Wireless range question

"tom snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com" hath wroth:

Can I assume that you've updated the router firmware and the wireless card drivers? A considerable number of such "range" problems are due to problems that were solved in firmware long ago. The Intel 2200BG card is a particularly common culprit. I prefer the Intel Proset

11.1.xxx drivers rather than whatever came with the HP laptop:

The WGR614 comes in several mutations.

Be sure to install the correct version.

Duz "looked into" mean you've simply looked but not installed?

How strong is it in the same room? What's in the wall between the rooms?

If you have aluminum foil back insulation in the walls, give up now. Nothing will go through that. Concrete block walls, poured concrete, and check wire (stucco) are little better.

Speculation is always helpful, but I think borrowing a different wireless router might be equally useful. However, since you have two laptops, it might be easier to just setup an ad-hoc connection between the two laptops, turn off the WGR614, and see how much signal you get.

Nobody "wants" to run wired. They're ugly, messy, sometimes expensive, and always work. I can't say that wireless solves all these complaints.

No. The problem with all the post-802.11g enhancements is that they offer substantial increases in maximum speed, but little improvements in dealing with lack of signal strength. If you have a highly reflective environment, a MIMO (Pre-n) type of router might be useful in that they utilize the reflections. However, they use it to gain speed, not reliability or signal strength, so the benifits are marginal. I suggest you keep it simple and just get a decent 802.11g wireless router.

I have a WGR614, and adding a free reflector to it made a lot of difference in the stability of connections around the house.

EZ-12, printed on photo paper for thick stock, with aluminum foil glued to the sail, provides a substantial boost in signal. The netstumbler trace shows solid signal as I walked back to the router, a dropout as I blocked the router, taking off the reflector, and then the lower signal without the reflector, reduced, and fluctuating in level.

Make the tabs longer than the template drawing, for easier assembly.

Yes, I use the proset software and the wireless card drivers are the latest rev. The router is also at the latest rev, although I realize that it is an old version of the router.

No, they're the latest on the laptop. On the desktop, I'll need to recheck.

Non-existent. I've wondered if I'm too close.

Plaster/lathe.

I don't have aluminum foil backed insulation, but the farthest desktop is 3 walls away.

What is curious is that I pick up signals from neighbor's houses at the far end desktop.

I will try this. Couldn't hurt, if only to see whether I can connect at all from one end of the house to the other.

Ok. Thank you for your advice and input.

I set up one of the reflectors and it did help with the signal. The problem is that to the desktop, it's intermittant...works one day and not the next...with no difference in other devices being on, additional interference, etc.

Have you tried turning your WAP off, and "finding" networks? Maybe there is another WAP that is on occasionally. My neighbor has hers on a power strip, only on when she's using it.

"tom snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com" hath wroth:

You mentioned it's a WGR614 but you didn't mention the hardware revision. There are 8 hardware versions of the WGR614. It has no bearing on the problem, but I like to know such details.

There's no way you can be too close unless you're within a few inches of the wireless router. If you can't connect in the same room, there's a real possibility that you're actually trying to connect to a neighbors wireless router. Do you have a unique SSID that is easily identified, or are you using the default SSID? It it doesn't work in the same room as the WGR614 then there's something really wrong.

Bad. Anything with water in it is going to block 2.4GHz RF. The wood lathe isn't going to block anything, but the plaster might. How much depends on the composition of the plaster, and especially if there was some rework done with wire mesh backing. Got a stud finder? If so, use it to determine if there's any metal in the walls.

Going through three walls is a crap shoot. One wall is usually easy. Two walls are a problem depending on what's in the wall. Three walls require luck and almost paper walls. What's the straight line distance through the three walls?

How far is the far end desktop from your WGR614? How far from the neighbors? Compare signal strengths. If the neighbors wireless is very strong, it might be creating some interference, which will make maintaining a connection when they're moving traffic somewhat difficult. You may wanna try other channels (1, 6, or 11).

If you're going for the long distance record, try a simple reflector:

to improve signal strength and reduce pickup from the neighbors. Too bad the WGR614 has a non-removeable antenna, which makes aftermarket and home made antennas difficult. If you don't mind butchering your WGR614, it's fairly easy to replace the antenna connector with an RP-SMA pigtail plus a bit of soldering.