Wirless in old house, thick walls

Jon12345

Jon12345

Jon12345

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5 Feb 2003
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My router is downstairs and I have a PC upstairs. It gets the signal fine. But in my bedroom, my iphone can only pick up one bar (and often nothing) from my Netgear DG834G a/b/g router. Since I want to use Skype on my iphone, I need a much better connection!

If I get one bar wireless on my iphone using g protocol on that router, what would a wireless n router give?

Thanks,

Jon
 
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Wireless N doesn't usually give any greater range/signal strength than wireless g.

Depending on the router though, newer N models may have multi channel, more aerials etc, giving a better signal.
 
Jon12345 said:
My router is downstairs and I have a PC upstairs. It gets the signal fine. But in my bedroom, my iphone can only pick up one bar (and often nothing) from my Netgear DG834G a/b/g router. Since I want to use Skype on my iphone, I need a much better connection!

If I get one bar wireless on my iphone using g protocol on that router, what would a wireless n router give?

Thanks,

Jon
Click to expand...

To be honest, you would be better off getting a 'range extender', which is effectively just another wireless access point that acts as a repeater, place this upstairs somewhere, and it'll boost the signal for everything up their..

Wireless N tends to have better range full stop, but even then, as I've found, thick walls can still be too much for it..
 
I've just checked and the iphone only supports wireless g. Does that mean that a Wireless n router wouldn't make any difference because the iphone can only pick up the g signal?
 
Jon12345 said:
I've just checked and the iphone only supports wireless g. Does that mean that a Wireless n router wouldn't make any difference because the iphone can only pick up the g signal?
Click to expand...


Yes, as long as your router is set to mixed mode (i.e. b/g or b/g/n) your iPhone will be fine..

The improvement comes from the aerial and channel arrangements for 'N', this makes their 'g' performance better, however, it still depends on the exact router, external aerials such as on the DIR655 are normally helpful, but you aren't guaranteed better connectivity.

After trying everything, I just use an old 3com wireless access point that happens to have a repeater mode (so acts as a range extender), and put that in the bedroom upstairs, this now means my Phone connects to the internet anywhere in my house, and my garden!.
 
aerial oriantation changes may help, short aerials radiate or are more senstive to reception to the side if you more intrested in better signal upstairs, make the router aerials more slanted or horizontal, may help just enough,

also as above check for signal congestion and pick a router wifi channel thats got no or very little other equipoment on on it. Channel one ins usually worth a look, most routers seem to ship with channel 7 or simialr the default.

a wifi range extender will do the job as well but it can be tricky to get 2 differnt bits of kit working smootly

Homeplug (ethernet of the mains) wifi extenders are very easy to configure and worth a look for the applications you are interested in.
 
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