Home Network Wi-Fi Booster

[Chester32141]

Hey y'all ... My home network is a little weak.  Speed at router is approx. 18mbps.  By the time I'm about 10 feet away it's down to 8mbps and that's line of sight.  Stays at about 6-8mbps thru out the rest of the house.  One story home, about 2200 sq ft, couple Laptops and a couple Rokus, not usually all at once.  Brand new router from Brighthouse.  Do you think the item at the link posted below would solve the problem ?   Router is centrally located and this device would be nearby. 

Thanks ... 

http://amplifi.dlink.com/products/DAP-1525

from ... http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-Wi-Fi-Booster-Smart-DAP-1525/dp/B0053XG25G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321762992&sr=8-1

[AJ Dual]

In. Not for my house, but my parent's. It's a long ranch style house and there's some intervening brickwork etc.

I could just do a repeater, but it would need to be in the kitchen, and there's nowhere good to place it.

[RocketMan]

From your description, I would be thinking about a new router.  The router itself sounds weak, like there isn't enough RF output, or there is another problem with the RF deck.  Maybe you need a different router rather than a booster.

[InfidelSerf]

I'll second the replace the router recommendation.
We live in a 3 story 2300 sq ft home, I get full strength on all floors (router is located on the 3rd floor)
Linksys WRT400N

I have a spare Dlink DIR-600 N 300 that I was considering using on the first floor to extend coverage.  Not necessary at all.

So yeah I'd say something is wrong with the router.

[TechMan]

I'll third the replace router...also what are 802.11? of all your devices....remember if you have all N and one G and only one antenna then you are going to get G speed for every device.

[lee n. field]

From your description, I would be thinking about a new router.  The router itself sounds weak, like there isn't enough RF output, or there is another problem with the RF deck.  Maybe you need a different router rather than a booster.

Yeah, if you're that close, and the signal drops as fast as you say.

Linksys, with DD-wrt.  Up the output power per the readme.

[GigaBuist]

Got any neighbors with WiFi?  They could be jumping on the same channel as you.  You can either try blindly flipping the channel setting on the router to see if that works or grab some scanning software.  Not sure what works in Windows as I just use one I've got on my phone.

[Brad Johnson]

When you say speed at the router, do you mean the speed as tested when you're hard-cabled to it, or the speed as tested with your wifi-connected device sitting right next to the router?

Brad

[Chester32141]

When you say speed at the router, do you mean the speed as tested when you're hard-cabled to it, or the speed as tested with your wifi-connected device sitting right next to the router?

Brad

I set my laptop next to the router and run a speedtest ... www.speedtest.net ... next to the router it's about 18Mmps but the signal seems weak as I get any distance away from the router speed drops off dramatically.  There are 6-8 neighbors whose networks show up in my control panel ... Is the general consensus then that I should try a new cable modem/router ?  Would the AP posted in the original link do the job, making a new modem unneccesary ?

Thanks again for any advice y'all care to share ... 

[Brad Johnson]

Hmm, well, the signal is digital, not analog.  If it's seeing the unit and getting a decent signal, the speed should not drop off appreciably with the short distances you are describing.  One thing that could be causing trouble is direct interference on that frequency.  Some cordless phones in the gigahertz frequency ranges can interfere with router signals.  Interestingly enough, so can some microwaves.  Go into your router settings and try changing the channel, or even manually forcing it from N back to G.

Some routers have the capability of slightly increasing transmit power.  You'd need to google for tips-and-tricks on your particular unit. 

You can also get a higher gain antenna (if your unit has a removeable external antenna).  I had to do that for a friend of mine who insisted on hiding the router in a cabinet.  I used a 5dB gain mini stick and a 6" extension to mount the antenna in a mostly-out-of-sight nook at the top of his entertainment center.  The upside is he gets GREAT wifi all over his house, even in the basement.

Brad

[RocketMan]

The question I failed to ask is, do all of your laptops and other wireless devices show problems maintaining connection and decent speeds?  If so, the router is the common factor.
If it's just one laptop suffering from poor connections and low speeds, then it is probably the laptop having wireless problems.  If that's the case, then Brad's post makes a lot of sense.

[Jim147]

I feel all old tech having my 1.5 Mbps max service.

I would see what a WiFi inspector tells you about the signal that is going around the house. I only run at 1.5 but I can test at 1.4 over a hundred yards away.

jim

[Boomhauer]

I feel all old tech having my 1.5 Mbps max service.

Hush now. I've got flippin' dialup. It's 1996 in my house!

[never_retreat]

Go to this link and download inssider. It will show you all the other networks in range and what channel they are on.
Since people never change the default by default you may have another signal right on top of yours.
http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

[TechMan]

Hush now. I've got flippin' dialup. It's 1996 in my house!

You are on the top of a mountain.

On the brighter side of things you aren't alone, apparently AOL still have 3.5 million dial up subscribers.

http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/03/8619432-aol-still-has-35-million-dial-up-subscribers

[Chester32141]

Since the current router, a Ubee, is a cable modem/router and it has ethernet ports, can I just connect a router to one of the ethernet ports and go from there ?  Although I know it shows my ignorance I still wonder if an AP like the one posted in the original post would solve all my problems.  It's a new house w/ 20mbps and the only thing I've used there so far is my new laptop.  For some reason it is noticebly slower than at my current residence where I have 10Mbps service.   My goal is to have the new house be wireless and fast and although I don't want to spend money that I don't need to I'd really like the network there to work as well as my present home network, in fact since it's twice as fast, I'd like to see it work better. 

Thanks again for all the advice.

http://amplifi.dlink.com/products/DAP-1525

[Brad Johnson]

Since the current router, a Ubee, is a cable modem/router and it has ethernet ports, can I just connect a router to one of the ethernet ports and go from there ?

Yes.

Brad

[AZRedhawk44]

Go to this link and download inssider. It will show you all the other networks in range and what channel they are on.
Since people never change the default by default you may have another signal right on top of yours.
http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

^^ Wisdom here.

I lean towards a channel overlap in this situation.  Spend some time diagnosing using the current tools at your disposal before throwing good money at a problem that may well persist or get worse by adding yet more wireless AP's into a limited spectrum of channels.

If there are 10 AP's within talking distance of each other, you very well may be out of channels.  Adding more hardware just introduces one more channel overlap.

Make a list of every available AP you can see from various places in your home, and their relative signal strengths.  Front of the house, back of the house, 2nd story, etc.  Find out on what channel each one operates.

Then, assign an un-used channel to your AP.  If there are no un-used ones, then choose the channel of the weakest AP that doesn't belong to you.  Overlap with that one, and hopefully your computer will choose to associate with that AP when on that channel.



ETA:  I had a similar problem when I moved into my current house... I couldn't use wireless effectively from 1 half of my house.  I had no signal overlaps though.  The solution was to run Cat5 through the attic to the far end of the house, and install a 2nd access point over there.  Now, I can wander my entire property (1/3 acre cul-de-sac lot) from the 400sq ft  disconnected workshop in the far SE corner all the way to the mailbox on the far NW corner, with excellent signal.  I can even walk to the far end of the cul-de-sac and down the block a ways (100-125 yards), before the various cinder block walls of the private yards obfuscate my signal.  I probably have the strongest Wi-Fi network in the neighborhood.  I actually want to install a higher gain antenna on the roof of my workshop and see how far I can push my signal... possibly a parabolic pointed at the park nearby (1/2 mile or so).

[Harold Tuttle]

Wrap exterior walls with tin foil

[Chester32141]

I downloaded InSSIDER and I'm at my current home where the WiFi works good at 10Mbps.  Looks like I'm the only one on my channel.  I should be at the new place in a few days and I look forward to trying it there.  Assuming that it's a problem caused by overlapping channels, how do I go about changing channels on a Ubee cable router ?  Thanks again for the help.

Chester

[AZRedhawk44]

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=ubee+cable+router+wireless+setup+channel

[Chester32141]

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=ubee+cable+router+wireless+setup+channel

Thanks !!

[TechMan]

I downloaded InSSIDER and I'm at my current home where the WiFi works good at 10Mbps.  Looks like I'm the only one on my channel.  I should be at the new place in a few days and I look forward to trying it there.  Assuming that it's a problem caused by overlapping channels, how do I go about changing channels on a Ubee cable router ?  Thanks again for the help.

Chester

Detcord!

[Chester32141]

At the new place Inssider showed 21 wireless networks.  Six of us were on the same channel and rest were on two other channels.  So I called Brighthouse and they switched me to a channel that I did not see anyone else on in a 24 hr period.  Took about 2 min to get it switched and I was able to see the channel number change on Inssider ... nice program.  It looks like the busy channel was the problem.  There appears to be no loss of speed or signal strength between the rooms now.  They all test the same as the room w/ the router in it.

Thank you very much !!

[sanglant]

  and that's why i hate cities. i can see 1 other network. and she(used her first name in her ssid) fights to stay in a completely different channel(some can interfere)  once or twice, i've gotten to close. and once or twice she's done the same. but we always get it fixed pretty quick.

my psp works all the way to the mailbox. aka 200+feet.