How to boost a wireless signal?

[Kris_90]

Hi all

I'll be moving into my first house in a few weeks and it happens to be 4 doors away from my parents' house. It doesn't currently have internet but I was hoping to wait a couple of months for BT Infinity to become available in my area (30th September). As the house is so close (it's a terraced house), could I use some sort of dongle to access the internet or boost my parent's wireless while I wait for fibre? We currently get 3.5mb dl with Sky and are currently using the default Sky Netgear router.

I've been waiting for fibre to become available in my area for years, I don't want to take out a 12/18 month contract and have to wait longer.

Any help appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Audigex]

4 doors away is probably too much for a decent signal - I just tested the wireless at my sister's terraced house and had 4 available networks with usable signal - hers, two which I'm pretty sure were each side, and one which was presumably one further away than that. There were another 3 or 4 with signal which could just about be used, but you wouldn't get much in the way of reliability.

What you could do is get two access points and attach a directional antenna to each. Place them in each house so that they pretty much point at each other. Ideally you need access points/routers with "Wireless Distribution System" or WDS.

You probably won't get away with doing it without the directional antenna, but if your terracing is anything like that round here, you should get away with it with them.

So your network will look like


Internet---Router(Normal Antenna)---Ethernet---AP1(Directional Antenna)> <AP2(Directional Antenna)---AP3(Normal Antenna)

I'd give AP3, Router and (AP1+AP2) three different SSIDs and put them on different channels. Put AP1+AP2 on the least interfered with channel in the area.

If this doesn't work, your best bet may be to do any big downloading at your parent's house and use a PAYG 3G dongle at your own for light browsing.

 

[Skidilliplop]

If you get ADSL with BT on a 12 month contract you can upgrade it to infinity when it becomes available.

If the contract is with the same company you can almost guarantee they'll let you change your contract to something more expensive, afterall who says no to more money?. It's downgrading to cheaper ones and moving to competetors they sting you for because they lose revenue.

Sometimes the solution is so simple you don't even see it's there

 

[Kris_90]

Thanks for your replies. After look at all my options, I think I'll get a ADSL contract with BT then upgrade it to infinity, like you said Skidiliplop, who says no to more money lol.

Cheers