Need suggestions to boost the signal of my wireless network.

The wireless router in my house is permanently planted in my wifes office. She works from home, and her employer pays for the internet service, so she's hard wired. Her office is at one end of our house. At the other end of the house, is the bedrooms. I get a signal in my room, but it's faint. My son got a laptop last weekend for his birthday, and his room gets zilch for a signal. I need something to boost the signal in the house so he can use his laptop at his desk. Does anyone have any experience with signal boosters? I've seen them from $40 to $150, and have no idea what to buy.

Suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Foil.

Have you tried replacing the router somewhere else in the house. Pain in the ass I know, but maybe it'll help.

 

Jim,
I have the same situation in my upstairs, where the signal isn't strong enough in my college kid's room, as
there is a bathroom and some distance in between. We added one of the boosters (best buy or radio shack, don't remember?
and it solved the problem. Don't remember what brand either, but was an easy fix for us.

 

I wish we could, but the line enters the house in one place, and only that place. Hard to explain, but no, we can't move it.

I guess I'll just go to the local big box store and figure it out....

 

what is the router? Linksys routers often have antennae that are swappable, buying their high-gain antennas will significantly boost the signal strength, but whether or not that will be enough will be dependent on factors other than just signal strength, such as number of walls the signal passes through, any pipes or electrical wires in the walls, or other electronics in the vicinity of the wireless devices...


Your best bet is to buy whats called a "wireless repeater" (buying a good wireless router, then setting it up to act as a wireless repeater, will probably be a better option... gives you redundancy incase your base station fails). This will need to be placed in a location somewhere in the middle of the home that it will pick up a strong signal from the base router.

What you will want to do then is to set your laptop and your sons laptop to connect to the repeater instead of the base station, which will probably give you enough signal to use your laptops anywhere in your home.

 

+1
That is what I have, not a booster, and it fixed us.

 

Not cheap, but this works in most situations. http://www.netgear.com/Products/PowerlineNetworking/PowerlineWirelessAccessPoints.aspx

 

This looks promising:
http://lifehacker.com/296367/boost-your-wireless-signal-with-a-homemade-wifi-extender

 

Completely understand. Had a similar issue at my parents old house.

 

We just visited a house with your problem. Their solution was to hook up a second wireless router. So cable modem was connected to wireless router 1. Then a network cable connected wireless router 1 to wireless router 2. In their case, everything was in the basement. Worked fine though. Cable modem/wireless router 1 was at one end of the basement-then a fairly long network cable ran the length of the basement to the second router.

So I think this is what EnzymaticRacer was suggesting with: "buying a good wireless router, then setting it up to act as a wireless repeater"

I'm here to say that that works fine.

The network cable connecting routers one and two was plugged into router 1 as if router 2 was a computer, So it ran from one of the four computer sockets in router 1, to the internet "in" socket in router 2.

 

The router is whatever came with my internet service. Not sure what kind it is, but it has no external antenna.

THIS sounds like an option. I have 2 Linksys routers that I used with my last internet carrier, so that's not an issue. I guess I just need to figure out how to turn it into a repeater?

 

Do you remember the specific model number of those two routers? If they are of the Linksys WRT54G variety, then it is doable. It takes a little technical prowess, but it isn't TOO difficult.

let me know what they are and we can go from there...

 

If the wireless router that they put in has LAN ports, you can then attach whatever you want to those -- another wireless router, repeaters, a long-ass line run through to another room with a wireless router, etc. You just set them up as a separate network using the same internet line and you're good to go. It also helps isolate the work computer from the home ones.

 

I do have a WRT54G. The other is old.

Thats easy for you to say! Doesn't make sense (to me) to attach another wireless router next to the wireless router I have? Isn't that simply duplicating an already bad thing? Am sure there are LAN ports on the existing router, but the long line to another router won't do me much good either.

Maybe I just need to fix you a steak dinner and ply you with beer. Or Bacardi 151?

 

Great, so you can probably do this without having to spend any more money.

First off, whenever you get the chance, pull it out and take a look at the label on the bottom. We need to know the exact model number as well as the hardware version number of the router.

The process is going to involve flashing the WRT54G with a linux based firmware called DD-WRT (don't worry... it has a graphical user interface to get it set up). That part of the process is the most involved, but there are nicely detailed instructions on how to do everything on their website.

 

It's a WRT54G V5....

 

Very nice - Problem solved - If it works? Any experiences? [IIRC it had a problem if there was a sub-panel between the two?]

How about external antennas? They're pretty heavily advertised but have always rung of snake oil to me.....

However, I much prefer Robert's no-cost approach - Put *Linux* on the sucker! [It's running *everywhere* ] Plus, it's almost certain to be more reliable and secure than it was previously..... They've even done a GUI so that "users" can install and maintain it!

BTW, Jim, I suspect there are more #'s after the V5 - Sorry, but "V5....." doesn't cut it He needs those #'s.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I'm using a Linksys version of the Powerline idea in two houses, ours, and my mother in-laws and they are working great.
(http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=linksys+powerline&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=11174205963347058147&ei=-v9mSuqmB8OktgftroDtDw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=4#ps-sellers)

Radioshack had them, or I suppose Best Buy.

You plug one of these adaptors into one of the "computer out" plugs in your existing router and then plug the powerline adaptor into the AC socket in the wall.

Then in your area of the house, you plug in the other adaptor to the AC socket, and coming out of it you have a network cable. That network cable can either go directly into your computer, or, like in my case, can go to another wireless router (plugged into the "network in" socket so that it "thinks" it is getting the internet from a cable modem directly?.

If the second wireless router is in your office, you can plug into that one using a network cable if you want, or operate wirelessly, while your son can get his signal wirelessly from this second router.

It's easier than it sounds above. Basically uses your existing electrical wiring as a long network cable, with these adaptors at each end.

M

 

Simplest solution (you have to spend money though) is to convert to Wireless N standard. I used G before and had some areas with no signal. With the N I get a good signal everywhere in a 6000sq two storey home. Even a signal in my garages.

 

Actually WRT54G v5 should be fine.

I do want to inform Jimpo that there is a chance that this procedure could brick his router, but as long as the instructions are followed to the "t" he should have the router back up and running with the new linux firmware in no time. I have done this to several Linksys WRT54G routers without problems, so as long as you follow the instructions you should be OK.

The next step is to download the proper firmware from www.dd-wrt.com. I did some looking, here is the link to the version of the firmware that you want:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/downloads/obsolete/release%20candidates/DD-WRT%20v24%20RC7/Broadcom/Broadcom%20Generic/micro/dd-wrt.v24_micro_generic.bin

You will also need these downloads, so download and extract these to seperate folders (I suggest creating a new folder on your desktop called "Linksys Firmware Upgrade" and the making subfolders for each of these in that folder) that you can find quickly and easily without mixing them up:

http://www.scorpiontek.org/portal/files/vxworks_prep_v03.zip
http://www.scorpiontek.org/portal/files/vximgtoolgui.zip
http://www.scorpiontek.org/portal/files/tftp.exe

Here is a tutorial with pictures on how you are going to flash the new firmware onto the linksys router. Read over this (will probably be greek to you) before you do it to make sure that you have everything you need ready to go, but once you start actually performing the update you will realize it is pretty straight forward. I pointed you to the DD-WRT v24 RC7 version of the firmware, which is newer than the one specified in this tutorial, so don't worry about looking for a new one.

http://www.scorpiontek.org/portal/content/view/27/36/

You will need to plug into your linksys router using an ethernet cable, as trying to connect wirelessly to it can create problems.

Also make sure that you have disabled your wireless connection on your laptop before doing this, so you are SURE that you are connecting to the correct router!!!

If you have any questions on how to do this, post or send me a PM and I can see what I can do to help. Once you have this new firmware running on your Router it shouldn't be too much more work to get it to start repeating your wireless signal.

 

Hmmm....this looks like fun. Not too concerned about bricking the router, it's just collecting dust anyway.

Can the 'upgrade' be done from any computer, or will it need to be a computer on the network that the router will be running on? We have 'main' computer that the whole family uses in a downstairs room, I plan to put the new 'repeater' near that computer. Should I upgrade it from that computer, or can I do it from my laptop? Does it matter?

Thanks Robert!

 

OK - I was being just slightly facetious, sorry! Actually I ran over to their site and the "G" versions 5.0 and 5.1 were listed as supported separately which led to my "suspicion" of needing more. No matter.

When I hit their "download" link I get a good old fashioned "ls -l" (or "dir") listing of what I guess is their public ftp directory - With some very strange dates and no hints as to what is needed - Glad you got back to him!

You didn't accidentally flash the wrong one did you?.....

Good stuff, cheers,
Ian

 

I will defer to Robert for the definitive answers, but I would assume the former - As noted, all it needs is an ethernet cable connection between the two in order to download the S/W etc. Once it's up and running you'll change a few the settings prior to moving it wherever you want (I think!)....

Watching with great interest (and searching for my old WRT.....)

Cheers,
Ian

 

The computer you use isn't going to matter, but as far as convenience goes, using one of your laptops will probably make it easier. The only connection you need is from the laptop --> Linksys, so you can do this part of the process anywhere in the house.

hehe... I remember the first time I tried this my family had both seperate linksys cable modem and linksys wireless router... luckily I realized that I was about to start flashing the modem before I hit apply! So disconnecting every device that isn't used in this process is definitely recommended... haha.

You are correct. Once the new firmware is on the router, some settings will need to be changed (we can customize those a bit as to how you want your network to function... we can go into that more later), but you will never need to physically attach your WRT to your current modem/router combo.

Once all those settings are applied, you will be able to unplug the router and move it around (from power plug to power plug or room to room) to wherever is necessary to get the best coverage of your house (as long as it still has a strong signal from the primary router).


Also, I did a little more reading, and it looks like there have been some issues reported with doing this when the primary router does not have a linux-based primary router, but it is rare. So this may not end up working for you, but the firmware version I already pointed you to is reported as being the most reliable for your particular router.

 

One last question before I get home to try this:

The instructions say that I'll need to point my browser to the Linksys site at http://192.168.1.1 to access the routers web admin page. In order to go the site, I'll need internet access. To get internet access, I'll need to be hooked up to a network. So, I either use the wireless network that currently exists in my house, or I hard wire with an ethernet cable to the existing router.

Either way, I have some concerns about flashing the wrong router! And my laptop only has one ethernet port, so I can't be hard wired for internet access and be hard wired to Linksys router....