Wireless Signal Degradation Through Wall

[brs154]

Hello,
I am having some problems getting a sound connection between my wireless router and pc card. I am only about 30 ft. from the router (Linksys WRT54GS-CU) with my Linksys WPC54GS-CU Card. From this distance the best connection speed I can get is < 1.0 Mbps. There is not a direct line of site between the two. There is a 12-in. thick concrete wall between the two. I figured this would impede some of the signal, but I thought it would at least be usable. I am using channel 6. Connection is fine in the same room as router, but pretty much terrible everywhere else. If anyone has any ideas, help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in Advance.

 

[pmf71]

Signal loss through 1 foot (12 inches) of concrete (not including steel reinforcement) is about 20-25 dB. So if it is reinforced, this value could be higher. 6dB corresponds with a reduction of signal strength by 50%. So in this case only about a quarter or less of your signal is left after it has traversed the concrete, assuming both wifi transceivers are against each side of the wall. Which doesn't leave much of a signal...at 25% the bandwidth usually is about 1 or 2 mbps, just like in your case. In a case like yours, using a directional antenna would be best.

 

[pmf71]

Correction, I miscalculated...your signal strengt should only be about 6% after going through the concrete wall...which is nothing, really. You'd need a darn good and sensitive receiver to make anything of a signal that weak...you're lucky to get 1mbps...

 

[pmf71]

Another thing you could do is use a wifi adapter with external antenna, drill a small hole in the wall, stick the wire through and just have the antenna on the other side of the wall. Or you could use a usb wifi adapter , and resolder the usb plug back on after taking the cable thru the wall.

 

[brs154]

Thanks,
I think I am just going to run a cable through the ceiling and put an access point on the other side.

The funny thing is: I have an older laptop (3 yrs. old) with one of the earliest Linksys wireless-B WPC11 cards and it gets a respectable connection on the other side. The newer card in a newer laptop gets a terrible signal. I tried the WPC11 in the new laptop and it wasn't as good. May be an XP thing.

 

[G0AOZ]

Sounds like the amount of metalwork in the old PC is different to that of the newer one, and was possibly offering a better reflection of the signal back onto the WPC11 card. The slots on the two PCs may be in slightly different places as well - did you try re-orientating the newer PC?

A good directional aerial on the AP may well help matters.

ROGER.