wireless upstairs in my bedroom (no Ethernet cable available ). 7

[manhunter2826]

wireless upstairs in my bedroom (no Ethernet cable available ).

^Folks, I'd love your help if possible. atm my BT router is downstairs in my lounge but in my bedroom i have my wireless laptop but the connection is slower (compared to the machines downstairs) . My Q is : if I buy a wireless range extender, would that help matters. and also, would the extender be placed in my upstairs bedroom and be permanently connected to the laptop - or is a power source sufficient enough. Once again, I do not have an Ethernet outlet in the bedroom, so please bear that in mind. If the extender does have to be permanently connected to laptop via an Ethernet cable then that is not an issue for me. Finally, is the initial setup difficult -- does the extender need to 'talk' to the router downstairs? Thanks as always for your help.

would something like this be okay:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-Wireless-Universal-Range-Extender/dp/B000IE8STS

 

[NortonES2]

If you don't have any luck you could also consider Ethernet over Power.

-------------------------------

If it doesn't leak oil it must be empty!!

 

[BadBigBen]

The range extender should work fine, though not knowing how the house is build and what distance from the main AP to your bedroom is...

have you considered running an Ethernet cable through the walls?...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[MarcLodge]

I've got a 'homeplug' by Solwise which I've had for years and they work fine. They usually come in pairs and are basically plugs. You plug one in to the wall next to your router and run a (supplied) ethernet cable from the router to the plug. The other goes upstairs and plugs into a socket in the room you want the connection. If you buy an ethernet plug for upstairs, you run a (supplied) ethernet cable from the plug to the machine, or if you buy the wireless plug for upstairs, then you configure the laptop to pick up the signal.

You can buy ones of differing speed and I believe that over the years the technology has improved greatly. There's a good write up on Wiki that describes it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HomePlug

and if you type homeplug into amazon you'll get loads of hits.

Of course it depends on whether your house electrics are up to it, but generally I've found (and I've lent mine to a whole load of people since I've had them, to test out) that they do.

Marc

 

[manhunter2826]

thanks all for your helpful replies. due to my electrics i probably cannot run the homeplug. re the extender : can someone please just enlighten me: is all that is required is a power source where it would sit in my bedroom? is the initial setup fairly easy? I have a BT wireless router (works fine ) and would i need to make changes to that. Thanks all and stars given to all .

 

[vacunita]

A Range extender would increase the rang of your wireless signal, but would not increase the speed of the internet connection itself.

If the slower speed is really due to a lesser signal strength, which is rarely the case, the extender may alleviate things.

The real issue here is how weak is the signal in the bedroom?
I mean anything over 2 bars should not interfere with the internet speed.

If its really noticeably slower, I'd start suspecting a connection to the wrong router. If you have nearby neighbors you may be connecting to their router by mistake if its unprotected, and has a similar identifier as your own.

As far as the range extender would go, it would not directly connect to your laptop, rather simply to a power outlet somewhere in your home. It would need to talk to the router to get the signal its going to extend.

Also placement of the extender is important to get the best signal, if the signal is really weak in your bedroom placing the extender there will not work too well as it would probably have the same trouble getting the signal from the router.

Placing it outside the bedroom half way between it and the router would provide a better signal boost as it can pick up the signal from the router and offer a wider area from its own location.

----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

 

[trvlr1]

You may also want to try moving the wireless router, or even the antenna's if it has them, sometimes this will make all the difference in the world. A couple of feet will often be more than enough .... hey ... it's free to try.

 

[manhunter2826]

thanks vac (star given ) for that v useful info. actually today, after a reboot of the router things are back to normal, as they should be. I still am interested in the idea of getting an extender just in case. vac: no, although i do see other networks my laptop is definitely connecting to MY router; yes, i get 3/4 signal strength. best i can explain it is like this: no dropped connections at all but , compared to machines downstairs, the pages 'hang' towards the end as they attempt to load. thanks for info on placement of extender too. hmm, i am in a bit of a dilemma now: do u think, given the info i have provided, an extender would help matters. also vac, does this mean i would have to configure the BT router too in order for the extender to work? Once again, much thanks vac and everyone.

{like i say, after a reboot, all is fine again today}.

 

[manhunter2826]

thanks trv also - star given.

 

[MarcLodge]

What happens if you take the laptop downstairs and work with it there? Do you still experience the hanging at the end of the page load? What about other wireless devices - phones, ipads, xbox etc etc, anything that has a wireless connection? Are they slower upstairs to down?

I'm trying to determine whether it is the router and the wireless connection that's the problem or whether it's a problem exclusive to the laptop.

Marc

 

[manhunter2826]

marc, thank u but yes when i take it downstairs all is well. star given . laptop is clean also; i have avast and mbam and IS clean.

 

[MarcLodge]

What about any other devices you might have in the house? Do they experience a similar delay?

 

[manhunter2826]

marc, it depends really. the only problem i have sometimes (as i described earlier ) is from upstairs; all downstairs devices have no issues. and i must be honest, after reboot of router this morning things are back to normal; but i am still interested in the idea of an extender -- just in case if problem arises again. I just wanted to know if the extender (such as the belkin in my OP) is plug and play. thanks .

 

[ChrisHirst]

Also you could be in the antenna "dead zone", which is an vertical inverteted cone from the tip of the antenna.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
Webmaster Forum

 

[BadBigBen]

No the extender/repeater is not plug and play, it has to be setup to work with your AP...

see:

How to Setup a Wi-Fi Repeater

http://www.ehow.com/how_4740094_setup-wifi-repeater.html

Set Up a Wi-Fi Repeater

http://www.amid.com/werd/set-up-a-wi-fi-repeater/

though the second link talks about installing another firmware, you do get the idea that it is just a matter of configuring the repeater/extender...

also, you may wish to see if you could increase the antenna output of your present AP, that would be way cheaper than either running a cable or purchasing an extender...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[manhunter2826]

thanks chris and ben again -- stars given to all ! ben, i will have a read of that useful info u gave. much thanks to all !!

 

[walker2]

My mom is using Wifi for her computer, as the DSL comes into the house in the basement, and her setup is on the 2nd floor. (Plenty of signal!)

I had to fiddle a lot with router and the wireless IF in the PC in order to get a stable throughput.
Among other things I had to disable AUTO when it came to 802.11a/b or g. Same with speed.

Fixing it to say 4 MB/s gave a much better result than just AUTO.

The DSL is, I believe, 8 MB/s, but I have never come any way near that in her setup.
Of course, my dad has his setup in the basement using regular LAN from the router.

 

[vacunita]

thanks vac (star given ) for that v useful info. actually today, after a reboot of the router things are back to normal, as they should be. I still am interested in the idea of getting an extender just in case. vac: no, although i do see other networks my laptop is definitely connecting to MY router; yes, i get 3/4 signal strength. best i can explain it is like this: no dropped connections at all but , compared to machines downstairs, the pages 'hang' towards the end as they attempt to load. thanks for info on placement of extender too. hmm, i am in a bit of a dilemma now: do u think, given the info i have provided, an extender would help matters. also vac, does this mean i would have to configure the BT router too in order for the extender to work? Once again, much thanks vac and everyone.

{like i say, after a reboot, all is fine again today}.

You probably won't need to configure anything in the router. Rather on the Extender which needs to pick up the signal and "repeat" it.

Depending on the extender it may be auto-configuring, but as Ben points out you'll probably have to set some parameters in the extender. The manual should help you out with that.

As far signal strength vs connection speed, if you are getting 3/4's of the signal strength, then that should be more than enough for a stable un-altered connection.

If you can, take a look at the connection status when the pages seem to hang, see what it says about the connection quality and speed.

The normal values should be at 54.0 mbps and a high signal quality.

If it remains constant even when the pages hang, then the Wifi is not the culprit.

<b>What browser do you use? If you try with a different browser does it make a difference?</b>









----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

Web & Tech

 

[manhunter2826]

thanks walker and vac -- and thanks vac for that v useful info. vac, no, it's not the browsers at fault - i use ff, chrome and opera. vac, it is not so much that the pages hang -- it's just that they take longer to load ( i see this in the browser status bar). glad to know that no config is needed on the router side. stars given to both of u.