poor wireless connection

tuxy

im at a friends house and his wireless access point is down stairs
im upstairs and am getting a fairly poor signal
signal strength 34% quality 20%
lan games locks up net dosnt work all the time
iv tried moving the access point around as much as i can downstairs but this is the best i can get it
is there any cheap easy way to boost the signal just a bit so its more stable?

Stephen

as far as I understand, wireless gear should work better if the access point is upstairs.

tuxy

well the phoneline for adsl is downstairs thats why the access point is there

Err..

You could be getting interference. Try changing the wireless channel you're using.

Peanut

You could try putting a mirror, or a sheet of tin foil, underneath the access point.

Jabbathegut

Originally posted by Err..
You could be getting interference. Try changing the wireless channel you're using.

Try Err..'s suggestion, same issue for me on channel 7, changed access point to channel 11 and it flies.

Capt'n Midnight

Check the orientation of the antennas - the radiation comes of the sides of the antenna - not much comes off the top. - try with the antenna horizontal and aligned along the short axis of the house.

tuxy

ok thanks for all the ideas so far
i have changed the channel and although the signal strength is still weak it has stopped cutting out
i will try the other stuff later

tomk

Originally posted by Stephen
as far as I understand, wireless gear should work better if the access point is upstairs.

The idea here is to minimise the thickness of walls, floors, etc that the signal has to go through, so if you place it upstairs and access it downstairs or vice versa you could be cutting it down to one floor (wood) and one ceiling (plasterboard), whereas accessing our AP from another room on the same level could involve concrete wall(s) or possibly even foil-lined insulation etc.

kmick

Put on a tinfoil hat.

tuxy

Originally posted by kmick
Put on a tinfoil hat.

will this stop the martions from reading my mind?

iv seen the pringles can mod for increasing los range
is there a mod for increasing no los range?

happydude13

you'd be suprised how easy it is to reflect 802.11b radio
waves

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