Any Way To Boost Wireless Signal?

moody · 10-17-04, 01:13 PM

i like to lay in bed and go on the internet
but im upstairs and my wireles thing is in my finished basement

im only getting a 50% signal and want more

is there any way i can boost the signal?

im running with a cable modem(says "LINKSYS" on side)
and a wireless router(Netgear)

thanks

madmouse · 10-17-04, 01:18 PM

You would need an antenna to boost the signal. These are some of the types of antennas you can get.
http://shop4.outpost.com/catreq/7832

fyrfyter · 10-17-04, 01:26 PM

You could always get a wireless repeater. A repeater is like a wireless signal amplifier. It takes whatever wireless signal it can find, gives it more power and rebroadcasts it. it should make you have much better coverage throughout your entire house. Linksys makes one, I think you can usually find it on sale for around $80. Here is what you are looking for
http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=38&prid=629

Howard2k · 10-17-04, 01:46 PM

Repeaters are a LAST resort.

I would consider moving the router or getting a better antenna.

fyrfyter · 10-17-04, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by Howard2k

Repeaters are a LAST resort.

Not necessarily, its all in how you configure them. If you configure them correctly they are great. Without repeaters, you would not have cellular service in a lot of places, nor would firefighters and police be able to talk on two way radios, since all emergency communications anymore are repeater based.

moody · 12-20-04, 11:44 PM

ive heard of some homemade antenna made with a steel rod, washers, and a pringles container or somthing

anyone else here about this

Howard2k · 12-21-04, 01:18 AM

Originally Posted by fyrfyter

Not necessarily, its all in how you configure them. If you configure them correctly they are great. Without repeaters, you would not have cellular service in a lot of places, nor would firefighters and police be able to talk on two way radios, since all emergency communications anymore are repeater based.

I agree, repeaters have their place. But when you look at the impact a repeater has on wifi traffic there are plenty of better ways. I'm not saying the whole repeater concept is bad. But for wifi is has a detrimental effect.

Howard2k · 12-21-04, 01:19 AM

Originally Posted by moody

ive heard of some homemade antenna made with a steel rod, washers, and a pringles container or somthing

anyone else here about this

That is the Cantenna. Search here and/or Google.

FallN · 12-21-04, 01:39 AM

You should move your AP/Router to the top most floor. I have my wireless router on the floor above me and I get GREAT signal strength, even in the basement two floors below. :approve:

12-21-04, 08:37 AM

Originally Posted by Howard2k

I'm not saying the whole repeater concept is bad. But for wifi is has a detrimental effect.

I don't know much about the use of repeaters, so could you elaborate? Just curious as to why they are detrimental to wifi. Thanks!

Howard2k · 12-21-04, 10:04 AM

The adverse effect is that all devices on the same channel are using the same frequency. Just like in a room if you have two people talking at the same time things get messed up. The voices overlap. Not good.

The repeater is listening for data on channel 6 (for example, and I'm talking about wifi repeaters that re-broadcast on the same channel, as the vast majority do) and re-broadcasting it. So let's pretend that the range of the AP and the Router are the same, both 5 metres at 11Mb/s.

You want to position the repeater towards the edge of the 11Mb/s area. So you put the router 5 metres away.

Router -- 5m -- Repeater -- xm -- client. Pretend that you client is 5m away too.

Router -- 5m -- Repeater -- 5m -- client. This is ok. Kind of. What's happening is that in the space between the router and the repeater, the signal comes from the router, to the repeater, the repeater repeats it and it goes to the client. Of course it goes back to the router too. It's ignored by the router but the router cannot transmit at the same time as the repeater since they are sharing the same air. Conversely I believe that the repeater will also have problems if the router and client both transmit together. Even though the client will not see the router signal the repeater will see both.

Make sense?

So extrapolate that further and you'll see that if the client is in between the router and the repeater. Then if the transmission is sent from the router the client will hear it. That's good. But the repeater will hear it and retransmit it. So neither the client nor the router can transmit while the repeater is bouncing the signal.

There is a similar effect with multiple wireless clients of course. If you have two wireless clients and no repeater, just the router/ap then when the router is transmitting, neither client can transmit. While client A is transmitting, neither client B nor the router can transmit.

These are of course examples. The actual positioning depends on where you need coverage etc. Hope it illustrates the point though.

There are also protocols within the wireless spec such as CSMA/CA (carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidence) that play a part in making this process easier and controlling it. So it's not quite as random as it sounds above. So if Client A transmits and realises that there is Client B transmitting at the same time, they both wait a random interval and retransmit. The idea being that becaues the interval is random it will also be different on both clients. The repeater should also be running the CSMA/CA algorithm so it too should be doing this "intelligently".

Lastly. It's a vicious circle. As your clients are transmitting more data, there is a higher chance of collisions. More collisions means more re-transmissions. More re-transmissions means more traffic and more collisions.

I should say that I'm no wireless guru. I could be wrong, but this is my understanding of it.

grapeape · 12-21-04, 10:25 AM

the cantenna is very directional outdoor antenna and its designed primarily for distance rather than spread for problems like this it isnt going to be much help. There are external booster antennas avilable cheaply for most wireless access points. I highly recommend against consumer grade repeaters as they generally cause as many problems as they solve. Most of the less expensive repeaters have no spread spectrum capability which means they have to listen and broadcast on the same frequency using half duplex, that usually leads to lots of dropped packets without much error correction resulting in retransmissions, which in turn slows down the network conciderably.

Of course the best solution would be to optimize the location of the access point. Most people make the mistake of just putting the access point in the same room as their computer regardless of location in relation to the rest of the area needing coverage. The rf spread of a typical wifi signal from a straight omnidirectional antenna like is found on consumer wireless routers is shaped like a donut with an equal signal on all sides and the weakest points being directly above and below the antenna. So for optimal coverage your best option is to place the AP directly in the middle of the house of office.

12-21-04, 10:26 AM

Thanks, Howard2K! I never thought of those scenarios!

moody · 02-10-05, 05:42 PM

how about a different(bigger) antenna for the wireless router?

Howard2k · 02-10-05, 05:50 PM

Sure, but not all routers support replaceable antenna. I believe this was suggested in the second post :) If you only need an extra 30%-50$ coverage than it's worth a shot for sure.

On the down side it means that you're signal might be leaking out to places where you don't want it to, or picking up additional interference. But it sounds like it might be worth a shot. Check your router documentation to see if you can replace the antenna.