Economical wireless range extender

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pschoggens · #1 Post by **pschoggens** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 1:44 am

Hi again,

I took about a week and 20 hours on hold waiting for tech assist to get my D link Wireless router up and running without the recommended 'Network Magic' software at 30bucks a year. That is besides the point.

The problem I am having now is.....range.

As soon as I step out of the office...10 feet away the signal is cut in half. Walk down the hall, and it barely has a pulse. Sit at the dinning room table and the connection is dropped.

I ran the numbers on the wall masses between the router and the tabel 25 feet away and there is a lot of material for the signal to pass through. I thought the 2.4gighz signal would surpass my 900mhz phone in range, but I was sadly mistaken.

Here is the plan....

Relocate my cable modem and wireless router to the dineing room and run
a cat 5 cable back to the desktop in the office 25' away.

Do you see any significant signal loss I should be concerned about?

This way the router antenna will be in the same room as I would like to use the laptop.

always open to suggestion

Powell

tselling · #2 Post by **tselling** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 12:08 pm

My D-Link wireless router (DI-624) has a page where you can set the transmit power Advanced->Performance. If your router has the same page, check to see if its at 100%.

#3 Post by **Kyocera** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 12:31 pm

There are tweaks as mentioned in the post above, but it also depends on the structure of the building you are in.

#4 Post by **jdhurst** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 2:13 pm

Consider a different router. I have a Netopia Wireless router in my basement in one corner behind an 8 inch steel beam. I get excellent signal in the diagonally opposite corner on the second floor. Seems OK to me. ... JD Hurst

pschoggens · #5 Post by **pschoggens** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 2:19 pm

Thanks for the reply

The home is 2x4 wood with drywall and no insulation on the interior walls. and there are 4 walls total to pass through, two walls which are the tiled shower, for a total distance of 20 feet.

The settings on the DI-524 web page is set at 100% for transmit, beacon 100msec, RTS 2346, Frag 2346, DTIM 1, long preamble, 802.11g only is disabled.

The firewall rules are disabled with default setting to allow WAN to ping port, but deny WAN source to LAN as a destination, and allow LAN to WAN as destination.

The cost of relocating the modem and router to the dinning room and the 25' is pretty cheap in comparing the cost of a repeater, but it would require me to get into some uncomfortable positions to install it.

My main concern is notable signal loss on the hard wire back to the desk top

any more help on that subject is appreciated

Thanks again
Powell

JHEM · #6 Post by **JHEM** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 2:51 pm

http://reviews.cnet.com/Buffalo_AirStat ... 30254.html

"The bottom line: The Buffalo WLA-G54C is the best wireless repeater we've seen to date, and it's a great building block for an expandable network."

About $70 at Newegg.com, but widely available elsewhere. There aren't any "bargain" repeaters worth buying IMNSHO.

Regards,

James

tselling · #7 Post by **tselling** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 4:50 pm

Seems odd that you have such a weak signal. My D-Link is in the basment under the stairs. Shows 100% signal at the kitchen table on the first floor and also 100% signal on the second floor. You might want to rule out the wireless in your laptop as the problem. One of the antenna wires could be disconnected. Some of the wireless cards let you set power saving mode and the transmit power as well.

You might also try changing the channel as there could be some interference on your current channel. Channel 11 works well for me. Channel 1 is not too busy in my neighborhood. Channel 6 was is overused in my neighborhood and I think it may be the default for D-Link. The find WLAN utility can check to see what wireless networks are in your neighborhood. Any that have a high signal strength you want to make note of the channel and not use it.

FWIW my Preamble is set to short but I doubt that matters. Also on the Home->Wireless page I have an extended range mode that is enabled. I think that just means that I can't use Super G with Turbo.

*** Almost forgot to ask... is your firmware up to date? http://support.dlink.com

JHEM · #8 Post by **JHEM** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 7:43 pm

tselling wrote:Seems odd that you have such a weak signal.

My vote goes to the two layers of bathroom tiles!

Like you Teresa, my Verizon supplied D-Link AirPlus ExtremeG is discernable from anywhere in the house. It sits in my basement office and I have no problem getting a good signal two stories up in my bedroom.

For the OP, how's your signal strength on other WAPs?

As Teresa said, check the antennae on your mini-PCI card. Your's wouldn't be the first Thinkpad delivered with only one, or even NO, antenna connectors attached.

Regards,

James

pschoggens · #9 Post by **pschoggens** » Sat Mar 11, 2006 11:39 pm

Interresting mention on the wifi card in the laptop.

I went to RadioShack to pick up 75' of cat 5 cable and while explaining my problem, I made a notable comment of when the son came over with his laptop and downloaded music in the living room, a place where I cannot even browse a webpage, although the signal strenght shows to be 100% but the transfer rate is 1mbps. I walk 6 feet from the ant of the router and the transfer rate drops from 24mbps to 11mbps, walk 5 more feet and it is at 5mbps, another 5 feet and it is at 1mpps.

I guess you might guesstamate my dissapointment in a router advertized with a 150' range.

RadioShack Dude suggested I buy another...better...wifi card for my z60t.

Before doing so I opted to consult this very knowledgable forum to see if I were alone in my quest for signal tranfer or if it is a known issue.

So hummmmm.....how do I access the area to look for the loose or disconnected wires? I have changed out HDs and did RAM upgrades in my desktop so I have the dexterity, just lacking some guidance.

Looking forward to the responses
Powell

JHEM · #10 Post by **JHEM** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 12:19 am

Watch the movie: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62131

Regards,

James

pschoggens · #11 Post by **pschoggens** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 11:45 pm

James

Nice video...thanks for the link.

The wires seamed to be in good contact, but I removed the card anyway and reinstalled it just incase it were to be a bad connection. No good. same result as before.

the D-Link has the latest firmware version 5.0 and it is the latest hardware release version E1 and the son has no problems using it on his laptop, so something must still be wrong with the Z60t.

Is this becomming a warranty issue?

Powell

#12 Post by **Kyocera** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:03 am

Do you have any problems connecting to other wireless points around town, can you drive around and pick up and connect to some random networks? If not (or if you are in the appalachian mountains) then i'd suspect the card too.

DIGITALgimpus · #13 Post by **DIGITALgimpus** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:19 am

Are there several wifi networks in your area?

It's pretty well known that a congested spectrum can really hamper your signal... you don't need just strength you need quality signal.

I've seen cases where the signal strength acutally wasn't bad... it's just between several wifi networks, cordless phones, wireless speakers, and a microwave... the signal quality is just ____

#14 Post by **schen** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 3:13 am

I know this is kinda off the wall, but do you have a wireless phone system in your house that is 2.4ghz? If so, that might be a source of some problems.

pschoggens · #15 Post by **pschoggens** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 6:42 pm

Thanks for the responses!

The neighbors house has a network but I cannot connect to it...it is a MAC, and it is the only one close enough to get 30% signal strength. At one time, I saw 4 but all were too weak to connect.

I have not tired to drive around or go to Starbucks yet, suppose that is worth a try.

My cordless phones are 900mhz.

Should I call IBM...do they have good customer service?

Any more ideas?

Thanks
Powell

pschoggens · #16 Post by **pschoggens** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 8:45 pm

Just got off the horn with IBM and they are sending me a new card and when I asked if the battery should last longer than 30 min...a new on of them too.

now I will have a perma-grinn when all this works!

And I will post update if this was the fix.

Thanks again all

Powell

Economical wireless range extender

Economical wireless range extender

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