Wireless (and maybe clueless) in Brazil

[rbaibich]

Hey.

Last year I brought a Linksys WiFi kit for notebooks for my dad (my family is in Brazil). I installed it in his office, which is in one of the "corners" of his appartment. Result: You can get signal in the room next to it, and that's about it.

This year my mom got a laptop, so I bought her a DLink DI524. Her office is also at one of the corners of the appartment, and I'm having troubles again. A friend of mine has a nice theory to explain why: buildings are made here with bricks and cement (the walls at my dad's place are made of solid brick), and that should be enough to destroy the router's signal.

I'm thinking about buying an antenna, but before I do I wanted to know if there are good DIY solutions to it, and if you guys know what else I can do to boost my signal.

 

[Goosemaster]

1. the router that comes with that set is the wrk54G.....I'm not sure, but I've never seen any hacks for it (the wrt54G series has hacked firmware that allows ou to increase the radios output)

2. Make sure the antennas are pointed horizonatally in opposite directions..think one to the left and one to the right. It creates a cleaner signal that way.

3. look into extenders, but realize that they
a)cut the speed in half
b) usually suck

4) wire the place - cat5 is cheap