Wireless signal driving me mad

BenJ

BenJ

BenJ

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Location
Warrington
I have a Netgear DG834G wireless router upstairs with 2 PC's connected via ethernet cables.

This is all fine, then comes the problem. The two downstairs PC's are connected via wireless and they suffer from low signal and sometimes no signal at all.

STEPS TAKEN SO FAR:

1) Upgraded the router antenna to a high gain one off the bay.
2) Bought antenna extension docks for both pc's (Cable comes from wireless pci card, then high gain antenna in dock on top of desk, instead of behind pc tower)

Now both the extension docks and the 3 high gain antennas were bought from the bay, they made some difference but not really anything considerable. They were quite cheap so im not sure as to their quality e.t.c

I Really do not know which route to take next, I've looked around at endless posts and have come up with a few ideas.

1) Buy a new router, possibly one of the netgear rangemax wireless routers??
2) Get a wireless access point that I can link to the current router to boost signal??
3) Get 2 powerlines??? (Seems quite expensive and will be hard to pursuade my parents!)

What would you guys recommend given the above information??

(Distance from the router to the 2 downstairs pc's is 20 meters at a max)
 
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Signals tend to go farther horizontally than vertically, try having the router aerial(s) horizontal, & 20 metres through walls & ceilings is a big ask. What signal strength is being reported ?
 
The router is at the top of the stairs pretty much and I have the antenna pointing down the stairs. There are 2 bars or 1 bar of signal on the 2 pcs downstairs. But sometimes there is none and thats when I get ear ache from my parents!

Ive just looked at another shop, cant mention the name because of it being a competitor and the 7dbi high gain antennas are around £15. I only paid around £3-4 off the bay for supposidly 8dbi high gain antennas. Im begining to wonder if they are some cheap naff replicas with false claims. They are like 5 times the size of the original Netgear antennas I had and really chunky and big.
 
If the router is at the top of the stairs I'd be looking at running a cable somehow, in fact that is exactly what I did as I had exactly the problems you describe. House had been extended & although upstairs to downstairs isn't a problem usually, an external wall as well was asking too much, & I wasn't going 20 metres.
 
Theres no way of running cables discreetly from the router to the 2 pc's and we've only recently had oak flooring and oak celings put in in the hall and landing so cable installation is pretty much out of the question sadly.
 
yuo say you have the antenna pointing down the stairs. Wireless aerials work based on signals hitting the length of the antena, ie the sides. So the best signal is side to side, with both antennas pointing straight up. Maybe straightening the aerial would help?
 
With both arials pointing up I get no signal or 1 bar max, Ive found the optimal positions and directions for the arials but its still not ideal and therefore I would like to know what to do next.

As for powerlines I was hoping either a newer wireless router (Netgear DG834PN 108Mbps RangeMax Wireless ADSL2+ Modem/Router or Netgear DG834N 270Mbps RangeMax NEXT Wireless ADSL2+ Modem/Router) or access point would do the job because 3 Netgear HDX101 powerlines is going to cost around £170. Is there a real need for the £62 Netgear HDX101 powerline compared to the £29 Netgear XE102 powerline?
 
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wireless N I have gone to recently for my housemates (I use cables) and it really does improve the range. If you can upgrade it, upgrading the router to N wont make a lot more difference if you dont upgrade the associated computers. The joy of N is that it has 3 aerials per wireless card that combined give a better signal and greater bandwidth. So basically they increase the gain even on normal wireless G or such. If you can jsut buy wireless N cards for the pcs that need them and you wont need to touch the router. Although at OCUK the cheepest N card is about £50.
 
Saw a pc mag article about boosting the aerial with tin foil of all things.

Do a google for boost wireless aerial tin foil.

Although how this will work I don't know haha.
 
Ill have a look at the foil in a bit lol, but on a more serious note, are these my options?

OPTION 1:

Netgear WN311T 300Mbps RangeMax NEXT Gigabit Edition Wireless Desktop PCI Network Adapter £52.86 inc VAT X 2, one for each pc downstairs. See if this improves the signal, if not, then pair with a Netgear DG834PN 108Mbps RangeMax Wireless ADSL2+ Modem/Router £75.19 inc VAT

TOTAL: £180.97

OPTION 2.

Netgear XE102 Powerline Ethernet Bridge £29.36 inc VAT X 3

TOTAL: £88.08

OPTION 3.

Netgear HDXB101 Powerline HD Starter Kit £102.21 inc VAT
Netgear HDX101 Powerline HD Ethernet Adapter £62.26 inc VAT

TOTAL: £164.67

What to do!?
 
Oxygene, read my post, and FIRST check if you missed anything.. possibly the following,

Netgear WN311T 300Mbps RangeMax NEXT Gigabit Edition Wireless Desktop PCI Network Adapter is a wireless N card, so as I stated, Option 1, would be to try 2 WIRELESS N cards on each of the pc's and if it didnt work then pair them with a WIRELESS N router.
 
For internet sharing, gaming standard def streaming the cheaper homeplug units at 85mbps should solve the signal problem at a rough cost of £25 to 30 per adapter. 200 mbps AV units if you want to stream HD or swap large files.

Sounds like you have played about with your aerials quite a lot but you should know that hi gain antennas are more directional in their senstivity, thats good if they point in the right direction and bad if not. Basic stick aerials have a doughnut type sensitivity which works well for transmitting / recieving in any direction but less well for signals from the wrong direction. Direction will be more critical but signal better if you hit the right spot.

Cables on the hi gain anennas reduce the gain due to signal loss so some improvment but not to the full specifcation.
 
Im thinking the cheaper powerline adaptors are probably the best bet, as its the cheapest method and what sounds like the most guaranteed to work fix.

Errata, I understood that the £25-£30 units are 14mbps? Is your quoted 85mbps a mistake or am I missing somthing? The two pc's are only used for browsing the internet and we have an 8meg connection so I am guessing that the cheaper 14mbps units would be more appropriate compared to the 200mbps units for our needs.
 
One other thing, can these powerline adaptors be plugged into multiple plug extension cables or do they need to go straight into a mains socket?
 
Try and get yourself one of the netgear rangemax series routers - They do work - I used to have the same probs as you describe as our walls are solid but since getting a rangemax i get 4 bars all the time.
 
Do you think there will be any difference in wireless range/coverage between these two?

Netgear DG834N 270Mbps RangeMax NEXT Wireless ADSL2+ Modem/Router £88.11
Netgear DG834PN 108Mbps RangeMax Wireless ADSL2+ Modem/Router £75.19

Or is it purely speed and features?
 
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