First of all, please forgive me if I am not using the correct terminology.
I am using a 802.11b Linksys router/access point and wireless card to use my laptop wirelessly. My router is on one end of the house in our main room; that is where my cable comes in and the desktop computer are located. The bedroom (where I like to use my laptop in bed) is on the other side of the house. I am not sure of the exact distance (45’? 55’?) but it seems to be close to the limit of the range of the router, plus there are two walls the signal needs to pass through.
I am usually at very low to low as far as signal strength goes, sometimes this sis good enough, but it drops once in awhile.
How can I improve my signal strength, for cheap?
I have a few limitations;
I don’t want to buy new equipment (router/card). Maybe in in a year or two, but this stuff works OK and I can live with it if need be.
I am not too techy. I can’t (or really don’t want to) dick around with building something.
By a cheap ass wireless access point on Ebay. Buy two, to be sure one works.
Run twisted pair from the router to the room where you want the laptop and plug in the WAP.
Office Depot sold me a very nice high-gain antenna for my wireless Linksys router. You might look into that, I get full signal all over, in and out of my apartment.
Yes, do wait before buying anything new. There are a handful of competing versions of something called MIMO or “pre-n” WiFi. Once one is selected in the next year or so, that will be the one to get for higher speeds and longer range.
For now, you might get help simply by putting the router higher up or move it left or right - if that sounds vague, it is. Trying to get good reception of fairly weak radio signals is as much art as science.
Radio Shack sells “rubber duckie” antennas that are a dead simple swap on Linksys routers that should get you some added range. If you need more range, Hawking makes directional antennas. Not quite as painless due to needing to use (should be included with the antenna) an adapter and higher price. You’ll also want a pair of them for maximum range.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll try a few and see how that goes. Most of the time I can surf like the wind, but when it slows down it is like molasses. Very annoying.
I had an application a few weeks ago where we had a router about 90 feet away, with two 8" concrete walls in between. We could barely get a link in the far room.
A quick-and-dirty foil reflector as described in the link above was all we needed to significantly increase the signal strength. Give it a try, especially since you only seem to need signal increase in one direction.
I want to update this thread with my solution: I turned the router up on end. Instead of sitting flat like it was designed to do; I turned it so it is sitting on its face and the antennas are pointing towards the bedroom. I can’t see the pretty blinking lights on the front of it anymore, but my signal strength has increased from very low-low to good-very good. Very cheap solution, maybe obvious to others but not to me. :smack:
I just printed it out on some cardstock and assembled it, and was surprised how well it worked. You can enlarge it as much as you like with any photo editor, too. And as already pointed out, make sure the antennaes are oriented optimally. I believe the signal emanates perpindicular to the antenna, so if you want the signal to go in a straight horizontal line from router to computer, try pointing both sending and receiving antenna straight up, or both straight out to the same side so that they are parallel.
Oops…on preview I see that I missed your post where you already fixed it. That’s strange - my signal is best when the antenna is perpendicular, not pointing straight at the room. Oh well, as long as it works.
Very cheap solution, maybe obvious to others but not to me. :smack: