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[luke howitt]

Ok guys, my stabilisation peroid has finished and my broadband connection is fine with a stable connection of around 6MB.

BUT, i have just bought my THIRD router after trying a few to make the wireless signal better in my home. This is because my furthest computer is 30-40ft away from the router and it was getting very low signal with a speed of only 5.5mbps.

First one bought was a standard D-Link G-grade router which was better than my previous B-grade router. However, this seemed to produce even worse than my old router which i found suprising.

Second of all i bought a Belkin G+ MIMO wireless router, which was just as low, if not lower than my old B-grade router! I found this surprising and took as just coincidence that the router was maybe not working properly due to hardware faults.

Finally i bought a NetGear G MIMO RangeBooster, which plugs into my old B-grade router and sends off a wireless signal without having to use the B-grade router's wireless, and just uses it as the source of connecting to the broadband connection. And surprise surprise! This is producing a very low signal like ALL the others i have bought and on the box is stated that it could cover 500,000 SQUARE FEET! So to my conclusion i felt that the only problem MUST be the house. I checked with my dad, and he said the house, as being newly built, had no lead or metal structures in the floors or anythings, not like it would make a difference as MIMO sends many outputs so it can finds its way around walls.

Sooooo, basically i have come here because i have simply lost my patience! Why is this happening? Why has every single graded router, from B to G MIMO given me the SAME signal strength every time? It cant be coincidence...

Thanks
Luke

[guest]

So you've changed the wireless router three times with no change which would suggest that the wireless router isn't the problem.

If you haven't changed the wireless card in the computer then that is probably the reason why your signal strength has remained the same. By the sounds of it your wireless card is 802.11b which means its ancient.

[luke howitt]

Sorry i should of mentioned that. Every router i have purchased contained a USB adapter which should really be able to cope with the router it comes with so im fairly certain the adapter is no the problem. At the moment on very low signal, the adapter that came with the NetGear shows speeds of 108mbps which is good, but its not the point as the signal should be producing much higher signals way higher than very low as this makes my WAN conection veruy unstable..

[guest]

It won't do anything at all to your "WAN connection". Wireless has nothing to do with your ADSL.

Are you plugging these USB adaptors into a USB 2.0 connector? If you're not then you won't get anything above 802.11b speeds as USB 1.0/1.1 is limited to 12Mbps (with a following wind and the moon in the right phase ).

[mr_chris]

I think luke is meaning that because the wireless is so bad, then as a consequence, t'internet is slow and unreliable.

Have you tried changing the wireless channel in the router? There may be some interference... although I would have thought 3 different routers might have had slightly different channel configurations, but it's worth a shot.

[luke howitt]

tried that lol, and yes its in a USB 2.0 port. It wasn't before as it was in the front of the tower, but as it came with a usb extension lead i put it into the back as it was 2.0.

Also i have changed all the channels in each router and checked for improvements, but no luck!

Very very frustrating as i have no idea why this is happening, I have done nothing wrong for it to be like this. The Netgear stays at channels six with no other options as i think it finds the best channel and keeps it on it so it is more stable. I cant think of any reason why this is happening!!!

damn internet, its so good, yet so frustrating!

[soms]

As we know certain household appliances generate radiation which can interfere with wireless signals.

One thing to try, which probably wont make any difference is to move the antenna on the router through 90 degrees from being upright to horizontal. Apparently this can help in certain conditions.

Personally wireless doesn't work that great in our house and I would have saved the money on the two routers and bought a set of powerline ethernet networking adaptors.

You can also get power line devices which feature a wireless AP at the remote end rather than an ethernet port, however I prefer hardwired myself

[luke howitt]

i want hard wired, but the fact that its 30ft away from the router its hard to get done!

Btw, it hasnt got attenas because it has 6 internal ones! Very funky lol

Anyone else have any problem solvers? sorry to demand but it is very annoying

[roseway]

Often the best solution is to use powerline adaptors instead of wireless. These are not particularly cheap, but can be very effective. See this for more info.

[luke howitt]

Never heard of it! Well sounds like an option.

So i gather this powers the line so that the connection will end up being stronger right?

Before doing this though it would be nice to maybe try a new technique to boost the wireless signal than all the others i have tried.

Thanks for the suggestions though!

[roseway]

Powerline adaptors simply use the mains wiring to make an ethernet connection between different points in the house. It's generally much more reliable than wireless.

[biglouie]

..some of the manufacturers claim 200mbps for powerline. Can anyone shed any light on the claims? 200mbps sounds ok.

Maybe worth a punt.

[roseway]

With all these devices (and also with wireless) the actual throughput is a lot less than the specified speed.

[luke howitt]

i bought 2 homeplug turbos 84mbps for 50 odd quid. Sounds a fair deal to me

One for the connection to the modem and one to my computer. I can still use a wireless connection right? for the laptop and computer that receives good signal over wireless

[luke howitt]

just insalled them. they work great! its says its a 100mbps speed instead of the 84 it says and the internet is running fine. Apart from the internet still being a bit unstable from the ISPs end or from our wiring, the actual LAn is working perfectly! thanks for the suggestion