Need to boost range of wireless

The house is new to me. It was built ~1950 and expanded a few times so we have a mixed bag of construction styles, wiring and plumbing.

I've been reviewing the layout outside and as a long term solution I may run cat5 to the attic outside, then down to all the bedrooms. The side of the house my router is on cannot be seen from the street or the next door neighbors. There is already coax cable lines going up there.

Jon

Reply to
Zeppo
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Yes, the router is now sitting on top of a hutch about seven feet off the floor near a doorway to the center hall. Moving it across the room allowed the bedroom PC to connect and stay connected, albeit with a low signal.

Jon

Reply to
Zeppo

Hmmm, moving the laptop 10 or 12 feet closer to the door improves the signal a significantly. I have my daughter's USB adapter I could try it out with. She left it home when she took her computer to school as the dorms are networked.

One more good suggestion to try.

J> >I was talking about running coax within the room the desktop is in. Running

Reply to
Zeppo

Ah, the Winchester Mystery house style of construction.

Good. You might want to use the coax for networking. If you have access to both ends, just get a 10base2 (Cheapernet) converter or old hub with a BNC connector, to convert between the CAT5 and the coax. You can use RG-6/u as long as you don't put any taps along the line. There are also commercial products to share the LAN and CATV.

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've ranted on the topic of using RG-6/u for networking in this newsgrup at last 3 times. Use Google Groups to find the articles if interested.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

OK, I used a few USB cables strung together to put the WUSB54G near the door. Got an excellent signal at 54mb/s. Looks like the way to go.

So I ordered 2 16' active cables from Newegg. I'll put the PCI card into my daughter's desktop when she brings it home for winter break.

Jon

Reply to
JL Rose

120 mbs is nothing to sneeze at.

Barry ===== Home page

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Reply to
Barry OGrady

Look here to update the linksys firmware and gets lots more power out of the router you have.

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for $20 its worth it I think.

Reply to
DS

Another option is the ASUS WL-330G. It's about the size of a deck of playing cards. It has two modes: Access Point or Ethernet gateway. I've used two of them in Ethernet gateway mode at separate locations to do exactly what you're suggesting above. i.e. connect a run of CAT5 to the device, and place it in a part of the room with better reception than where the desktop PC is located. It works pretty well.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff McWilliams

Meant to report back with how things went.. I strung 2 Active USB cables prom the PC to behind a nightstand by the door in the opposite corner of the room. I mounted the WUSB54G behind the nightstand using the velcro strip that came with it.

I'm now getting an excellent signal @ 54mb/s. No disconnects and speedtests from various Speakeasy test sites read the same as the desktop PC hardwired to the router downstairs.

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions. This was fun.

Regards, J> > "Zeppo" wrote:

Reply to
Zeppo

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