Help, 1 connection, 8 guys, wireless router in OLD house

[mskalak]

Hey,
I live on the first(ground) floor of a house with 8 guys, and we all share 1 connection with a linsys wireless G router that is located on the second floor. My problem is that I have almost no signal, and the connection is HORRIBLY SLOW. I live in an old old brick house, and I was wondering what we as a house can buy to boost our signal, or our speed, or anything. Anything that can help me would be awesome.

Thanks,

Mike

 

[Garion]

A bit more information would be good...

What kind of NIC? PCI or USB? If it's PCI,
Have you tried to do the simple things of moving the access point around a few inches? Moving it's antenna a bit? Turning it 90 or 180 degrees?

Wireless reception is a lot like a car radio - You know how sometimes if you drive a foot forward, your radio reception goes from bad to good? Same thing can happen with WIFI.

If that doesn't work, and you have a USB NIC, try to go get a long cable extension (at some place that will take it back, if it doesn't work!) and move it around - Do you get a decent signal in one corner, up by the ceiling? If you're not concerned about asthetics, leave it there.

In other words.. Fiddle. Experiment. You'll be surprised how much little stuff can help, sometimes.

If all else fails, you can build or buy a directional antenna for your room that will better pull in a weaker signal from the access point. There's lots of commercial ones out there, or you can make yourself one out of some cable and a pringles can (strange, but true). Again, totally depends on your wireless card, if it will take an exteranl antenna lead or not.

- G

 

[mskalak]

Its a PCI card, and its under a desk. What kind of stuff do i need to buy to get a better signal? Or.... could you elaborate on how to build the pringles can antanae? I've tried little stuff like moving the antanae, but it never helps.

Thanks

 

[mskalak]

Its a PCI card, and its under a desk. What kind of stuff do i need to buy to get a better signal? Or.... could you elaborate on how to build the pringles can antanae? I've tried little stuff like moving the antanae, but it never helps.

Thanks

 

[sswingle]

I think old house is the key here. Back in the day they made walls/floors much thicker than they are. now. I know, cause I live in one. Our router is on the first floor. We barely get a signal on the second floor. Outisde, the signal immediately drops off to nothing. Which is kinda nice as far as people hacking into our network...

I assume the people upstairs have no trouble getting a signal?

Getting your antenna out from under the desk would help.

Click here for a retail cantenna

Someone in my network class made their own cantenna, but I forget the site where they got instructions

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I don't think the Cantenna is the correct choice with more than one machine using the wireless. You should look for omni-directional antennas for this task. Personally, I'd figure out a way to run a wire...

 

[mskalak]

Gunrunnerjohn,

How would I go about getting omni directional antanaes? Are these for the router, or for the PCI card? Also, why wouldn't the cantenna work with us sharing the connection?

 

[seismik]

Linksys has signal boosters available for some or their wireless routers. Here's the link at the place I go: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=9505

 

[Garion]

In general, putting your antenna on the back of your PCI card is the *worst* place for it - Probably low on the ground, next to a big chunk of metal and electrical signals to block the reception. In general, "conventional wisdom" is that a USB card is best for a desktop PC, as you can move it around and find a better place for it. You might see if you can pick up a 802.11 USB NIC (somewhere that it can be returned if it doesn't do the trick!) and give it a shot. if you've got a newer PC with USB 2.0 you can even get a 802.11G card - USb 1.0 cards are limited to 11Mb/s on the USB bus, so there's not much point in going beyond 802.11B.

- G

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

D-Link has a nice assortment of antennas on their wireless page. You can use an omnidirectional antenna at the router, and directional ones for the workstations. It's going to end up costing about $50 for each workstation, and that CAT5 wire is a lot cheaper...