Wireless signal in environment with interference

chusteczka

Diamond Member
Apr 12, 2006
3,399
3
71
I have a question regarding wireless routing and what component may be needed. I know very little about networking.

I just built a computer for my nephew. He lives in a 3 story home in Chicago right next to the L-train (Electric-train with electric rails). There is a wireless router on the top floor, my nephew and his new computer are on the middle floor. His computer has a wireless adapter PCIE with three antennae for 450 mbps that gets a connection with 3 bars out of 5. From what I saw, that connection is relatively stable but when he was gaming online, he did get dropped a few times. I am unsure of the reason why, so am not sure if there is a problem here or not.

Rosewill N900PCE Wireless N Dual Band Adapter IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n PCI Express Up to 450Mbps Wireless Data Rates Support 64/128 bit WEP, WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK, 802.1X

His bedroom is small and he has a metal-framed bunkbed, he sleeps on the top level and there is a work desk with the computer in the space the lower bunk would be. I fear the metal frame of the bunk bed may be acting like a faraday cage and absorbing or interfering with much of the signal coming from the floor above. The wireless signal has to travel through the metal bed frame to get to the computer underneath the raised frame.

I wonder if a wireless access point (bridge?) on his floor, in his room or the room next to it, would be able to receive the wireless signal from the router on the above floor and transmit it horizontally to my nephew's computer to achieve a stronger signal.

There is the added issue that the home is literally directly next to the L-train that may be causing some electrical interference. I did not see any direct relation to a passing L-train and a reduced or dropped signal but I did provide him with an Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) (no battery, just an AVR) that kicked in often when a train passed every few minutes. Not with every train but with every passing train that did not stop at the station behind his home. Do you think the L-train activating the AVR every 5-10 minutes might cause it to fail or catch on fire?

OPTI-UPS SS2000 6 Outlets Home AVR Series Automatic Voltage Regulator

I would think wired access would be their best option but that would be a lot of work to run the wires and they get a connection having 3 bars out of 5 with wireless.

Can you think of a solution to this situation? I was thinking a wireless access point but am not sure. Can you recommend a product?

Would it be recommended to purchase a secondary wireless PCIE adapter as a backup in case the first fails?

Thank you for your help.
 
Last edited:

lif_andi

Member
Apr 15, 2013
173
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The first thing to do is to switch channels on the AP, because so many things can be causing interferance, specially in a house that big. The non-overlapping channels are 1, 6 and 11 (in the US) and 1, 6 and 13 (in Europe). So if his wireless is now transmitting on say channel 3, you can try to move it to 11 (or 13) and see if that helps. And if he's on 8 then go to channel 1.
 

Danimal1209

Senior member
Nov 9, 2011
355
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0
You could use a wired powerline adapter for a wired connection.

I haven't tried them myself, but it may be a good option.