mrtheedge2u2

I have bought a new house and have found that my wireless signal on 1st and 2nd is almost non-existent. On the ground floor it is fine. What is the best way to boost the signal on the 1st and 2nd floor.

Cheers

boomer

Er, move your WAP to the first (or second) floor)?

mb

mrtheedge2u2

It does not take a genius to work out that if I did that then I would get weak signals on ground and 2nd floor.

Anyone else have any ideas?

JDM_Stig

iTrader: (3)

add a old router as a wireless repeater on the 1st or 2nd floor to help.

LostUser

Basically you need another wireless access point on another floor.

This has to be connected to your primary router\access point. You've got 3 options for that.

1. A wireless connection. This is flaky. Your 2nd access point will effectively be boosting the existing wireless signal. You won't get very good speeds
2. Run a network cable between the primary router and the 2nd access point on another floor. Not always easy unless you're in the middle of decorating anyway
3. Use homeplugs. These use your electrical wiring to provide the link to the 2nd access point.

Something like this

mrtheedge2u2

Regarding the plugs.....how do they work? Do you simply plug it in and run your second router to it via a cable and BOOM! signal?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I think you need to work out what the exact issue is....the building itself, the location of your equipment, or the equipment, the deired wifi frequency/type (G,N, 2.4GHz or 5GHz) or interferance from other devices...like 2.4GHz DECT phones and video senders (as well as microwave ovens) or a combination of all.

I find wiFi routers work much better the higher up they are and kept away from other radio based devices (cordless phones etc) and elcetrically noisy apliances (like PCs - ironically).

I don't know why, but when place on a desk (or floor), they just don't seem to work as well for me. But obviously construction of the house has a impact. For example; I think reinforced concrete will act bit like a faraday cage due to the steel lattice between floors.

Mines in the attic; Brick+timber house, brick internal walls downstair, plasterboard internal walls upstairs. Dimensionally, its quite a wide house (about 25m) so there is a fair amount of distance involved, yet signal is strong regardless of where I am. The felt under the roof tiles being foil lined may have a influence as maybe it bounces back some signal downwards. The plasterboard between floors however is NOT foil lined. I belive on more modern buildings plasterboard maybe lined with foil; both ceiling and walls, which will kill signal trying to get past it. Eitherway, if the building is the issue, you will need more than one AP.

The Wifi router itself may have a effect...Just to emphasise mine has PROPER AERIALs (dipole, I belive). I can't stress that IMO that plays a important factor in signal strength over distance and direction. I'm an advocate of function over form, so these sleek aerial-less boxes win no favours with me. My mate demonstared the power of aerial by intercepting his wifi in the park quarter of a mile away with a Pringle tube in line of sight of the house (I know it sounds a bit Big Bang Theory, but he did do it ).

For example, Virgin's Superhub (netgear) is just a few peices of foil strips on a bit of PCB hap-hazardly glued to the inside of the case. The signal shielding, as well as the signal directonality HAS to be inferior to a unit using external aerials; A flat piece of foil doesn't produce a even signal spread - signal on one side of the unit will be stronger than 90 degrees to it in either direction. A dipole aerial will produce a signal in a more spherical pattern.

mrtheedge2u2

Cheers Ali

Well my modem is connected to a signal booster on the ground floor (in a closet by the door) The only thing near it is a cordless phone and this has never caused issue before.

I am gonna sound like a complete moron but what is the best way to install a modem/router on the top floor?

Beef

Bigger aerial does not guarantee "better" WiFi though; high gain antenna will also be better at picking up unwanted and interfering signals, which again comes back to what is the problem; lack of strength, or interference from other devices?

In an ideal world you would use multiple short-range low-output access points laid out in such a fashion as to give good coverage.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I never said bigger aerial...a better one that has a more even coverage pattern in all directions (unlike my superhub example). Granted though a higher gain aerial causes a gain of both wanted and unwanted signals. The signal noise ratio (SNR) is influenced by many things, the aerial is only a small factor with SNR if the device is within ample range. As I said earlier, if interferance is the problem then the source of it needs to be found and moved away as that will have a bigger factor on SNR than just the aerial.


Oh, I have forgot to mention channel bonding (40Mhz bandwidth). Basically using the Wifi on a wider channel range than the usual 20Mhz bandwidth. If the devices supports it then it will improve signal (and SNR).

edit: Also some wifi routers may have a hack that allows you up the transmission power, I belive some Asus ones do allow some to go to 110% - not technically legal as I think the limit is something like 1watt...but who's going to know? Maybe worth a google.

LostUser

Plug one of the homeplugs in to a power socket near the router and connect an ethernet cable between the router and homeplug. On the 1st or 2nd floor, plug the other (Wifi) homeplug in to any power socket. They normally detect each other automatically. Sometimes you have to press the Pair buttons.

You can manually set the 2nd access point SSID and password to the same as the routers SSID and password or use the clone option to do it automatically

hodgy0_2

You don't want or need a router on the higher floors, just a wireless access point (hard wired to the main/router modem) to let you onto the layer 2 network

In effect two wireless zones - I have a large house and have front and rear wireless zones

Simple

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Have you tried changing the channel that your wireless box is using?

john banks

What type of construction are the floors/ceilings/walls? Thinking of signal loss but also feasibility of wire fishing...

What speed is your internet connection and does your network need to run any faster than that?

My house was a nightmare, needed 5 access points, stone walls, funny shape.