My Wi is not Fi

[zahc]

I have some sort of Linksys WRT54 router on the second floor of my 1900sq ft house, in a central room. Reception sucks in most of the house. If the range were double what it is now I would be happy. What do I need to do? Can you buy more powerful routers? Can I hook up 2 routers somehow? Are there range boosters that actually work? I have cable Internet.

[lee n. field]

with that router you can (most likely, check version list) install ddwrt firmware.  There's a setting in ddwrtwhere you can raise the output power.

if you can't do that, Ubiquiti Picostation.

[RoadKingLarry]

if you can't do that, Ubiquiti Picostation.

Potty mouth.

[GigaBuist]

You could try DD-WRT and see if it makes better use of the radio.

Reception will depend on house construction.  A 1900 sq ft house should be covered by a 2.4Gh (802.11g would qualify) radio just fine if it's stick and drywall.  If it's plater with that wire mesh stuff to hold it together I've seen that destroy network reception, though I think that was 802.11a (5Ghz) and I suggested they switch to 2.4Ghz to help.  Long time ago.  The 802.11a standard kinda died.

For a while I used two Asus routers running dd-wrt to cover my 3,000 sq foot house.  My original 802.11n router in the basement wasn't covering everything, I added another Asus as a wireless bridge/repeater and later replaced the Netgear in the basement with another Asus and found out that one single one in the basement with that hardware covered it.

[zahc]

House is built in 1999.

I downloaded Wifi Analyzer for Android and it shows -40dBm 3 feet from the router. My neighbors' networks are sometimes as high as -60dBm. Is that bad? I also switched to channel 8 because it's pretty crowded in my neighborhood.

I tried for like a half hour to figure out what version of DD-WRT I need, and gave up. The DD-WRT website is self-contradictory on its advice, and I don't want to brick my router. I would have though the WRT54GL would be the most standard thing ever but no such luck.

[zahc]

For a while I used two Asus routers running dd-wrt to cover my 3,000 sq foot house.  My original 802.11n router in the basement wasn't covering everything, I added another Asus as a wireless bridge/repeater and later replaced the Netgear in the basement with another Asus and found out that one single one in the basement with that hardware covered it.

What is this Asus router and how may I obtain one? Is n better for range,  and are smartphones n compatible?

[Brad Johnson]

May be a redundant question but have you played with the router's transmit power settings?  Most rohters have some amount of adjustment.

Brad

[Regolith]

I tried for like a half hour to figure out what version of DD-WRT I need, and gave up. The DD-WRT website is self-contradictory on its advice, and I don't want to brick my router. I would have though the WRT54GL would be the most standard thing ever but no such luck.

You could try Tomato.

[TechMan]

New new not approved  802.11ac will do beam forming.

[lee n. field]

You could try Tomato.

Yep.  Tomato will do the same thing.  Easier to install.

May be a redundant question but have you played with the router's transmit power settings?  Most rohters have some amount of adjustment.

Brad

Outside of aftermarket firmware (ddwrt, etc.), I have not seen any consumer grade router with adjustable power settings.

[zahc]

Back in the day when I ran ddert, i was told not to crank up the power because it would make the radio noisier and not actually be an better. Lies?

[roo_ster]

Directional antennas or larger/more capable omnidirectional antennas FTW.

I was able to blast my old WRT54G's signal across the alley to my neighbor with a couple directional antennas. 

ddwrt also can help, but a couple nice directional antennas might be all you need.

I was using two of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Hawking-HiGain-Directional-Corner-Antenna/dp/B0000DIET2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1405259130&sr=8-4&keywords=hawking+wifi+antenna


After my WT54G died after 6 years of service, I bought a router with THREE external antenna jacks and added this:
http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-ANT24-0700-RE-Omni-Directional-Indoor/dp/B00403NC6C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405259197&sr=8-1&keywords=d-link+antenna

[lee n. field]

Back in the day when I ran ddert, i was told not to crank up the power because it would make the radio noisier and not actually be an better. Lies?

somewhere in the docs there's a recommendation as to power level not to exceed.

[Brad Johnson]

Back in the day when I ran ddert, i was told not to crank up the power because it would make the radio noisier and not actually be an better. Lies?

My UVerse router does.  It's buried in the settings, but it's there.

Brad

[HeroHog]

Here at home I use a repeater that also allows me to use my printers remotely hard wired!
WN2000RPTv2 http://support.netgear.com/product/WN2000RPTv2#wrapper

[GigaBuist]

What is this Asus router and how may I obtain one? Is n better for range,  and are smartphones n compatible?

dDD-WRT v24-sp1 (07/27/08) micro
(SVN revision 10012)

Router:  Asus WL-520GU/GC
Firmware: DD-WRT v24-sp1 (07/27/08) micro (SVN revision 10012)

This one isn't 802.11n though.  When I got the 'n' router that stuff was fairly new and cost me about $80.  The Asus version is 802.11 b and g.  That's faster than my internet speed so I'm good with it.