Poor Signal...?

TerrorFirmer

I have a sitecom wireless router. I have a pci wireless card in my pc, and the distance between the two is about 2 meters. The signal I get is 100%.

However, move down the hallway, literally 5 meters away to my room where I have my laptop and a lan card, and the coverage keeps dropping non stop, working on and off, refusing to connect etc....I'm using a Cable and Wireless pcmcia lan card in my laptop.

Which of them is likely to be the culprit...? Just though anyone might have experience with the above brands....its very annoying, as the whole point was to be able use the net wherever I wanted...not have to be right across the hallway at a certain angle to get access!

irlrobins

I wouldn't rate sitecom very highly tbh.

First thing I'd do would be to undate drivers and firmware on both. See if that helps. Also swtich off any power management features of the wireless card on the laptop.

After that I'd change channels on the router to see if there is any interference. (channels 1,6 or 11 are best to use imo). You can use netstumbler to see if there are any sources of intereference nearby.

Hope this helps.

TerrorFirmer

irlrobins wrote:

After that I'd change channels on the router to see if there is any interference. (channels 1,6 or 11 are best to use imo

Thanks, I will try netstumbler and updating tonight...but how do I change channel?

Thanks

edit: how do I update the firmware on the router as well....seeing as its not connected to the pc?

irlrobins

Read router manual. It varies from router to router. It's usually just a case of selecting one from a drop down menu on the config page.

As for firmware, you download the firmware file to your PC, access router's web config page and browse for the firmware file on your PC. Then just upload and your away.

Post router model number and I'll look it up to be certain.

TerrorFirmer

Thats great. I will check that out later, no idea what the model is. btw - when I access the configuration page, it asks for username and password - it this set by the last owner of the router or would I find it in the manual of the router?

sorry for all these dumb questions, I am hopeless when it comes to wireless

Thanks alot for all your help

irlrobins

It's prob set to something like admin and admin or admin and 1234 by default. If it's set to something else by previous owner, just do a reset on it to restore to factory settings then follow manual to configure it. In fact if it's a second hand router Id' def do this. Much easier starting off with a blank canvas so to speak.

MunsterCycling

http://www.nantes-wireless.org/pages/wiki/index.php/DefaultPassword


Possibly useful but would support irlrobins in the thinking to reset the reouter and start afresh.