Improved the Wifi in garden and house too, like this...

buglawton

I was trying to solve the issue of getting a WiFi signal at the back of the garden where there is a nice shady spot to sit at. Rotating the wireless router so it's axis went towards the garden helped a bit, placing some foil in the shape of a parabola behind and close to the router helped a bit more and now the laptop could get a stable signal at that spot in the garden. But I was not finished...

At this point I noticed that the phone still could not get a reliable WiFi signal in the garden, OK that might be expected in a small old model smartphone.

I dug around on Google a bit more and installed Inssider, a free program from Metageek, on a laptop.

After letting Inssider scan awhile from the back of the garden I could now see which channels the neighbours were occupying. Lo and behold, I was sharing the same channel with a nearby neighbour whose signal was as strong as mine!

A bit of research shows that sharing a channel does not prevent your WiFi from working but degrades it quite a bit. "View Available Wireless Networks" when I right click on the standard WiFi icon on the system tray shows both neighbour's and my WiFi but gives no hint of a channel clash.

Next step was to move my WiFi channel to an unused space. Suddenly the mobile & an iPod Touch can get stable WiFi in the garden, not possible before. I also suspect I've improved the speed indoors.

Try it! You may be able to extend your WiFi to further corners of your house/garden with no extra equipment to buy.

(if Inssider does not work with your Wlan card, try the similar Netstumbler - I like the nice graphical display of Inssider).

Oscar_The_Grouch

The download is currently available from the Computeractive website (clicky). I'm just trying it now....

dragon934

I've only been on this forum 3 days and have advised several people on changing their channels if having dodgy connection, yet I never thought about looking for a tool that would prove a conflict!!
Great Find!:beer:

***Edit*** dragon934 tries to download - his own wireless drops out while downloading. Gotta love irony

Orville

buglawton wrote: »

I was trying to solve the issue of getting a WiFi signal at the back of the garden where there is a nice shady spot to sit at. Rotating the wireless router so it's axis went towards the garden helped a bit, placing some foil in the shape of a parabola behind and close to the router helped a bit more and now the laptop could get a stable signal at that spot in the garden. But I was not finished...

At this point I noticed that the phone still could not get a reliable WiFi signal in the garden, OK that might be expected in a small old model smartphone.

I dug around on Google a bit more and installed Inssider, a free program from Metageek, on a laptop.

After letting Inssider scan awhile from the back of the garden I could now see which channels the neighbours were occupying. Lo and behold, I was sharing the same channel with a nearby neighbour whose signal was as strong as mine!

A bit of research shows that sharing a channel does not prevent your WiFi from working but degrades it quite a bit. "View Available Wireless Networks" when I right click on the standard WiFi icon on the system tray shows both neighbour's and my WiFi but gives no hint of a channel clash.

Next step was to move my WiFi channel to an unused space. Suddenly the mobile & an iPod Touch can get stable WiFi in the garden, not possible before. I also suspect I've improved the speed indoors.

Try it! You may be able to extend your WiFi to further corners of your house/garden with no extra equipment to buy.

(if Inssider does not work with your Wlan card, try the similar Netstumbler - I like the nice graphical display of Inssider).

Wouldn't a wireless n router give you more coverage...?

NeverInDebt

Wireless n do give better coverage you can improve the range with wireless repeaters this should work with g routers too

Poly,put_the_kettle_on

...and, just say, for example, there was a complete twit who'd just found out their neighbours wifi was using the same channel, they'd change it how? :whistle:

kwikbreaks

Poly,put_the_kettle_on wrote: »

...and, just say, for example, there was a complete twit who'd just found out their neighbours wifi was using the same channel, they'd change it how? :whistle:

Well a complete twit would probably try sawing a bit off their router aerial. Someone slightly more sensible would start by logging into the admin account on their router and going to the wireless section.

Poly,put_the_kettle_on

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Well a complete twit would probably try sawing a bit off their router aerial. Someone slightly more sensible would start by logging into the admin account on their router and going to the wireless section.

Erm, anyone got any sellotape?

weegie.geek

Somewhere in your router's config pages at 192.168.whateveryourrouter'sipaddressis.

and yeah Orville, some Wireless N would give you better coverage, but why bother replacing a router when a simple tweak like this can improve your reception?

dragon934

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Well a complete twit would probably try sawing a bit off their router aerial. Someone slightly more sensible would start by logging into the admin account on their router and going to the wireless section.

Poly,put_the_kettle_on wrote: »

Erm, anyone got any sellotape?

:rotfl::T:rotfl:

Hammyman

Poly,put_the_kettle_on wrote: »

...and, just say, for example, there was a complete twit who'd just found out their neighbours wifi was using the same channel, they'd change it how? :whistle:

Log into your router and change it in the wireless settings.