setting up wifi in the house

geordief

As I have a fairly decent broadband supply,
( it is wireless and I think it is Wimax -at least if I upgrade )
I have a Linksys Router which works in most rooms of this large ,thick walled house.
If I upgrade to a better signal (2 or 3 megs from the 1 meg I am on now) will this increase the extent of the coverage?

Also, are there boosters that will also work to increase the coverage of my internal system?

StopNotWorking

A better wireless router will boost the wireless signal strength throughout the house. Thick walls are your worst enemy though. I know a friend who couldn't get a decent wireless signal down to the back of his house because the walls were so thick, in the end he bought some cable and moved the router further into the centre of the house. Which helped loads

hello932

geordief wrote: »

As I have a fairly decent broadband supply,
( it is wireless and I think it is Wimax -at least if I upgrade )
I have a Linksys Router which works in most rooms of this large ,thick walled house.
If I upgrade to a better signal (2 or 3 megs from the 1 meg I am on now) will this increase the extent of the coverage?

Also, are there boosters that will also work to increase the coverage of my internal system?

do you live in a detached house? are the walls in your house made of concrete?

leninbenjamin

flash it with DD-WRT? I've never used it myself but through it you boost the signal strength apparently.

geordief

thanks
well I thought this was meant to be quite a good router (it is a wrt54gl Cisco Linksys)
My question is whether upgrading the incoming signal is likely to improve the ourgoing signal and the resultant coverage.
If a 1 Meg signal resulted in an outgoing siganal with a radius of (hypothetically) 50 metres, could I extrapolate that an incoming 2 meg signal would result in an outgoing signal with a coverage of >50 metres?
I imagine it might not be double .
Also is it possible to carry the signal any distance with a physical cable and what might be the limit of its reach?

geordief

hello932 wrote: »

do you live in a detached house? are the walls in your house made of concrete?

hi
yes it is detached and the walls are stone and very thick (at least 2 feet)

geordief

geordief wrote: »

thanks

My question is whether upgrading the incoming signal is likely to improve the ourgoing signal and the resultant coverage.
If a 1 Meg signal resulted in an outgoing siganal with a radius of (hypothetically) 50 metres, could I extrapolate that an incoming 2 meg signal would result in an outgoing signal with a coverage of >50 metres?
I imagine it might not be double .
Also is it possible to carry the signal any distance with a physical cable and what might be the limit of its reach?

Upgrading the bandwidth as you suggest would not result in extending the signal.

The 802.11 is the working group for wireless, it is these standards that define the strenght of the wirless signal http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/wireless80211/a/aa80211standard.htm on your router it has the 802.11g and 802.11b standards. The 802.11n is the newest standard available.

You can physically attach your devices using Cat5 cable (network cable) to your router, generally the maximum distance for these devices is 100 meters.

Maybe the easiest option for you regarding the thickness of your walls is to use a powerline device http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=powerline&x=0&y=0 , these distribute the network signal through electric cabling through the house. I have never used such technology so I cannot comment on their success.

Have you set up the router and tested the signal throughout your house?

If signal not that strong, then maybe flash the firmware on the router as someone earlier suggested so you can have greater control over the router in amplifying the network signal.

If not successful there then maybe physically setting up Cat5 cable for connectivity.

Then there is the powerline products as another option.

Hope you can get is sorted.

leninbenjamin

the other thing might be to try and see if you can replace the antennae on the linksys with high gain directional antennae. I don't know how easy they are to come across though.

hello932

and what encryption will you being using? id use WPA2 PSK with AES.

Also as further countermeasure if you can configure the personal firewall on your pc to only trust the ip address of your router, then even if someone breaks through the encryption on the wireless network, then they will only have access to the internet, not direct access to your pc.

geordief

NoDrama wrote: »

Have you set up the router and tested the signal throughout your house?
.

Yes I have had the router up and running for months now and there is just the odd room that it doesn't do well in.
Thanks for everyone's help and all the new ideas.

elastic

I am looking to set up a home network through my wireless router,

I have been able to locate my Acer note on my Vista PC, but I cant See my PC on my XP Acer Notepad. Can anyone suggest the best way to have a constant network running??

I've heard there may be a useful little app to do this...

MunsterCycling

What have you set the network as in Vista, it should be set to home IIRC that allows the computer to be seen on the network.

MC