wifi signal problems?

Question

The guy from geek squad assured me the router I bought would reach yo at least 4000 FT and i called him a liar and sure enough its the linksys N with the directional annt and i cant seem to pick up the signal 2 house's away which is where i need it most. Any ideas im trying to get it with G based laptops. any sugestions on where i should put it and what i should aviod puting it around

Answer 1

Well if it is a G labtop then you need to change the signal the router is putting out from N to mixed or G only. The G will not go quite as far, but the guy was full of s... telling you that it will go 4000 feet. Avoid putting it by anything that uses wireless or has alot of electrical noise like portable phones, monitors, tvs etc. Also make sure it is not trying to go through anything steel it will also interfere with the signal. If you are trying to go a long distance the best bet is to buy a 2 directional antenna One for the router and one for the computer that you are trying to pick up the signal with. Since you are using a labtop, you might not have a place to hook up a external antenna so you might have to get a access point at the other house to catch the signal and reboost it. Check out this page and it will show you how to make homemade antenna's if you are the building type. http://wireless.gumph.org/articles/homemadeomni.html

Answer 2

Not entirely familiar with n and whether you need a matching n wireless adapter to advantage of all the lovely benefits

of wireless n.

Usually with any of these propietary stuff you need the matching adapter



First of all the router should be high as possible , not blocked by any metal or dense objects as possible.





The very most imporant thing is to change the channel

from the default channel 6 to anything else

Channels 1 and 11 are the next best choice first

Change the ssid from the default of linksys even if you add a digit.

You would be amazed how far and how erratic rougue signals from other routes travel and it may be erratic as well.

You do not even have to see them, you get a strong signal but cannot connect as the connection bounces back and forth between the two routers / ips



get the diagnostic utility netstumbler

More sensitive for finding rogue signals



http://www.netstumbler.com



Antennas do not increase power > they focus the signal

You can build one of these antennas



http://www.freeantennas.com/



The antenna in a laptop are usually quite good and tons better than any in pcmcia cards - ( small antennas)





These antennas work like a charm with off the shelf components . And you can extend the usb a long way



http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/



use a generic wi fi adapter, ( not a linksys or dlink) almost anything else. The chipset is called a zydas chipset. Only found in usb wi fi adapter



You can compare your lid antenna to the bowl antenna

I know the lid antennas are a big improment over the pcmcia cards .





you can easily make an antenna with a usb adapter, 12 inch metal bowl, pencil stuck into a cork or pop bottle top and duct tape. Drive my friend raymond crazy but works like a shot. It is trial and error but the optimum point for reception seems to be around 7 inches ( antenna ) off the base of the metal bowl.



You will have to use the wireless utlity program that comes with the adapter. The windows wireless utiltiy is not only next to useless and in this case there are two measurements and the wireless utlity does not know what to do with the signal.

The signal strength is low but the bounce back ( the effective transmission is off the scale)

You do not so much aim it but point it in a general direction. The problem with cantennas is tha that you need certain adapters ( which all look the same) and there is great signal strength loss along the wire. Not so with usb.

The concept of db still eludes me - it some measurement to some imaginary whatever

as a rought guide

- the antenna on a router 1 db

- the $ 60 add on linksys - 7 db

- these antennas 12-15dB gain

The router should be clear and not surrounded by clutter.



I would try changing the signal type and rate

Try moving the rate down.

Try g only , even b only

You might want to lock the signal in peer to peer mode at one channel and ssid . The signal would be locked in as oppsed to infrastructure mode.

The role of these people at big box stores is to sell extended warranties not product or product knowledge.

I just sent back by ups a best buy panasonic cordless phone that i paid an " exchange " two year warranty on. After going to best buy - young girl "Did you call the 800 number". Got throught that all- a real challenge. In the end I had to send the phone by ups to texas. a minimum 4 week for the replacement which comes as a gift card.

To my mind the better choice would be to get an pre version 5 Linksys wrt54g router , now sold as the Linksys WRT54GL ( L stands for linksys)



You can upgrade the firmware with 3rd party firmwares to add advanced features and more power . You do invalidate your warranty but these firmwares are more than commonly used and this does not seem to be an issue

Most well known of these firmwares is Sveasoft



http://www.sveasoft.com/



http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/ddwrt.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DD-WRT





www.linksysinfo.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrt54g



The point of all of this is that you can boost the power up from the default 28 mw to 250 mw and as well choose antennas .



http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-Cisco-WRT54GL-Wireless-G-Broadband-Compatible/dp/B000BTL0OA



http://www.google.ca/search?q=amazon+wrt54gl&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=com.google:en-US:official&client=firefox



and www.ncix.com



In the end though you may have to build this antenna



http://www.wifi-shootout.com/



3rd Annual Defcon Wifi Shootout Contest



New world record for unamplified wireless networking!!



125 miles!





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DD-WRT

Answer 3

That Linksys is not going to do the trick. What you need to do the job right is a wireless access point and a good directional outside antennae. 4000 ft. is a lot of ground to cover - dude that is almost a mile.

You can browse for your parts at tigerdirect.com

Answer 4

in a perfect world it should work except a 802.11g router should go about 100 ft but your problem is your walls in your house your wireless phone and neighbors walls and electronics not to mentioned a saturated wireless area you might try adding a cantana they let you direct your signal and are pretty cheap on ebay. hook it up and set it firing out the window toward the house where you want to pick up the signal. or go with a nimo card and a nimo router be ready to spend about 200 for that setup. another option try different channals in your router mayber you are just to congested on the channal you are on

Answer 5

i had same situation many circumstances while 2 or greater wifi networks in place . my pc grow for use to catch different networks quickly while there grow to be fluctuating sign. try under technique. pass wifi netwrok putting on ur pc and verify if there are greater prompt networks from neighbourhood. if definite then pass to properties of ur wifi connection and choose >continuously hook up with my wifi newtork even regardless of if this is no longer broadcasting.

Answer 6

What kind of TV are you using? We had trouble because the Wii was too close to the old 25" set my son had. We moved it away and now connect fine. Someone told us that the older tv sets give off alot of elector magnetic stuff that can iterfee with the signal?



Good Luck

Answer 7

4000ft is beyond most wi-fi I know, but this could be accomplished by a wi-fi antenna, but at an expense for equipment and installation.

Try this site and its links:

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wirelessrouters/f/bestwifirange.htm

Hope this helps, was thinking of using geek squad for a problem but not now, I’ll go to college sites.

Answer 8

the laptop is G not N