Wireless network help required!

[Paul_Dids]

Posting on behalf of a friend who has an "interesting" issue with his wireless networking at home which has got me stumpted - can anyone help??

An overview of the problem is that my friend is on AOL broadband which is supplied on a phone line to the office in the front of his house (Only) and his new PS3 at the rear of the house cannot pick up this network at all!

If we move the PS3 to his front room (Adjacent to the office)then we get a very weak signal and it does connect to the web.

Originally he had the standard AOL wireless router which we thought was the issue so he bought a Netgear DG834PN router, as it's designed for getting a signal round a large house or office, but it's made no difference.

He's tried swapping the wireless channels with no joy.

Unfortunately moving the router isn't really an option as his broadband phone line is for business and is only available in his office. ideally I guess the router should be more central in the house but i really think it should still be able to get the signal round the house - i pick up 3 networks in my street with no bother.

Any idea's for anything I can try as I'm popping across in the next week or two (he's not too local to me) and it would be great to have a few things to try. I'm taking my laptop across to see how far the signal gets at the moment

Thanks in advance for your help

Cheers
Paul

[sp60]

It all depends on the walls!
My parents place had a wireless router in the office which gave a strong signal to the entire flat.
They moved into a converted farm building and the signal doesn't leave the room the router is in.
If your friend still has both routers, you could daisy chain the second router into a more central location using some cat5 cable. Alternatively you can buy signal boosting devices, strategically placed to pick up and re-amplify the routers signal around the house.

[Gateway Networks]

powerline adapter + wireless AP = problem solved

bit of a pricy soloution though.

could always try getting a more powerful antenna

[Road2Ruin]

Gateway Networks said:

powerline adapter + wireless AP = problem solved

bit of a pricy soloution though.

could always try getting a more powerful antenna

I agree, the powerline adapters are exactly what you need. You can get a twin pack starter kit (which is what you need)http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/search/?strSearch=&bolShowAll=true&intStoreID=8&intCatID=109&intSubcatUID=1745&intMfrID=112&bolShowAll=true from the likes of ebuyer for the netgear range for about £70-80. Just plug one in a plug socket next to the router and conect by ethernet cable and the other goes in a plug socket next to the computer and connect via ethernet cable and your done.

[ThePassenger]

sp60 said:

It all depends on the walls!

The sensitivity of the equipment, construction of the house and how much noise is causing interference/signal degradation all plays a part in WiFi. Which is annoying, because it's sold as 'fire n' forget' so often, that people forget all the annoyances

Personally he can either mess around with the router and cat5 cable, but, he'll probably find that the router will need to be in the same room as the PS3... which kinda makes WiFi pointless I'd tell him to return the router and pick up a set of the powerline adapters and some ready made leads.

Plug the adapters in, connect to router & PS3... bingo. Not the fastest network in the world but more reliable than WiFi in some circumstances and more than enough for a PS3 to play on-line and update itself.

[sp60]

I still can't get round the concept of high frequency data transmission over high voltage spike filled cheap copper cables, but it does seem quite useable these days. Fortunately I live in a flat, so no such problems with wireless!

[mystomachehurts]

sp60 said:

I still can't get round the concept of high frequency data transmission over high voltage spike filled cheap copper cables, but it does seem quite useable these days. Fortunately I live in a flat, so no such problems with wireless!

It's all to do with band pass filters.. high or low, it's very easy to remove frequencies above or below your tartget frequency. What is difficult is removing noise fro mthe frequency you are trying to use.

One other caveat with these mains networking solutions is that you can sometimes lose a lot of signal strength between the different loops of your mains circuit, but they do seem to have come on a long way.

[Paul_Dids]

Cheers for all the replies guys - appreciated!

It's strange as his house is a relatively new one, so we're not talking massive 16th century walls 8ft thick walls or anything , but for some reason the router struggles to push the signal around.

I've done some reading up on this in the last few weeks and i didn't appreciate that things like, cordless phones, microwaves, even PS3 wireless controllers can all affect the signal... so I'm assuming all these aren't helping.

Great idea with the devices that use your mains circuits - they sound just the job as he literally wants his PS3 on the network so no need for wireless for laptops etc

I'll get him to send his router back and see about getting some of those wall plugs. I'm popping across in a couple of weeks and I'm taking my router, just to prove his isn't dodgy - you never know!

Thanks again!

[cyberface]

How's the disclaimer on the mains networking kit? I'd be very very wary of power surges / spikes / droops getting onto the Ethernet wire and frying your computer.

[VEX]

Paul_Dids said:

I've done some reading up on this in the last few weeks and i didn't appreciate that things like, cordless phones, microwaves, even PS3 wireless controllers can all affect the signal... so I'm assuming all these aren't helping.

Depending on how new it is and how 'energy effecient' it is, even the plaster board walls can effect the signal as they are now available with a foil backing which has a dramatic effect on any signals.