alternative network solution

.:MBK:.

.:MBK:.

.:MBK:.

Soldato
Joined
30 Jan 2004
Posts
5,072
Location
Harrogate
currently our house has 3 pcs connected via a wireless network (netgear dg834g) to access the internet.

the problem is that recently the network has become very unstable, this is certainly more noticeable on my dad's pcs that now get minimal or no connection at all.

my concern is that with this increasing degredation he would have to move the router down to the office, where there is another phone socket on the same number, this however would mean i would lose my connection (something he isnt too fussed about but i naturally am)

what he would like is possible solutions to this issue, perhaps a router with a further range, or a network solution that could be transmitted over the electrical cables or even the existing phone sockets in the house. our main concern is reliability of any alternative, as there is not point in purchasing equipment that wont improve our situation, so any tips anyone can provide is greatly appreciated.

before anyone asks, dad is not prepared to have his garden "re-designed" for network cabling (the office is a seperate building)

if any more info is needed ill try my best to provide it
 
Garden redesigned? You would need to run one cable through the garden, could be run inside an old stretch of hosepipe and buried in flower beds, easy as and the solution which would provide the easiest/most secure/fastest network connection to your dads office.
 
Switching from wireless to wired is an easy way to get stable conectivity to all three of your PCs.

You could try and find out why the network suddenly became unstable and try correcting it. It might be a bit cheaper than buying a new router and 3 ethernet cables.
 
unfortunately its not just soil and flower beds, there is also concrete, and lots of it, saying "re-designing" the garden was meant light heartidly.

anyway dad is not prepared to act on any form of digging and minimal drilling

and as for the instability ill give it a few days, our wireless goes through spots where its just unbearably bad, even for me, seems to be improving though. but for the office its been getting worse, lack of trees for a while seemed to improve it but seemed more coincidence after a while
 
Well by the sounds of it, a stretch of Cat5e/6 would solve your problems, and if tucked down the side of places it would be easy to do but obviously it depends how your garden is. Speak to your dad about it as this will speed up your network big time and solve any connection issues.
 
robjf said:
Well by the sounds of it, a stretch of Cat5e/6 would solve your problems, and if tucked down the side of places it would be easy to do but obviously it depends how your garden is. Speak to your dad about it as this will speed up your network big time and solve any connection issues.
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the layout of the garden makes this difficult and dad has already said no to it many times. the one that has got his attention is homeplug networking, but i am sceptical as to how reliable it would be and if it would even work. if it worked it would appear to solve the problem and wouldnt be overly expensive
 
tolien said:
Better antennae would be a cheap (and fairly trivial) start.
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any specific ones that would benefit a centrally located router? after i eliminate the possibilty that the router isnt just on its way out, though seeing as its only been a year i doubt it
 
Have you tried your router on a different channel. You might be suffering interferance from another network nearby. Try channels 1, 6 or 11.

Try the latest firmware : http://kbserver.netgear.com/release_notes/D102816.asp
* Taking it that it's a version 2 router.

If you have no joy then try a new antenna.
You'll need one with an SMA female interface. Here's a couple of decent omnidirectionals (all round ;)) :

USRobotics USR5481 5dBi - £8
Linksys HGA7S 7dBi - £26
 
I had an issue with a customer of mine who had a BT 2wire gateway thing, on looking on a well known auction site, I found d-link signal boosters for very little money and bought one.

We could then move the gateway to the far end of the house and the signal booster into the middle and perfect coverage was obtained.
 
Mr Blonde said:
Have you tried your router on a different channel. You might be suffering interferance from another network nearby. Try channels 1, 6 or 11.
Click to expand...

I was also about to suggest changing the channel, but why do you suggest 1, 6 & 11? Are they better than the other channels?
 
well a combination of updating it, and me installing the netgear software has resulted in a slightly more stable network, changing to channel 11 seems to have helped aswell

we may still invest in a new antenna as it just needs a boost down the office end now
 
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