I have a wireless network at home. The router is on the middle floor and so is in the middle of all of the needed clients, with the most distant computer being only about 30 or 40 ft away. The network always appears to be slow (even for computerrs only 20ft away). All of the hardware is belkin (which might help) and today i decided to get a new belkin ADSL router since the other one was old and i thought that might have been the problem. However, now i have set it up and there has been no difference (it may have even dropped in signal). I have tried changing the channel and repositioning the router, and adjusting the direction of the antennas.
Can anyone think of anything i could try to fix this
Router (New from yesterday) - Belkin F5D9630-4 G+ MIMO Wireless ADSL Router
3 Wireless Desktops with belkin 54g cards ( i am not certain of all of the models but i think most of them are )
1 Media Center PC with 54g card (not sure which make card it is) Belkin 54g Print Server - F1UP0001 Belkin 54g Wireless game router (for xbox 360) - F5D7330
1 laptop with built in 54g card
Occasionally there is a computer hardwired into the router but usually not. The router is on the middle floor so that no computer is more than about 30-40ft away, but would be ideal to have it on the ground floor in the study so as it is always hardwired. At the moment i have removed all security and MAC address filtering to try and help me fix it.
Also the router has difficulty connecting a laptop which is only 15ft away direct line-of-site. I think i might take the router back to pc world and either replace it or get another model. Does anyone know if this model has been known to have problems and if any routers are particularly good.
Still got the router? Assuming that you keep security and MAC filter off for testing, the laptop with built-in wireless might be the easiest to start with.
So, watching the connection utility, exactly what happens when you start it up right next to the router? And then, as you say, 15 feet away?
"Difficulty connecting" means that the laptop can "see" the signal fine but it takes a long time to get an address assigned? Or....what?
If it were me, I'd probably download "netstumbler' and check the signal strength from various locations to see how that is. It is great for giving you an idea of the signal strength and distribution. If strong enough in a given area (-75 or better) then I would close netstumbler and watch as Windows zero config (assuming that is what you have) sees the signal (2 or more bars?) and connects. It should connect and have an address within a minute or so. I have some cards that take nearly two minutes to connect but are then fine.
If the laptop's utility is handling the connection instead of Windows (assuming WinXP) then I would turn it off and use Windows utility to eliminate that variable.
What happens now? What is the order of events that you see ?
Next comes going into the router's setup and checking settings. Next comes checking online to see if the firmware needs to be updated.
And the old router? How does it test out when you swap it back in?
Not experienced it myself, but that might be it if it's a problem so close and with two different routers. What is it they say? Cordless phones (turn it off, OFF to check) um, somebody else will have more to say on this...
Thanks for all your replies. In the end i think the router must have just been a dud one. I've had that before when the aerial inside wasnt even connected. I took the router back and got a much more fancy one - a Netgear Rangemax Next thingy. which is bloody brilliant compared to all the others i;ve had, doesnt even seem to drop a signal 40ft away through thick old victorian walls. So thumbs up for that.
I did, with the old one, try changing the channel from 11 to 6 and that made quite a bit of difference, i think i had some interference from microwaves and phones etc.
Yep, sounds like it was a two part problem: interference and a bad replacement router. Just for the record, I doubt you needed the "Netgear Rangemax Next thingy". Advice probably would have been to hold off until the new "N" standard is realized and just use the old one after chasing down the interference.
But it works and that counts for a lot.
I wonder how much the "Netgear Rangemax" actually does when your clients are all Belkin "G". With many of the new mimos, they say that you need matching complementary equipment on the other end to realize the improvement.
I would have held bakc and waited but i was going back to uni and my parents needed one set up, so i just got one that i knew would work and one that was actually in the shops. when i went to look for one there weren't very many with an adsl modem built in, which we needed so i just got that.
As for working with old g style things, it doesnt seem to get any faster than 54g (but that'll be because of the card) but the range is better than any router i have had. All the other routers have had to be on the middle floor (where there wasnt even a pc) but this one works brilliantly from the ground floor next to the main pc, perfect.
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