Boosting UPC wireless signal

git_ireland

Hi folks.

I know its been covered before but just want to make sure the device in looking at is compatible.

I have 30mb broadband with UPC. on wireless beside the router i can get a speed of 17mb.
Up one floor in the house the wireless speed decreases to about 2mb.

Would one of these things work to boost the signal?
If not would you have any recommendations?

http://uk.tp-link.com/products/details/?categoryid=&model=TL-WA850RE
It is being sold in Argos for €47.99

BloodBath

How old is the router? What wireless card are you using?

I'm guessing you have been with upc for a while and your router is quite old and possibly bad. You would be entitled to a free upgrade to 50mb with them but you will need a new router which should also boost the signal. You will have to pay €45 for the router upgrade though.

Maybe consider a new wireless card as well. Something like this

git_ireland

The router is 4 years old. Never had problems until about three weeks ago. Could get 15mb up one floor. Had an engineer out. They changed the channel on the signal but it didnt do much.

I dont know what you mean by asking about wireless card. I have a three month old samsung laptop.

Spoke to upc this monring, nothing about a free upgrade. I can upgrade alright but have to take on a phone aswell, that also signs on another year contract.

I was just looking for a simple solution, if there is such a thing.

BloodBath

Ah it's a laptop. My bad. Well I'm guessing it's just poor range from the built in wireless and a poor signal from the router.

I have no clue if those signal boosters are any good.

johnwest288

I upgraded my UPC and got a free thompson router. It sits in hallway and it used to be ok but as soon as you got to kitchen the signal was hit and miss. With the Thompson I can know get perfect signal not only in the kitchen but right to the back of the garden :cool:

git_ireland

Sorry BloodBath, probably should have said that. Thank for your input anyway.

Hopefully someone else on here might have a better idea.

BloodBath

Where is your router located? Have you tried moving it?

git_ireland

Router is located in sitting room beside tv. There is no length to move it. They only fixed about 3ft of cable when installing it.

BloodBath

You could try a ghetto mod to boost the signal range.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqnHz75dmQY

riclad

You can get a powerline adaptor,plugs into router, reciever unit has ethernet out ,gives you full speed connection.AS If Laptop was plugged into router.
theres ones with wifi transmitter , or ethernet out,on the reciever.
Sender ,reciever, pack 60 euro approx.
http://www.dlink.com/us/en/home-solutions/amplifi/powerline#

Disavantage is they need to be plugged into a wall, mains esb socket to work,
the ethernet reciever must be in the same room as laptop,
They do,nt work in extension leads.

You can move the reciever unit to any room that has a spare esb socket.

the_syco

Another homeplug solution; http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?productcode=MME5843776

It's more expensive than some of the other homeplug options, and the reason is that the plug that you plug in upstairs is a wireless access point, and thus you can connect to it wirelessly.

If you don't mind having your laptop connected via a cable, then this should suit you fine.

=-=

How a homeplug works (from another thread);



Goes from your UPC/Eircom/Vodafone/etc router, via your plugs, to your other plug, and out to your xbox/laptop/PC/etc.

Once there is only one fuseboard in your house; I've heard it may not work if you have more than one (but this is quite rare).

CreepingDeath

git_ireland wrote: »

I have 30mb broadband with UPC. on wireless beside the router i can get a speed of 17mb.
Up one floor in the house the wireless speed decreases to about 2mb.

My parents house is like that, there's a lot of plumbing/pipework in the ceiling which blocks the signal.

There's a free Android app called Wifi Analyzer which is great for diagnosing the problem.

It'll show all the Wifi networks in the area so you pick the less congested WiFi channel ( 1 - 14 )

But one test worth doing, assuming you have an Android phone, is to select your one network in WiFi Analyzer and there's a screen which gives you an audio "beep" to say how strong the signal is. The further away you go, the slower the beeping gets.

I saw a huge signal dropoff when I just went down the stairs in my parents house, in the area near all the plumbing.

I've bought a second hand LinkSys 54G router and will bridge the two routers together wirelessly.
So I'll try to put the second router as near as possible to the first one, but downstairs under the plumbing.
Hopefully that'll help boost the range downstairs.
Although my parents problem was no internet, as opposed to a slow internet.

Also, UPC will move your incoming internet cable for around €60.
I had them move mine to the back of the house.

regards,
CD

git_ireland

the_syco wrote: »

Another homeplug solution; http://www.elara.ie/productdetail.aspx?productcode=MME5843776

It's more expensive than some of the other homeplug options, and the reason is that the plug that you plug in upstairs is a wireless access point, and thus you can connect to it wirelessly.

If you don't mind having your laptop connected via a cable, then this should suit you fine.

=-=

How a homeplug works (from another thread);



Goes from your UPC/Eircom/Vodafone/etc router, via your plugs, to your other plug, and out to your xbox/laptop/PC/etc.

Once there is only one fuseboard in your house; I've heard it may not work if you have more than one (but this is quite rare).

Thanks for your time and informative post. I have founf a wired home plug in Currys for €5. Think I will give that a shot and will report back.

git_ireland

CreepingDeath wrote: »

My parents house is like that, there's a lot of plumbing/pipework in the ceiling which blocks the signal.

There's a free Android app called Wifi Analyzer which is great for diagnosing the problem.

It'll show all the Wifi networks in the area so you pick the less congested WiFi channel ( 1 - 14 )

But one test worth doing, assuming you have an Android phone, is to select your one network in WiFi Analyzer and there's a screen which gives you an audio "beep" to say how strong the signal is. The further away you go, the slower the beeping gets.

I saw a huge signal dropoff when I just went down the stairs in my parents house, in the area near all the plumbing.

I've bought a second hand LinkSys 54G router and will bridge the two routers together wirelessly.
So I'll try to put the second router as near as possible to the first one, but downstairs under the plumbing.
Hopefully that'll help boost the range downstairs.
Although my parents problem was no internet, as opposed to a slow internet.

Also, UPC will move your incoming internet cable for around €60.
I had them move mine to the back of the house.

regards,
CD

That could be another option. Move it to the middle floor of a three storey house. Currently it is on the ground floor and the third floor gets virtually no access. Thanks for your help.