Question about improving range and reception on a wireless router.

[GasX]

My cable modem and router are in the 1st floor office. I work on the third floor and the connection is a bit dodgy. I will not install the modem and router up here as I want my main PC connected via cable. What can I put on the third floor to improve reception?

 

[GasX]

can a wireless router be used for this? Is that what an access point is?

 

[InlineFive]

Three floors is starting to get sketchy with wireless, but it all depends on what kind of interference you have in your environment. Can you bring in some test units to try it out first?

 

[Garion]

Several choices:

1: Get different wireless networking gear that has better range like some of the MIMO gear out nowadays. There's plenty of it on the market and it helps quite a bit.

2: Look at external antennas for your router - A directional antenna can help reception quite a bit but it can sacrifice general whole-house coverage.

3: There are signal boosters / range extenders that you could plug in somewhere on the 2nd floor to extend the range of your connection. Something like this one would probably do nicely. They make others that are simply stand-alone and don't go over your powerlines, as well. Just make sure to buy it someplace you can return it if it doesn't work.

4: Reception is all about positioning. If it's not a laptop on the 3rd floor consider getting a USB-based wifi card and an extension cable. Just moving it around a few feet can make a significant difference. Same goes for your router, as well.

Good luck!

- G

 

[nweaver]

Originally posted by: Garion
Several choices:


4: Reception is all about positioning. If it's not a laptop on the 3rd floor consider getting a USB-based wifi card and an extension cable. Just moving it around a few feet can make a significant difference. Same goes for your router, as well.

Good luck!

- G

I don't know if I would get another card, but try moving around a bit with something like Netstumbler running so you see true SNR. I moved from (old B access point in the data center) less then 2 feet today, and went from flakey and 2Mb/s to 11 and solid...

 

[JackMDS]

The best Method to Extend Wireless Coverage depends heavily on the Specific Envioroment.

Look at these pages they describe most of the options that are within the means of Entry Level users, and choose the one that fits you envioroment best.
Link to: Extending the Distance of Entry Level Wireless Network.

Link to: Wirelessly Bridging Home / Network.

Link to: Hi Gain Antenna for Entry Level Wireless.