what exactly means the signal quality and how is it computed? Is this has some relation with signal strength?

Question

in short:
1. what exactly signal quality means?
2. what is signal strength?
2. what is the relation between signal strenth and signal quality?

Answer 1

Usually they go hand in hand but not always



Signal strength is the strength of the signal



Signal quality is how well the connection works

Usually they go hand in hand but not always

Two examples

- you might have a good signal strength from your router but a weak signal from a neighbour ( that you may not even be able to see with the stupid windows wireless utiility)

You would have good signal strength from your router and yet your internet connection might not even work from the interference



- second example

happens with this

the windows wireless utlity only measures strength

with this adapter / antenna



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



it will measure a low signal strenth and yet the signal quality ( where the utility is bouncing a test signal on a regular basis and testing the connection ) is off the scale

Internet works great



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



http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

Answer 2

i cant give you the tech answer but i can give you some cheap advice - here is how i judge it - strength is how much signal my router puts out - quality is how much actually gets to my computer . some things we don't often think of is that some types of material do not conduct well such as concrete walls or brick walls - it will go thru concrete block walls cause of the air pockets - it can go thru wood and water and plaster board but it does lose some strength but it will not go thru glass or foil backed insulation - and you must also remember that it only goes about 300 feet - so if you want maximum quality - where you install your modem in relation to where you sit is often more important than how strong the signal is it puts out. pat

Answer 3

Try switching the box off at the main socket, leave it for 5 minutes then try again. Make sure your card is ok as well. If that doesnt work give sky a phone.