How to boost wifi signal

Tony_M_2

Hi all,

Recently moved house and my office/games room is two floors above the router so the strength of the wireless is usually low.

I have Virgin Media 30MB with a Dlink router in the living room, so no problem with wifi signal on the lower 2 floors.

Bought a Laptone USB for my now agening PC, which sits along side PS3 and laptops for work and home. Pretty fed up with the low signal.

Any suggestions what I can do (buy) to help improve the strength of the signal, will be very much appreciated.

Cheers, T

Fifer

Tony_M wrote: »

Hi all,

Recently moved house and my office/games room is two floors above the router so the strength of the wireless is usually low.

I have Virgin Media 30MB with a Dlink router in the living room, so no problem with wifi signal on the lower 2 floors.

Bought a Laptone USB for my now agening PC, which sits along side PS3 and laptops for work and home. Pretty fed up with the low signal.

Any suggestions what I can do (buy) to help improve the strength of the signal, will be very much appreciated.

Cheers, T

Cheap and cheerful range extender? (But read the reviews - takes a bit of setting up, it would appear.)

kwikbreaks

Probably your cheapest option would be a range extender such as...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-WA730RE-150MBPS-Wireless-Extender/dp/B003UZFSDG/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1312288409&sr=1-1

You'd need to experiment with placement on first or second floor.

A more expensive alternative would be a Powerline AP on the top floor fed from a powerline adaptor near the router. That option could cost close to £100 though.

As the signal path is near vertical the usual high gain antenna style probably wouldn't work well as they are best used mounted vertically with everything on the same level. Their gain is achieved by "squashing" the vertical spread so that would be self defeating. One might work mounted horizontally but it would be pretty hit and miss.

steve1980

Why don't you use a powerline plug?

gonzo127

if it was for gaming i would not be doing anything other than ethernet cable but then again i cant stand any lag when playing, but other than that the others have got it covered

bare in mind though that you can actually get a powerline adaptor which ends in a wireless box instead of another ethernet cable point so that might be an idea

free4440273

u could try an extender/repeater -- they often make a huge difference .

Fifer

gonzo127 wrote: »

bare in mind though that you can actually get a powerline adaptor which ends in a wireless box instead of another ethernet cable point so that might be an idea

That's what I use (a Solwise model). It works very well, but I'd probably go for the range extender if starting again today - they were very expensive only a couple of years ago.

GunJack

or, just a high-gain antenna to replace the existing one on your router, cheap and screws in in place of the standard one (unless your router has it built-in inside the case )