Linksys WRT54GL Wireless range...

gazjam

gazjam

gazjam

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16 Oct 2007
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Got one of these to stream music wirelessly to my Hifi from my PC in seperate at home.

I live in a flat in a block, and there is mabye about 7m distance between router and music streamer in the livingroom. There are two stone (not plasterboard) walls between the two.

The most wireless signal I can get is about 25% in the livingroom????

I am new to wireless, so mabye I'm missing something, but I was sure the range of this router would be better that that?

I know various factors can affect the reception, but folk on Linksys forums have their WRT54GL sending signal MCH bigger distances than mine.

What I've tried so far:

Changing Wireless channel - gives about +/- 10% improvement.

Moving the router - even putting it next door to my music streamer (across 1 wall) I can only get 66%!

Changing firmware to tomato - raising the Transmit Power doesn;t really have any effect.


Anyone else with this router share experiences or tips to get his bloomin thing working? :)

I COULD wire up some Cat5 and use the music streamer wired, but that would involve drilling and laying trunking, and who can be arsed with that? :eek:

Thanks for any replies .
 
how many wireless devices can you test with? -could the hifi have a poor antenna?

you can get stonger antenna's for the WRt54GL too
 
Sounds like a job for Powerline adaptors to be honest. As tolien implies wireless doesn't like travelling through solid walls, which is why range suffers in older houses with more solid walls.
 
I bought the Linksys on the recommendation that with the Tomato firmware, it was THE cable router to have.....

Is it normal to get 66% signal strength....across a wall about 2 feet away?
Seems poor, but I'm new to wireless.

Surely this cant be normal?

Is it just a case of the router being a bit pants for range?

Anyone else with this router having range issues?

TIA
 
bledd. said:
could the hifi have a poor antenna?
Click to expand...

i'd say that is the culprit, i changed the antenna on my wireless card in my htpc and it increased the strenth quite a lot to my WRT.

although i've since moved to wired network all around for better throughput and better HD streaming.
 
It is a decent router, but it would take a miracle (or illegal amounts of power) to get decent signal strength through a solid wall...
 
yup

can't beat gigabit for data transfer, wireless is a viable option for internet browsing only imo..
 
thanks guys, guess I thought wireless was better than it actually is...

I've two options.

1. Run a *long* length of Cat5 along the existing skirting board trunking in my comnputer room and through a drilled hole in the wall into the next room (next door to my living room where my squeezebox is) and put my router LITERALLY the other side of the wall from my livingroom, hopefully bringing the reception up to par. (Which I think it MUST), if not, I'm returning the Linksys to OCUK as "not fit for purpose! :eek:

2.
Run a *longer* length of Cat5 from my computer room via a cupboard into my hall, where existing trunking along the skirting boards and down the doors eventually leads through an existing hole in the wall between hall and livingroom. So basically I would be going ethernet rather than wireless, which is a bummer really, as the ethernet port on the squeezebox can act as a wireless bridge which I was going to use for a plugin Video streamer later on (Popcorn Hour - look it up, its really cool).

Option 2 involves a lot of drilling, and the hassle of dismantling trunking and feeding wires..basically a Sunday afternoon and a royal pain in the arse. :rolleyes:

So heres hoping the Linksys can AT LEAST send a decent signal through a 5 inch wall...
 
*FINAL UPDATE*

I had my wireless router DIRECTLY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL between it and my squeezebox.....mabye 5inches of stone wall between then.

Squeezebox showed 77% Signal Strength.

I now officially give up on wireless....!

Stuck a cat5 cable in BAM!
Instant music, well, sound effects as I still am getting to grips with Squeezecentre. (I'm having problems getting it to read my music, despite - I'm pretty sure - it being properly ripped in DB Poweramp as Flac and tagged in DB and MP3 Tag.

So, ethernet for me!


Thanks for the replies.
 
It's the 5 inches of stone that's the problem. Whether the devices are next to the wall or 20 feet away is irrelevant by comparison.
 
Really? 5 Inches?
Wireless THAT bad?

To be honest I've debugged this problem to death. I'm starting to think theres a problem with the wireless module in this router.

I'm starting to think its "not fit for purpose" to be honest, and might get OCUK to swap it out.


What do you guys think.
 
Sounds normal for those conditions to be honest. Brick internal walls bugger up wifi a treat, id be pretty happy with 77% through a thick solid wall.

We have out router set to 75mw iirc and it just about covers the ground floor of our old house, but not with any better than 50% coverage anywhere but the main room. Wifi is fine for streaming audio (well mp3) and browsing the web, its not a solution for file sharing or video streaming really.
 
gazjam said:
Really? 5 Inches?
Click to expand...

5 inches of solid stone, and you expect to get full signal through that?
I think you had some crazy expectations of what wireless would do. Regardless of the wireless, I'd stick with a WRT54GL, even if you do swap it for another one.
 
as said above, it might not be the router, might be the device itself.. got any other wireless devices to test with?

mine goes through two walls (brick i guess, not solid stone) and gets around 4/5 bars to my gf's laptop
 
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