Poor signal strength

TheDoc

Hi there guys.

I recently bought a new pc, its a real animal. But it didnt come with a wireless lan card, so i went out and picked up a belkin one, 802,11g is the number on it. I installed it grand and away it went picking up the signal and i could surf the net.

But I didnt notice until today that the signal strength is only being picked up at 40%. I have another pc in the room next across the way maybe 10ft and it picks the strength of 90%, the source of the signal is next door(no illegal scams bought two houses and made em into one)

The pc picking it up at 90% is using a usb adapater from 3com, not the little usb sticks but a kinda box plugged into the usb port with an antenna. I'm using a card at the back of my pc for the weak signal.

Is there anyway to boost this signal streggnth caue it is causing major lag in games that i cannot stand.

MunsterCycling

I think I saw the word BELKIN in there somewhere, I'm afraid you've sealed your fate pretty much to low signal hell,there's a reason they are so cheap, they're cr@p!

Munster

TheDoc

well there was a linksy or something one, it was more what i wanted, it was a usb adapater but not like a usb mem stick it was a big box and what looked powerful, double the price but that would get me a better signal?

turbot

Heres my experience:

In terms of Signal Strength, I have the following wireless adaptors:


USB Netgear ME111

Belkin PCI Pre-N Mimo Card

Sitecom Mimo XR card

Dell 802.11b inbuilt card

Netgear PCMCIA Pre-N Mimo Card

Buffalo PCMCIA 54g


Of the above, both the Belkin Mimo and Netgear Mimo perform the best. I'd get 70% signal strength from both, approx.

I have a netgear rangemax router, WPN824

The USB Netgear does well, but will drop out occassionally.

The Sitecom MimoXR is ok, though not as good as I'd hoped, and will occassionally drop out. I even plugged in 3 x 15inch 9dbi antennae into it, which helped but not enough to get minimal packet loss for VOIP. I'd get 40-50% signal strength.

The Dell one barely works in the same room as the router...

The Buffalo was quite good in my last apartment, and I haven't used it in comparison to the other cards.

So now I'm going to order a Linksys WRG54GX with desktop antennae, and plug in 3 x 9dbi antennae, in a quest to get optimal wireless performance. If that doesn't do it, then I'll either get a 39DBi antennae, or I'll run an ethernet cable through my apartment.

This is so, going through three internal walls in a Georgian building, I have sufficient signal strength to get great quality VOIP reception.

Hope this helps...

MunsterCycling

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote:

well there was a linksy or something one, it was more what i wanted, it was a usb adapater but not like a usb mem stick it was a big box and what looked powerful, double the price but that would get me a better signal?

Would reccomend swopping the Belkin for the Linksys as the Linksys have better radios and are better supported. You can be lucky with Belkin gear but more often than not you end up frustrated and confused because it works, it doesn't work, it works... etc and with no obvious reason.

Munster

bushy...

Maybe the fact the little antenna is hidden down behind your pc with the weak signal isn't helping , try turning the pc back to front as a test to see if the signal improves.If it improves enough ,go get an antenna with a cable for it.