boosting wireless signal

[mr-white]

my wireless network is unstable usually gets worse when the doors get shut. i have a netgear wireless router and NIC and im about to have another machine go wireless. how do i boost or improve the signal ?

MW

[Jenks69]

Bung in a wireless access point that can do bridging.

[mr-white]

what does bridging do ?

would changing the antenna on the NIC or router help ?

MW

[PilchY]

if the computer is not gonna be moved you can get an amplifer that does what it says on the tin. Basically it directs the signal in a certain direction so you make it point at the next PC.

Access points generally are used if you havea non wireless router and need to add in wireless capability, but bridging bascially does is recieve the signal and then resends it, thus making the range of the signal longer.

If the rotuer is fairly old, the other thing to do is to go out get a wirelss G spec router that has higher speed's and longer ranges, i use a netgear DG834T or something like that which is ok although there is a lot of other model's out there.

One thing to remember though, wireless rotuers can be temperemental, things like wall's, door's, in house wiring can interfere with the signal and weaken it.

[Slamdog]

I would either get a better antenna for the router or move it to a more central place.


i have found that my signal is pretty average from the draytek in the computer room to the lappy in the living room so I actually put my wireless access point downstairs. I now have 2 wireless networks in the house giving full 100% signal coverage everywhere...

[Beerbaron]

i get cut off from the network and internet when i start to d/l a big file or use an ftp.

[mr-white]

the router and NIC is about 8 months old

i think i have a Netgear DG834GT, it looks like it and is 108mbps but have to wait till i get home before i can verify that.

MW

[Slamdog]

iirc, the 834 can take external antennae....

best thing to do would be to take a close look at it and see.

then trot over to http://www.wirelesspro.co.uk/store/catalog/default.php?cPath=53 and see if they have anything that matches the standard antenna. I would replace it with either a 5 or 7db antenna.

the other option to boost the signal is to look at the pc end. if that can take an external then change it for a higher gain one. most pci cards have replaceable antenna, and my lappy card also takes an external too.

[mr-white]

Netgear WG311T 108Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter - think thats the NIC

as ill have 2 comps and a laptop, might be easier to change the router antenna, would it be specific for my router or a simple case of replacing it with something like this (http://www.wirelesspro.co.uk/store/catalog/default.php?cPath=1_2_16)

you say replace it with 5 or 7db what do they normally run at ?

MW

[Slamdog]

according to the manual, your standard antennae are 2db antennas. Radio power is logarithmic in scale so theoretically you should almostr double the range of the router.

the actual antenna depends on the connector on the router. all you need to do is get the correct one for it. anything with more gain than 2db will improve things.

if you cant find a suitable antenna, give wireless pro a ring, they are very good with identifying stuff remotely!

[mr-white]

for around £10 seems a bargain, have to find the connector on the one i got :)

MW

[PilchY]

seems i might have to bagcsy one of them.. wonder if it would reach accross the road to give my neighbours adsl access they want...

[Slamdog]

to cross the road i would use the outdoor booster thingy on the front page. In fact, i would be a real geek and put a big yagi on a rotator on my roof and scam into other peoples wireless networks. I have the rotator already....... and a wireless card with a tail to connect to an external.....

[PilchY]

problem is trying to get into anyone locally, i dont think they are technically minded to go wireless!

Just my neghbour over the road could seriously use it and being that i am rarely in margate, makes use of the connection!

[mr-white]

ok ive checked and i have......

a netgear DG834GT router and a WG311T NIC, so whats a good antenna for this setup ?

MW

[Slamdog]

does the antenna unscrew from the router? if not, does the antenna unscrew from the nic?

[mr-white]

they both unscrew

MW

[mr-white]

just ordered another WG311T NIC and 2 of these antennas (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_6746.html)

MW

[Beerbaron]

with netgear the router and the nic's have the same antennas just different colours as ive just swapped them around :D so would it be ok to just order one of these (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_6746.html) for the router aswell?

[Slamdog]

as long as the thing has the same connector then yes......

although you could have got it from wireless pro for 6.99 inc postage.....

[Beerbaron]

got the new antennas today. the signal is alot better however i still cant get it to connect at 108mbps. both the router and the nics are 108mbps yet all i can connect at is 48mbps according to the netgear software. anyone got any ideas what could be causing this?

[Slamdog]

it might be a turbo setting on the router or the nic. 48 is damn good anyway... it is realistically about as good as you are likely to get.

[Beerbaron]

turbo setting, whats one of those? i thought it would atleast connect somewhere near the 108mbps mark tho?

[Slamdog]

no... mine used to connect between 16 and 32 before I put the ap in the same room. you also hae to rmember that wireless devices are half duplex as well, so the real speeds are not going to be that high.

[Beerbaron]

ok thanks for the info. hopefully my connection will be more consistant with these new antennas tho.

[Mr Flibble]

Bugger - wish you'd mentionted that site earlier slam, I shelled out £30 for a buffalo antenna cos I couldn't find out which would work with my kit. Ah well

[Slamdog]

Bugger - wish you'd mentionted that site earlier slam, I shelled out £30 for a buffalo antenna cos I couldn't find out which would work with my kit. Ah well


I have done... several times....

[mr-white]

theres was an option in the router to set 108mbps only but that option has gone since the firmware was upgraded and now i can only select auto 108mbps

MW

[Slamdog]

ok, so see if there is a setting on the nics config to force it, if not... just have to live with 48mbps.


I used to just have an 11mb card in my lappy for ages, till I got my 3com access point. the only thing that 11mb wasn't any good for was transferring large files to my other pc's. when i needed to do a lot of that I used to plug in a wire, giving me full duplex 100mb on the lan. most of the time though it was fine for everything i wanted... web browsing, vnc to the other rigs, sending emails etc. unless you are on adsl2 then 11mb is still bigger than any domestic net connection at the moment so you are not reaching the full bandwidth of the ap anyway.

[Paddy]

Yep I've found with wireless speeds the internet should work at full speed with no problems, but file transfer is a no no. After a lot of tinkering with my belkin high speed (125Mbps!) wireless connection the fastest transfer rate I've had is 2MBps! Even though it reckons it connects at between 80 and 125 Mbps (that's when it does connect!!)

For any large file transfers I just invested in an external 300gig HD :D Or grab yourself a big long crossover cable :)

[PrivatePyle]

Get a huge wire and tie one end around your access point antenna, then the other around the antenna on your computer, bingo, a nice wire to guide the signals on there way.

[mr-white]

before the antenna upgrade was getting varied speeds upto about 4mb, have to get around to testing it with the upgrade

MW