need help improving wireless signal

[mp260767]

hi,

trying to help a friend out and improve his wireless strength, currently the router is the standard o2 box (thompson ?).

its situated in one corner of the house, and they don't want to move it, once you get about half way through the house signal drops to nil, house is fairly old with thick brick walls.

basically looking at the best way to extend the range to cover the house (and if possible the garden), which is about 80ft.

looked at range extenders and wireless access points, just not sure whats best for the job, hes not techy so simpler the better would be an advantage.

can't just use powerlines as the wireless connection is needed, various laptops, phones etc spread around the house, and can't run any wiring.


cheers

 

[Throrik]

Wireless Access Points would probably be your best bet, although I highly doubt the standard o2 Router is of much good, maybe invest in a slightly better one.

 

[bremen1874]

If it's in a corner of the house a parabolic reflector could help (and wouldn't cost anything to try).

 

[encephalopathy]

i'm waiting on one of these arriving to see if it helps my wireless coverage upstairs

TP-Link TL-WA701ND

for 18 quid or so it's worth a try

 

[mp260767]

i'm waiting on one of these arriving to see if it helps my wireless coverage upstairs

TP-Link TL-WA701ND

for 18 quid or so it's worth a try

great, if its not too much trouble could u post back on how it goes ?


cheers .


thanks for the other advice, was wondering about the router, parabolic reflector is a decent idea and he might have some fun with that .

EDIT:

anyone any idea how the antenna is situated on the o2 box to get the best effect off the reflector ?

 

[encephalopathy]

i ended up getting the triple antenna model TP-Link TL-WA901ND for 33 quid
arrived today, 5 mins to configure it out of the box. login ip is 192.168.1.254 so can be awkward to login to if you have a bt homehub which uses this ip address as default.
set it up in access point mode so it had...

same SSID
same wpa2-psk security
different channel to my wireless router

mounted it to a rafter in the loft upside down so antennae pointing towards my upstairs rather than the roof and used the PoE injector that came with it to power it and connect to my switch 15m away at the other end of the loft.

works a treat with much better coverage throughout the house, even with the router wireless switched off!.very happy with it so far

 

[mp260767]

cheers for the update .