Wireless or Alternative?

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19 Oct 2002
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1,940
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Maidenhead
I've just switched to o2 broadband and although the overall service is great, lovely and fast, very helpful 'English' support, the router's wireless strength is appalling :mad: So much so, that the only way i can connect to it (from the same location as on the BTHub), is by turning off encryption!

So now I am considering 3 options and could do with some recommendations:

1) New ADSL2+ router with, if possible, the ability to hack and increase wireless output (I used to have a Linksys which used to do this).

2) Hawking HWU8DD Hi-Gain™ USB Wireless-G Dish Adapter

3) One of these Powerline Ethernet over home wiring kits.

The annoying thing is that my computer is probably no more than 5 metres away from the router and the signal only really needs to go through a 1" wooden loft door but for some reason it struggles to do this :confused:
Because of this my first choice would be the Dish.
A new router would be nice, but then again i've only had this router a day and apart from the wireless it seems to be quite good - i think it is a SpeedTouch 585 v7
Then there is this Powerline ethernet option - I have been reading about the 200mb versions .... which are only in fact 100mb :/ cheeky buggers!
Anyone have one of these things? The electrics in my house arent too bad so I think it could work quite well.

Oh....and i suppose one other option would be a hack for the SpeedTouch 585 v7 - anyone know of one, ive looked but cannot find one.

Cheers
 
Have you tried bending the aerial on the router down so that the 'side' of the aerial is facing your PC's wireless adaptor aerial?

If the router's aerial is "pointing" at your PC, the signal strength will be at it's worst.

That said, the speedtouches are meant to have awful wireless. I'd recommend getting a cheap Sky DG834GT from an auction site and then reflashing it with the DGTeam custom firmware. The wireless isn't amazing on those, but it's pretty decent..and you'll get a better sync rate and improved line stability.
 
The powerline products are pretty good. i've got a router on one end and then a ps3 and a file server connected in via powerline.

the total sped is 200 mbps, so that should be about 100 mbps, which i haven't hit but i have seen speeds of 50 mbps.

The wireing in my house is pretty poor as well....
 
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