Its so annoying! You’ve setup your wireless router and sat down with your laptop to check your email or bid on that weekend car you want on ebay and wham – no connectivity. Even worse you cannot get your laptop working wirelessly other than in the same room as the wireless router.
So just how can you boost the signal and get yourself connected to your wireless?
First things first…
Lets talk about limits. If you own a 15 bedroomed historic stone built mansion and you expect that cheapo wireless router you bought from the market for under a tenner to provide a wireless signal in the snooker room which is on the other side of the building then think again. Switch off the chandeliers at night for a couple of weeks and you’ll save enough money to go out and buy a decent wireless router which will have a good chance and performing to your requirements.
Lets just clarify – junk in equals junk out. You dont want the hassle of messing about with that wireless router when you get home from the office so give yourself a chance at the srart and aim to spend around £80-£100 or there about on good kit to start with. A second hand one from the car boot for a fiver is fine if you like the challenge of boosting your blood pressure out of office hours.
Secondly is the area flooded with wireless? Fire up your laptop and view available wireless networks. If the list of available networks bigger than your company expense claim form and the majority reporting high or excellent signal strength? If so, you need to consider an alternative approach. You see there is only a narrow frequency band that can be used by wireless routers. As broadband has truly come into the homes of the masses with most providers sending out wireless routers the frequency spectrum has become swamped in some highly populated areas. Imagine you live in a block of 12 flats and 9 of those has wireless broadband your router will be overrun with interference giving you that sinking feeling when you see the dreaded no signal message. If you are in this situation you can do one of four things…
- ask your neighbour if you can use their connection – offer to pay a contribution to their broadband
- Subscribe to a mobile broadband package that uses the GSM mobile phone network
- Make the connection between your router using homeplug network adapters which use the mains wiring to transmit network signals.
- Consider using 802.11a networking equipment. This equipment uses a different frequency and is usually used in business setups so is unlikely to be encountered in your block of flats. You will need a matching wifi card in your computer or laptop for this to work.
Next we’re going to talk about wireless routers.
A 54g standard router will cover the average semi-detached house or 3/4 bedroomed detached house without too many problems. An example would be the Netgear DG834g wireless router.
If you’ve got a larger house or a non standard construction such as thicker stone walls then you need something with a little more ooomph. We’d suggest an n standard router. At the time of writing the n standard is only draft but there are plenty of manufacturers producing the equipment, such as Netgear, Belkin, Linksys etc. We’ve previously had 802.11n equipment working over 5 floors and in comparison the 802.11g kit only worked over 3 to give you some idea of the extended range offered by the n wireless kit.
One free simple thing to try is to rotate the router by 90 degrees. The signal generated by the wireless router ariels is not a perfect circle. Turning the router moves the radiated signals with it which can help. Additionally if you imagine the signal output as a large invisible donut. If you are in a room immediately above the wireless router then rotate the ariel by 45 degrees and see if this improves things.
Is the router hidden behing your metal computer case? If so improve the wireless signal by moving it away from the computer. Try and place it high up away from the metal computer case which will effectively block the signal.
Have you got some of those wireless video senders beaming men and motors into the bedroom? Guess what? Most operate on the same frequency as wireless routers. Turn them off and unplug them and see if your signal has improved.
Have you tried changing the wireless channel that your router operates on? Most wireless routers given away free by internet service providers default to a preset channel. Open your wireless routers configuration settings page and try changing the channel. Depending on where you live you’re likely to have 11 or 13 channels available. Start at channel 1, restart the router and see if you can connect. If you can’t then increase the channel and try again repeating the process as necessary.
Related Links:
Here are some other related sites that we found for you to browse providing further information. Ultimate One is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites.
↑ Back to Top