Hello

My mum has just got wireless broardband but there’s a problem. With her laptop in the same room as the router (hallway) all is fine. If she takes the computer into another room the signal fails after 30 seconds to a minute. The computer has a dongle which I’m thinking could be at fault. Someone has also suggested that the problem might lie with the house … thick, granite walls. They suggested moving the router into a room more central/where she’ll mostly use the computer. I’m thinking this might not be it as, even if she moves into a room off the hall with a direct doorway through, the connection still fails … it seems to be a distance thing.

Any advice, tips, etc would be great or if anyone in the High Peak area fancies popping round 😉

Cheers
Stuart

Wireless is just a bit rubbish I’m afraid.

Doubtless someone will be along in a moment to say that in their house it’s marvelous. And with the right conditions that’s true.

But you don’t need much to mess it up. Lots of neighbours with wireless? Forget it. Next door to big industrial machinery. No chance. Nice thick walls made of something opaque at 2.4GHz? Not going to happen.

Apparently 3ft of granite will block microwaves.

You might have more luck with 802.11n (but if you’ve just been given a wireless router by your ISP then that won’t help much). Powerline might help.

But best of all is Ethernet.

It’s probably the walls. A friend who lives in an old cottage has a similar problem.

So, the options are:

1. Move the router so that it’s in the same room as the computer – it probably is a distance thing;
2. Plug an ethernet cable into the router and then into the back of the laptop and turn wireless off; or
3. Get a couple of powerline adapters like these: http://www.netgear.co.uk/powerline_ethernet_adapter_xavb2501.php
These allow the mains ring to be used as a network.

HTH

Switching channel to auto helped me a lot.

You could try putting the router in the loft so the signal goes through the thinner ceilings.

All of the above really (especially moving the router upstairs).

Try putting the router on a downstairs windowsill, take the laptop outside and slowly walk away from the router keeping it in plain sight.
If the signal drops after 15-20′ with nothing in the way then something is wrong.
Check the software running the wireless dongle and see if there’s a power option – the power may be turned down thus giving rubbish distance.
If her laptop has a cardbus/pcmcia slot (compact flash card sort of size) I’ve got a spare wireless card she can have.

Cheers folks, most helpful.

Few things to add to that lot; if the router has external aeriels, they should be vertical. The temptation is to angle them like rabbit ears or point it towards your devices, but if you do that the signal strength goes to custard.

Look for updated firmware for the router, new drivers for the dongle.

802.11n is better than g, is better than b. It’ll run at the lowest common denominator. If your dongle is 802.11b only, swap it for a better one.

Move the router higher if you can; not at the expense of moving from the master socket to an extension though