Any way of getting better wireless range.

James74

Hi all,

I have Eircom 3Mb Broadband, using the Netopia 3347NWG router supplied by eircom a few years ago. The good lady wife won't let me trail cables around the house so everything has to be wireless.

My problem is that my home office is at the far end of the house and does not get a consistant signal. Sometimes it's connected, sometimes not.

I've seen the Gigabit N routers & network adapters for sale and was considering buying these as they seem to have better range, but I thought a few expert opinions first (from your good selves) would be adviseable.

So should I buy the "N" kit? Is there any real advantage to the range? Am I a complete idiot and missing something simple?

Sorry if I'm demonstrating my complete ignorance, and thanks for any help in advance.

NB: I also use a laptop and PS3 contected via Wi-Fi.

Lab_Mouse

Hi,
the range might be ok it could be that you have solid based walls(in which case upgrading to the newer versions of routers might not help).

You could get a wireless broadbad extender or you could also get 2 powerline adapters which send the connection over your electric cables(http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.aspx?bn=10292).

I have never used eaither so cant recommend any bit of kit over the other.A google of review sites should point you in the right direction,
hope that helped a bit!

Tomk1

Try this:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=49125
Should work.

Mlo

I have similar problems (my house has concrete floors upstairs due to my heating system) and went from a G to an N router which does help signal strength.

For somewhat complicated reasons I also got a pair of powerline adaptors for my desktop system and they work very well, way better data speeds than the wireless, but they are expensive.

WRT N routers I'd stay away from Belkin ones as I had major problems with DNS leases expiring and eventually ended up replacing it with a Netgear unit.

dub45

Dont forget that if you go the 'n' route that you need 'n' adapters as well to get the maximum benefit. The trouble is - as I keep pointing out here - it is impossible to predict the performance of wireless equipment in any particular situation.

crawler

Good n router with 3 X antenna with MIMO. Replace antenna with high gain antenna. ensure MIMO on both router and adapter (and as dub45 says, n standard on both). You should be in business.

PogMoThoin

These will give much better speeds

Then if You know what You're at You can use a second wireless access point. Here's what You do with 2 linksys access points

James74

crawler wrote: »

Good n router with 3 X antenna with MIMO. Replace antenna with high gain antenna. ensure MIMO on both router and adapter (and as dub45 says, n standard on both). You should be in business.

Thanks for the replys folks. I might as well chance my arm again and ask for suggestions (brands, models & suppliers) on the setup suggested by crawler.

And a final question...(I think) most of the blurbs on the routers boxes I've looked at say that they are compatible with both G and N standard. Does this mean that I can get a N router and still use it to connect the PS3 and laptop which both have G wireless adapters, while at the same time use an N adapter on the main PC.

Again, sorry for the terribly inept terminology. If I haven't made myself clear then just point and laugh...I'll be in the corner. Thanks.

dub45

James74 wrote: »

Thanks for the replys folks. I might as well chance my arm again and ask for suggestions (brands, models & suppliers) on the setup suggested by crawler.

And a final question...(I think) most of the blurbs on the routers boxes I've looked at say that they are compatible with both G and N standard. Does this mean that I can get a N router and still use it to connect the PS3 and laptop which both have G wireless adapters, while at the same time use an N adapter on the main PC.

Again, sorry for the terribly inept terminology. If I haven't made myself clear then just point and laugh...I'll be in the corner. Thanks.

AFAIK once you used a g adapter in the network it drags it all down to the G standard. The airport extreme apparently allows you to set up two seperate networks but it is expensive.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB763LL/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0Mg&mco=NDE4NDQ3OA

Useful article:

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

Mlo

On the powerline adaptors 100mps is more than adequate for most applications, 200mps might be better for streaming video etc but probably is overkill for websurfing even playing online games.

Also if you go down the 200mbps route make sure your NICs support greater than 100mbps speeds.