Wireless range

[john_p]

Just bought a Netgear 834G wireless ADSL router for home. It works fine, but range is very poor. There is no signal once I get about 20ft away. This is a 17th century house with thick walls etc, don't know if that has a bearing. I can't move the router as it has to be near the phone socket and my PC .. and not in the way of course.

We have a couple of wireless 2.4GHz video senders for CCTV nearby (neighbours) could those be causing interference?

What sort of range should I expect? It worked fine when I tested it in the office (worked 100ft away or so through a few walls)

[stuuu]

Have you tried changing the channel its on could be getting interference?

Have a look at the netgear web site they will have a guid to tunning it.

[jonnie5]

I had very strange range problems with my wireless network at home when I first set it up. I eventually solved it by changing the channel my DigiSenders were using, so it is possible that your neighbours wireless video senders are causing your problem.

Are they friendly neighbours

[BliarOut]

Depending on the speed (11 or 55 Meg) it could be the CCTV. Other things that piss wireless off are cordless phones and microwaves.

Thick walls are always going to be a problem, but there is loads of info about troubleshooting on the NetGear website!

[arcturus]

BliarOut said:

Depending on the speed (11 or 55 Meg) it could be the CCTV. Other things that piss wireless off are cordless phones and microwaves.

Unlikely to be cordless phones - see here www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=95&t=110229

[anonymous-user]

I found the range my laptop could get wireless connections to my NetGear router was drastically increased when I upgraded to the latest drivers for my NetGear CardBus adapter. Could be worth it.

[john_p]

Thanks all. I'll try changing the channel and upgrading the drivers.

Neighbours should be friendly enough

[Kinky]

John,

I'd be quite interested to know how you get on.

I have a similar-ish problem in that I moved my home office from the front to the back of the house, and as a result I rarely get a signla.

K

[AJLintern]

I tried to establish the range of my Netgear access point. I used my PDA with 11Mbps CF card and could get access 100 yards away up the garden!

[Alex M]

(apologies for kinda hijacking...)

Could anyone advise me what to get to make sure we don't have any probs with the 2 floor difference between our computers?

Thanks!

[john_p]

Tried changing the channel, turning off the wireless video link, moving the aerial about, still no dice

I'm using Network Stumbler and it's not picking up any noise - assuming my WG511 card can detect it - the signal drops from -25dB next to the router down to -65db or so when I get 20ft away (down the stairs and along the hallway) - this is enough to lose the wireless signal completely.

Outside, the range is just fine.

House is 17th century timber framed brick exterior. Interior walls are plaster from what I can make out. No sheets of lead in the walls or anything.

Unless.... could a TV (switched off!) cause interference in the signal? It's kind of between the router and the laptop when I'm in the kitchen ...

>> Edited by john_p on Friday 24th September 11:10

[ThatPhilBrettGuy]

Tried changing the orientation of the aerial (ie make it horizontal) ? Sometimes this helps.

[malman]

Try moving the router (higher, lower, away from that huge grounded radiator you have it sat on ). For testing purposes you don't need it to be connected to the phone line. This will tell you if its a location problem. I think channels 6 and 11 are as far apart as you can get - might be wrong on that. It runs on 2.4 Ghz so yes any other 2.4 Ghz stuff can interfere. Worst case you will have to buy a repeater that works with the dg834 (must get one that is known to work though)

[aceparts_com]

Amazing! I was going to post exactly the same question. I live in a 17th century mansion (apartment) and can only get a range of about 8-10 meteres no matter what we do. Ended up getting a usb modem.

[john_p]

Locking the router to 802.11b seems to have cured it. No packet loss and 3ms ping even at the extremities.

[malman]

You can also lock your Network cards to certain speeds usually in the driver settings. I find that when they negoitiate a lot between speeds you tend to lose connections. The lower the speed the longer the range. They are supposed to do this automatically but have problems if you are on the border line between 2 speeds.

[bogie]

Those wireless video senders are a nightmare with 802.11b/g - they blank out the entire frequency range

I have a DG834G myself and can get a decent signal at the bottom of the garden - try switcing the video senders off and seeing what happens - any improvement etc...you could always get 802.11 wireless video cameras instead !