Boosting the signal

[xbootie]

my lad has bought himself a laptop, he connects to the wireless router on the main computer downstairs, the signal strength up in his room seems to be failry weak, appreicate that the signal will deteriorate but he only 2 little green things out of five, any of you computer geniuses know if i can boost the signal from the router, the router is a BT 2901 thingy, thats whats on the front of the box with the flashing lights, i cannot seem to find anything on the bt help pages

cheers in advance Adrian

 

[Noel]

You can get a wireless repeater/expander, but I would try and move the router upstairs or even in the loft, to a more central location, I've found the signal seems to travel down better than through.

 

[Jezza]

Linksys (part of Cisco) do a home booster, I've not tried it, but it looks good on paper.

http://www-uk.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Promotion_C1&childpagename=UK%2FLayout&cid=1129319250207&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=5020743212B08

 

[redcastle]

You can throw money at this and it may still be weak, consider two homeplug network adapters (ethernet over power)
basically you plug one adapter into a 13amp socket downstairs and one in the lads room
plug the router into the downstairs adapter with an RJ45 cable and the laptop to the adapter in his room with an RJ45 cable.
You can have the RJ45 cables as long as you like............

Its not wireless but he will get 100 percent signal.


http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/default_ShopGroup.asp?ShopGroupID=61

the dynamode ones are fine if you go down that route

 

[Bateman]

Stick the router in a mid point in the house and put a wireless adapto in the main PC maybe. However, does a low signal mean slower connection? I have a low signal in my laptop upstairs but it seems to run as fast as my other PC

 

[Andrew from Basing]

My son had the same problem - apparantly these routers have 13 channels and he reckoned that we were getting interference on the factory set channel so he accessed the routed set-up and moved the thing on to another channel...he then got a signal in his room. Look in the router manual of see if you can find some on line help before shelling our any dosh

 

[Toad]

Depends on the standard of the router.

802.11b will not go as far as 802.11g

g will also give you 54Mbps at 100% signal as opposed to 11Mbps.

Wi-Max routers have a far greater signal coverage.