Best way to extend Range of Wireless Router?

[DNyholm]

My sister has her wireless router (Linksys WRT54G) in the basement of her house and she is able to get perfect signals on the east side of her house. To the west (behind what was once a garage wall) the signal does not get through. We are looking for a way to boost up the strength of the signal on that side and extend the range (it is only about 20-30ft from the router). Is a Wireless Range Extender basically the only way to do it?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16833124037

We have also tried moving the router right up to the wall that it needs to get through and still no luck, the signal gets picked up but will drop every once in a while and will only get one bar on the strength meter.

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[kyzen]

I'm also interested in this - I have a D-Link gigabit/wireless N router (forget the exact model number - 655? 665?). It's upstairs in my girlfriends office/spare bedroom. We get great signal upstairs and on the main floor, and tolerable signal in the basement where I do my work, but the signal outside, particularly out back on my deck, is absolutely horrible.

I'm looking to either extend the range of the network, or add a second access point to my network.

Any suggestions on the best way to go about this?

 

[Modelworks]

There are a couple ways. The first is legal the second one technically isn't always legal🙂

The first way is to replace the current antenna with something better. Antennas in stock routers are generally poor to keep cost down.
You can get a good idea of what is out there , here:
http://www.hyperlinktech.com/content/Specials.html

You could replace both the antenna at the pc side and the antenna at the router side and cover 99% of most houses.
Since it is only 30 ft I would think that just upgrading the routers antenna would be the best thing to try.

The second way is to use an amplifier. This is expensive and if not done right can work worse than without the amplifier. Depending on the setup you could actually break the rules for broadcast power from a wifi device.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: kyzen
I'm also interested in this - I have a D-Link gigabit/wireless N router (forget the exact model number - 655? 665?). It's upstairs in my girlfriends office/spare bedroom. We get great signal upstairs and on the main floor, and tolerable signal in the basement where I do my work, but the signal outside, particularly out back on my deck, is absolutely horrible.

I'm looking to either extend the range of the network, or add a second access point to my network.

Any suggestions on the best way to go about this?

Antenna.
Installing a quality antenna on the router can give you extra range without costing much.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: Modelworks


The second way is to use an amplifier. This is expensive and if not done right can work worse than without the amplifier. Depending on the setup you could actually break the rules for broadcast power from a wifi device.

He/She could also flash the router with DD-WRT (or some other firmware that's compatable with that router) and turn the transmission power up (set to 50% default) to see if that helps.