Hi,
I have been helping someone with wifi 'net access problems. He has an old 933MHz PC running Windows ME, with a USB radio NIC.
Basically, I did these steps:
- Connect my portable to his router with a cable. Works ok, connected to Internet.
- Ditto, via wifi in same room. Works ok.
His desktop PC is in his summer house, so next steps were:
- Connect my portable to his router via wifi, from summer house. Initially wasn't good, tried walking around with portable to kind of 'map' the reception. Worked ok closer to router, and then seemed ok, albeit at reduced signal strength, in the summerhouse.
- Connect my portable to his desktop via wifi in ad-hoc mode. Signal good.
We now moved the desktop into the house, in the dining room.
- Connected desktop to router - worked ok. Signal a bit down but worked ok. Connected to 'net fine.
So, The router works ok, via cable and wifi. The desktop PC can connect to the router when in the house. The desktop PC can connect to another PC on the same desk.
My conclusion is that the no-name USB NIC isn't very good. My question is, what is the best solution to this situation.
As I see it, options are:
- Put a PCI radio NIC into the desktop. - Might work better.
- Put a standard NIC into the desktop and connect it to a bridge, which can be placed higher or moved around, and might inherently be better than the USB NIC anyway, if only becuase it will probably have a bigger antenna.
- Dump the wireless and run a cable.
Any thoughts, other than try it and see?
Regards, John