how to boost the signal of the wifi connection

swingking

I was wondering how I might go about boosting the signal coming from the wifi router. The router I am using at the moment is a netopia router provided by eircom.

I imagine that this won't have a good connection, so do I need to get a new router or is there a way to boost the connection. I want to use my laptop in my bedroom. The bedroom is located in a converted attic, which is quite far away from the location of the router.

Any help would be appreciated

Saruman

Either new router with more range.. Or get a directional antenna and point in general direction of your room.

Although.. cant remember if you can change the one on the netopia....

Zirconia

It might work as is, if you position the router in a suitable place (your hallway for example) it might be okay.

If not, well there are devices called wireless extenders that would relay the signal if plugged in somewhere in between.

Alternatively, there are plug adapters that send ethernet over your power mains - just get two of these, plug one in beside your netopia and patch it into one of the ethernet ports, and plug the other adapter in in the attic and run an ethernet cable from it to your laptop.

starman100

Well, you could always try the cheapest option - get a used aluminum pie dish (the disposable type, eat the pie first ), then position it close to the router in such a way as to 'bounce' the router signal in the direction that you want off the flat base of the dish i.e. to act like a simple parabolic reflector.

Not 100% sure if this works (based on hearsay) but no harm trying.

force4

Before i setup up a lynksys router with a wireless g expander , i was talking to one of the techies in PC world. He suggested getting an empty pringles container ,stuffing it with tinfoil and sticking it on the antenna. Never tried it as my wife would have phoned the asylum immediately.

DublinWriter

force4 wrote:

Before i setup up a lynksys router with a wireless g expander , i was talking to one of the techies in PC world. He suggested getting an empty pringles container ,stuffing it with tinfoil and sticking it on the antenna. Never tried it as my wife would have phoned the asylum immediately.

Commonly called a can-tenna. A properly made one can pick up and connect to wireless networks 10km away, from say a car war-driving up in the Summit Carpark in Howth pointed at the greater Dublin region....so I'm told *ahem*

The problem with that is that it's directional. OP needs omni-directional. You can purchase wireless network repeater boxes that can sit mid way between router and intended area of usage. These relay the orignal traffic on a different channel, or let you designate a new SSID on any channel.

SparrowHawk

Hi,

maybe off topic....sorry,

anyone know where you can pickup those plug adapter ethernet for the mains power (in dublin) & if they're any good?

Thanks,


SH

zilog_jones

DublinWriter wrote:

The problem with that is that it's directional. OP needs omni-directional.

He doesn't really - he said he only uses it in his bedroom, so a directional antenna pointing there on his router would improve things.

I have a directional antenna (kinda a flat rectangular yoke I got in Maplin for €20) for my desktop PC upstairs in my bedroom pointing at the router downstairs, and it made a significant improvement in signal quality. Previously I was getting a "very low" signal strength accoring to Windows, now it's "very good" to "excellent" (an SNR of around 42-45 dBm). And it makes a hell of a lot of difference when transferring files and stuff between the two PCs on the network - before it would take over half an hour just to transfer about 50-60MB. Now it does it in a reasonable time

rebel.ranter

Just remember that the laptop is also a transmitter. Even of you put a new antenna on the Netopia you may experience issues.
I like the idea of the wireless extender or the mains ethernet.
I assume the house is a family home with downstairs, upstairs & attic conversion. If so have you thought of moving the Netopis router to a room on the 1st floor, some main bedrooms have phone lines in them, just plug in here. That should mean that you need no additional hardware. And it should work all over the house.

swingking

Thanks for all the responses

I ended up getting a belkin accesspoint/wireless extender and it has worked a treat. Not cheap though, but worth it