Weak Wifi Signal Advice

[benh4889]

Hi Guys

Looking for some advice about the wifi at my dads house. We live in an old style house which has really thick stone walls.

We having issues with the wifi signal in the outer rooms, its available, but only just.

Im trying to find out the best way of boosting the signal to the outer rooms.

The router we have in at the moment is a Netgear DG834G which is located pretty much dead center of the house downstairs. Iv installed a wireless repeater but due to the layout of the house it isn't working too well, if i move it close enough to the other rooms to give them a decent signal it doesnt pick up a strong enough signal from the router.

I was thinking of installing a wired AP up to one of the outer rooms which would solve the problem in my eyes, or how about upgrading to a better router?

What does any one else think

Thanks

[Tech in SC]

This might do the trick...

http://www.ubnt.com/unifi

[npinc]

Ahh! I've dealt with this before in Qatar. Over there all their walls are solid concrete. Makes for a wireless nightmare.

Grab yourself a set of these:

http://www.dlink.ca/products/?pid=DHP-307AV

Grab a router like this one:

http://ca.asus.com/en/Networks/Wirel..._RTN10Plus_B1/

Switch it to AccessPoint mode.

Put one of the DHP-307AV by your current wireless and run a cable between them. Put the other one in the far reaches in the centre of the weakest signal area. Connect the second router to it.

Voila! Problem solved.

[YeOldeStonecat]

I'd get some APs....the Ubiquiti Unifi LR models...pickup a 3 pack. Take the signal to each AP using moca or ethernet over powerline if you don't want to run ethernet cables throughout the house.

[Tech in SC]

just knock all the walls out!

oh wow... too much coffee this morning i guess.

[benh4889]

Thanks for the responses. Its clarified what I wanted to hear really. I'm going to run a Ethernet cable between the router and an AP, I'll just run it outside to avoid it trailing through the house.

Originally Posted by Tech in SC

just knock all the walls out!

oh wow... too much coffee this morning i guess.

That sounds a fantastic idea. Let's do that

[ITMAN]

Sorry to state the obvious but of its only a dg 834. G <--- try an N router = stronger signal?

[benh4889]

Originally Posted by ITMAN

Sorry to state the obvious but of its only a dg 834. G <--- try an N router = stronger signal?

I think thats what ill do, i just wanted to see how everyone else gets round this problem

[npinc]

Originally Posted by ITMAN

Sorry to state the obvious but of its only a dg 834. G <--- try an N router = stronger signal?

Actually, that's the biggest falsehood and misunderstanding in wireless. G and N both use the same signal power (give or take they each put out about 26mW). In fact G routers and APs exist that are SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful than N. I've used wireless G to broadcast about a mile with a good antenna.

The truth is the only strength of N is multiple antennas to broadcast around obstructions with their Mimo technology reducing the possibility of interference. Unfortunately it's effect is limited unless you have the same multiple antenna array on the other end and it's also limited by being in an unregulated band to keep costs down. If you drive it up to 5GHz there's less interference, but it's also much harder to penetrate obstructions at that frequency, cutting the range.

Wireless is heavily misunderstood and there's a ton of misleading information out there.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Originally Posted by npinc

Actually, that's the biggest falsehood and misunderstanding in wireless. G and N both use the same signal power (give or take they each put out about 26mW). In fact G routers and APs exist that are SIGNIFICANTLY more powerful than N. I've used wireless G to broadcast about a mile with a good antenna.

And this is also widely mis-used. While the technical measurement of distance is roughly equal, the signal and speed between the AP and the client is much higher with N...resulting in USABLE SIGNAL at the edge. I can surf at 300' distance with N, where with old G....my signal was so slow...surfing was futile. You end up with a larger USABLE footprint of coverage.

Tons of wireless networks that I've upgraded over the years...when MIMO came out back in the later G days...I could replace APs with fewer new APs blanketing the same area. And as N came out....I replaced with even fewer APs covering the same buildings.