the lower channel numbers on mine gave a better signal. [/ QUOTE ] is that a known feature of wireless routers ? mine gets intermittent problems with dropped connections, usually when creating a long post on TSN ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarMad Posted December 17, 2006 Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 It might depend on the kit you are using but it does with my Netgear. Install netstumbler and put it on the view that shows the strength of the wireless signal for your hotspot and then change the channels but nothing else and see if it goes up or down. I did and there was quite an improvement. But !! make sure what ever you do its at least 1 clear channel from anything else your neighbours might be using and certainly don't sit on the same channel. (You can see the channels other people are using in netstumbler. ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omi Posted December 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 Thinking of getting a 7dBi antenna... It's £50, but will mean I can use the wi-fi at my friend's place half a mile away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaunty Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 If you are going to spend money, you could try this: Powerline Wireless Access Points Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarMad Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 They aren't very quick though.... in fact some are pretty dire. Youd be better spending money on some good Pre-N kit if it was that bad but you have to get an adapter on the laptop / PC to get the range / speed though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheechy Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 I've found the devolo 85mbps ones to be not too bad to be honest but its all about the rest of the plugs you have on the same circuit as your LAN plugs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarMad Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 Yeah some are ok but I've read others are very poor. It depends what you need, I think that the latest .11n when its ratified will eliminate the need for them unless your house is vast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 I'd just buy an Apple Airport Express and plug it in as a network extender... Mine works a treat (extends mine from a Linksys WRT54G) and I have a flat-ish metal roof on the house and garage, but can get reception pretty much through the house and yard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atomic Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Thinking of getting a 7dBi antenna... It's £50, but will mean I can use the wi-fi at my friend's place half a mile away! [/ QUOTE ] Wtf is dBi? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Omi Posted December 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Power rating of radio signal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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