Any ways to improve reception of a wireless router?

Rebrabuk

Ive got NTL's 6 meg cable line, weve been with NTL for years and have been lucky enough to have very few problems, well actually theres been one problem recently we havent received a bill in nearly 6 months but other than that "issue" everything else is fine.

What i was hoping some of you could help with though is whether i can improve the reception from my wireless router. I have one comp downstairs in the kitchen where the main cable goes in and ive got a D-link wireless router i picked up myself(im in work atm and dont remember the exact model so i can edit it into this post once im home). The comp in the kitchen is connected by ethernet cable straight to the router so it very rarely has any problems.

Theres a laptop and another comp in the house connected wirelessly to the router, the laptop is generally only in the next room from where the router is but the reception is pretty crap first of all the download rate is cut quite a bit and its frequently dropping connection for like 5 minutes. The other PC is upstairs and it has the same issues as the laptop theyre just significantly worse.

Obviously this is a pain in the ass, what typically happens is the connection drops even though the wireless connection on the taskbar says its still active looking at it however reveals that theres only a trickle of bytes being sent/received(it will ofc show that theres been several 100k sent already but its current activity will be miniscule) and it will eventually tell me it's lost the connection(after something like 10 minutes).

If i tell it to disconnect and then reconnect it will sit there trying to connect and eventually come back saying there is no network being detected about 20 seconds after bringing up that message it will automatically reconnect itself to the network and everything will be working fine. This is only on a good day though some times it will say it can detect the network but it cant connect(it doesnt even say where it fails it just tries to connect then stops).

The network itself is secured with WEP encryption. I have managed to pick up 2 other wireless networks nearby in the area not sure of their source but only the laptop can detect them if i move it into the kitchen. Is there any chance these signals could interfere with the router's signal? I had tried changing the channel to different values but it had no affect apart from one or 2 knocking the connection off completely.

Is this anything to do with settings on the router or is it just simply the signal dying off as its going through walls/floors? Would putting ethernet cables from the router to the laptop/PC sort out the issue? Id prefer not to as from kitchen to upstairs is a long distance, not sure if i could get a long enough cable never mind the effect of having the damn thing stretched across the hall/stairs. Part of the reason for asking this is i currently use the downstairs comp for gaming and would like to switch to the one upstairs but since the connection is so unreliable its not exactly an option not to mention how much games love wireless.

I had thought it might be NTL throttling the connection due to us gonig over the download cap but afaik that's set to 50gb and noone is downloading any music or massive videos and the comp thats directly connected to the router never has any problems.

Kimbot

I would suggest trying another router!!

From what I know the D-Link routers aren't that great. I got a Dynamode Wireless Router from Elara for €43 and its great, no problems with it at all!!

Rebrabuk

I did get it a while ago and had checked some reviews for the specific router and there wasnt anything very negative about it. Still trying to remember the model i know its a d-link rangebooster but thats a pretty wide range so cant remember the specific model number.

Kimbot

Well I have no loss at all on my router even out in the garden on the laptop.

Only things I can think of:

1: The range in the router isn't great.
2: There is no security on your router and someone is accessing the net through your router.

Here is the router I got:

http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=MMEM160502

Rebrabuk

As i said above the network is WEP protected and the router itself has a hardware firewall(although i cant vouch for how much use it is since ive a firewall on all the comps).

Kimbot

If you can gain access to another router and see if that works better. I will have a little think about it for a while and see what else I can come up with!!

Rebrabuk

Cheers, i had an older DELL router but the D-link was actually an improvement over that(bit hard to believe, i know), tried using it recently it was pretty useless connection was significantly worse even if i had the laptop in the same room as the router it had a habit of dropping off, it was even causing problems for the comp that was directly wired to it.

pjproby

try changing the channel you are broadcasting on-might be worth a shot.

neacy69

also in case someone has accessed you network change the WEP key or even better change to WPA-PSK as this is much harder to crack

The_B_Man

or,

if ya stick a sorta "tinfoil sail" on the aerial, it will increase the range.

stick the router in the corner of your house and you'll get better recpetion. The sail focuses the signal in 1 direction, hence why it needs to be in the corner.

Freddie59

Hope these will help.:)

http://www.curbly.com/Chrisjob/posts/1559-Tips-to-Boost-Your-Wireless-Internet-Network-

http://www.wirelesspro.co.uk/products/subcategory.aspx?ID=2b5d4d82-41e1-4d7c-9643-d1b29fce0618&gclid=CKWMsf3Ih44CFQMfEgodsyxrEA

rrpc

I have a D-Link G604T which is about 3 years old now and no problems with it. Wireless though can be a real pain and even when you get a connection, it can drop down to less than the speed of your broadband if it is having trouble.

I have been getting reports from other people about wireless routers failing or not working properly where they were great when I'd originally installed them. I've taken some of them out and tested them off site (I'm in a country area) and they're fine.

The conclusion I've come to is that with the proliferation of wireless routers in urban areas, the chatter is enormous and as a consequence, the wireless signal degrades to a point where it's unusable.

I've had a number of situations where this has happened with what were perfectly good signals before and even changing routers hasn't helped.

End result is I've had to use CAT5 in some situations and use these in others.

Blame Eircom for churning these things out to people who didn't need them and have them turned on all day blaring out unnecessary signal traffic.

dub45

Netstumbler can help you see what other networks are in the area and you can then change your channel away.

http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

Have you updated the D link with the latest firmware?

Are there any dect phones in the house that might be causing interference?

Nody

Changing to a unused channel (use netstumbler to check for that) and reboot the router often (at least weekly).

rrpc

You can also get extended aerials for wireless routers. There are plenty around with different specs from 6dB up.

Be careful though, I tested one once and the signal degraded from the factory one.:eek:

The other thing to note about wireless signals is they broadcast in a cone shape (vertically more than horizontally). As such you get a better signal upstairs than you do on the same floor. Some of the external aerials you can get are directional and you can use them to boost a spot that normally doesn't get a good signal.

Concrete walls and floors are also great for blocking signals, in practice two concrete walls can be enough to cut the signal down to nothing, whereas you can go two floors through normal timber/plasterboard suspended floors.

Kimbot

Yeah, had a mess around with my router last night by moving the aerial and noticed that if you point it towards your pc upstairs then you signal should increase a small bit aswell!!

rrpc

jonny24ie wrote:

Yeah, had a mess around with my router last night by moving the aerial and noticed that if you point it towards your pc upstairs then you signal should increase a small bit aswell!!

That's it exactly, if you slip outside or to the edge of the signal cone, it can get very dodgy.

I still think the Devolo electric outlet networking system is the best for houses, and just use the wireless if you have no power sockets nearby.

rrpc

btw, it's very easy to pick up if someone is piggybacking on your network. You can look at the routers client list and spot any extra ip addresses not belonging to you. If he's clever he's got the ip assignments in manually so it doesn't show up, but very few people will do that.

If you add MAC address security, it will put an end to that anyway.

Red Alert

You should MAC lock your router as well as enabling encryption. MAC addresses can be spoofed but that plus the encryption is hard enough for casual people to break.

It does mean that new PC's need to have their MAC address added to the router's security but if you're not having people coming and going that often then it's not a problem.

Rebrabuk

Ill look into increasing the security but from what i've seen from checking the router itself theres only 3 connections on it(main comp, laptop and the comp upstairs). Tried messing around with the aerials it had very little effect unfortunately.

There's no actual concrete walls in the way there is one between the laptop+router but this wall has a large partition where there's 2 wooden doors so dont quite see how the concrete could cause an issue(in fact from router to laptop is a direct line through the doors and not the wall).

As i mentioned the laptop can sometimes pick up 2 other networks nearby but the signal from them is extremely weak so not sure how much interference they would give off(1 of them comes up as being eircom other one says NTL), i have been cycling through the channels a lot but its made little or no difference.

The router itself isnt very old but ill have a look at updating the firmware anyway.

It's not so much the signal strength thats the problem it's the fact that the connection is constantly dropping, what's annoying is it's always only one connection that drops off i.e laptop gets disconnected comp upstairs stays on or vice versa.

There does happen to be a wireless phone in the house(it's one of those dual handset setups where there's one base and an off shoot setup also) will have to check the model number on it but its from eircom and it's several years old so cant be certain what type of frequency it could be using. The main base for it is directly above the kitchen while the second one is in the actual kitchen however it's a good distance away from the router and neither one is physically between the router and the other comps.

rrpc

Rebrabuk wrote:

Ill look into increasing the security but from what i've seen from checking the router itself theres only 3 connections on it(main comp, laptop and the comp upstairs). Tried messing around with the aerials it had very little effect unfortunately.

Did you get much difference if you brought the laptop closer to the router by any chance, or if you brought it upstairs?

There's no actual concrete walls in the way there is one between the laptop+router but this wall has a large partition where there's 2 wooden doors so dont quite see how the concrete could cause an issue(in fact from router to laptop is a direct line through the doors and not the wall).

As I said earlier, the broadcast is not in a direct line, but in a cone shape, upwards and outwards. Having said that, your set up doesn't sound like it's the problem.

As i mentioned the laptop can sometimes pick up 2 other networks nearby but the signal from them is extremely weak so not sure how much interference they would give off(1 of them comes up as being eircom other one says NTL), i have been cycling through the channels a lot but its made little or no difference.

OK, not the problem either. I've never found channel changing to be much use in these situations in any case.

It's not so much the signal strength thats the problem it's the fact that the connection is constantly dropping, what's annoying is it's always only one connection that drops off i.e laptop gets disconnected comp upstairs stays on or vice versa.

This might be closer to the source of your problem. The more wireless devices you have the more dodgy the connections get, especially if there is any kind of traffic on it. I met something like this before where there were five machines running wireless and the router just couldn't cope. You'd get 4 bars and then when you tried to connect the signal just disappeared, only to reappear when you stopped trying to connect. Very frustrating :mad:

I'd try disconnecting the house phone and unplugging any tellies etc. just to be sure that it's not interference, but my belief is that it's the wireless inability to handle too many simultaneous connections.

If you could hardwire your PC's and just leave the laptop on wireless I'd bet your problem would be sorted.

If you don't want to run CAT5, then look at the Devolo system for hardwiring.

Rebrabuk

If i take the laptop upstairs the signal strength nosedives and the disconnecting gets worse, if it's downstairs just in another room from the router the strength is actually pretty good the download speeds dont suffer too much but it's the same issue with it disconnecting frequently. When it's in the same room as the router the signal strength and download speeds are great but it doesnt stop the disconnects they're just a lot rarer and do not take as long to reconnect.

Would having a load of wired connections to the router not result in the same problem where it cant cope with all the information being passed around or is it just that wireless puts some extra strain on it?

How would the Devolo work does it simply have the main unit hooked up to the router and sends the signal to the second unit?

Ill probably give the hardwiring a try just gotta figure out what length id need so can at least keep it reasonable.I dont suppose the actual distance the signal has to be sent along the cable would affect it much would it?

zilog_jones

dub45 wrote:

Are there any dect phones in the house that might be causing interference?

AFAIK DECT phones don't interfere with WLANs - they use completely different frequency bands. I think some cordless phones in the US use the ISM band (2.4GHz, same as WLANs and Bluetooth) - but I don't think they exist here.

The only things I'm certain will interfere are microwave ovens (only when it's on though), and other WLANs. From what I've seen most routers use channel 6 by default (esp. Eircom ones), so I'd recommend going to the other ends of the scale, i.e. channel 1 or 13 - though watch out, some wireless devices have crap drivers that assume you're in the US where channels 12 and 13 aren't allowed for use.

I have found larger aerials on the router (if you can change them) and directional aerials (where possible) can help. I got a directional aerial (small plastic box yoke from Maplin) for my desktop upstairs (router is downstairs) and it improved reception significantly.

bk

zilog_jones wrote:

AFAIK DECT phones don't interfere with WLANs - they use completely different frequency bands. I think some cordless phones in the US use the ISM band (2.4GHz, same as WLANs and Bluetooth) - but I don't think they exist here.

DECT phones, baby monitors, sky eyes and many other devices use the same 2.4GHz frequency as WLAN and can therefore interfere with wireless access points.

The OP might want to check out the new 802.11n Draft 2.0 gear which offers higher speeds and greater distance.

neacy69

if the connection is still dropping when you are cable connected to it then your router may be fooked
Is it dropping when cable connected? who is your internet provider?


EDIT: sorry just re-read the OP Did ntl give you a router?

rrpc

Rebrabuk wrote:

If i take the laptop upstairs the signal strength nosedives and the disconnecting gets worse, if it's downstairs just in another room from the router the strength is actually pretty good the download speeds dont suffer too much but it's the same issue with it disconnecting frequently. When it's in the same room as the router the signal strength and download speeds are great but it doesnt stop the disconnects they're just a lot rarer and do not take as long to reconnect.

Sounds like interference so.

Would having a load of wired connections to the router not result in the same problem where it cant cope with all the information being passed around or is it just that wireless puts some extra strain on it?

Depends on the router. If you take a normal net switch, obviously they can only accept so many connections (wired) as they only have that many sockets. A wireless+wired router can conceivably have n times the number of sockets it has for wires and certainly that can cause a problem.

How would the Devolo work does it simply have the main unit hooked up to the router and sends the signal to the second unit?

Pretty much. Except you can keep adding as many remote devices as you want.

Ill probably give the hardwiring a try just gotta figure out what length id need so can at least keep it reasonable.I dont suppose the actual distance the signal has to be sent along the cable would affect it much would it?

CAT5 is rated up to 100 metres, though in practice you normally don't go beyond 80.

zilog_jones

bk wrote:

DECT phones, baby monitors, sky eyes and many other devices use the same 2.4GHz frequency as WLAN and can therefore interfere with wireless access points.

DECT phones use 1880-1900MHz. I've never heard of them interfering with WLANs or other ISM band stuff. As I said some crap 'merkin phones use 2.4GHz but I don't think they're allowed to sell them here.

I forgot about video senders - they usually use 2.4GHz. Dunno about baby monitors, but wouldn't be surprised if they do too.