Calling Wi Fi Guru's - Advice?

[Elspode]

I've got a standard issue Linksys wireless router (G). I've located it in my basement, under the first floor, at the end of house where our office is located on the second floor. Reception and performance is just fine at this end of the house, but falls off pretty drastically at the other end. I've added the high gain rabbit ears on a remote stand to the rig.

What I think I need is a repeater, if my limited research is correct. Mounted on the second floor, at about the halfway point between the West and East end of the dwelling. Can anyone recommend a particular, compatible unit, preferably affordable and tidy? Or, alternatively, is there another approach I can take that uses my existing router signal and makes it more usable at the more remote parts of my home?

[zippyt]

Antennas like to be up high ,
run some cat 5 to the second floor or the attic , put your wireless router up there , you SHOULD be able to get MUCH better recption from there .

IMHO

[Elspode]

I've considered that, but it is problematic.

[zippyt]

Why ??
Think in terms of closets that lign up from floor to floor ,
in side walls are generly not insulated , thus you can sneek a wire thru them , drill a hole in the top plate , and in the bottom plate , and fish a wire thru .

[tw]

Originally Posted by zippyt

Why ??

Many fear rather than ask zippyt's question. I routinely install some Cat5 cables in widely spaced locations throughout the building. A WiFi router can be located at any of these ethernet port when necessary to have the rare access out in the yard, or in a rarely used room.

So why is a signal trashed? Before solving a problem, first undestand the 'whys' behind a problem. For example, using the Dell signal strength meter (don't wast time using useless five bars), I could see where signal dBs dropped only in three feet. Turns out, the concrete foundation beneath the floor at that three foot region ate WiFi signals aggressively. An ethernet port was located behind a cabinet and a WiFi router connected there; mounted in the trough atop that cabinet where router was unseen. Wifi covered the rest of the house.

In another house, massive heat ducts, chimney, and bomb shelter in house center region meant no WiFi on one side could provide a strong signal to the other. Mounting the Wifi off to one side in house center(again using the Dell signal strength meter software) found a spot that covered all locations. Ran an ethernet cable to that location and located a wifi router there.

Running attic wires is easy - especially if the house has a chimeny. That chimeny means a hole exists all the way to the basement.

Meanwhile, those electric boxes with no back (sold in Home Depot and Lowes) make it real easy to mount ethernet ports or run ethernet wires in most every wall. The hole being large eought to also drill holes down to the next floor and to reach inside walls to catch wires.

BTW, do not use extension cords to power a router - if you have respect for fire. Router is typically a permanent device that requires a properly wired outlet. A most powerful tool is that signal strength meter that can report dBs for Wifi signals. Meter makes it easy to find blind spots where Wifi signals will intemittently dissappear. Meter also provides experience to learn what does and does not destroy Wifi signals.

My experience is that a Wifi signal will pass through two cinder block walls for up to 50 feet with a marginal signal of -80dB. Not to be confused with another type of block - cement block.

[Ibby]

wow，　ＴＷ，　ｔｈｉｓ　ｉｓ　ａ　ｓｉｄｅ　ｏｆ　ｙｏｕ　ｉｖｅ　ｎｅｖｅｒ　ｓｅｅｎ　ｂｅｆｏｒｅ．．．

’ｓ　ｋｉｎｄａ　ｓｃａｒｙ，　ｒｅａｌｌｙ．

[tw]

Originally Posted by Ibram

wow，　ＴＷ，　ｔｈｉｓ　ｉｓ　ａ　ｓｉｄｅ　ｏｆ　ｙｏｕ　ｉｖｅ　ｎｅｖｅｒ　ｓｅｅｎ　ｂｅｆｏｒｅ．．．

What does that mean?

[SteveDallas]

Tw, could you recommend a useful signal meter? (Preferably one that doesn't cost an arm or a leg.)

[richlevy]

Ibram, TW is an engineer, either professional or lay, so it shouldn't be surprising.

That being said, I have to ask one question. Did TW build the bomb shelter or was it already in the house when he bought it? If it was already there, was it a selling point?

BTW, I was in a local game store a few weeks back when they had their Christmas sale. I picked up 6 or 7 foot lengths of used Ethernet cable for about a buck each. When I got them home I found out they were CAT 6!

I am once more reminded that, except of computers modeling weather or the stock market or looking for aliens, it appears to be gamers who use the most processing power and demand the best hardware.

This might explain why I get fragged so often playing Day of Defeat on my $199 Compaq.

[tw]

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

Tw, could you recommend a useful signal meter? (Preferably one that doesn't cost an arm or a leg.)

There really is no useful 'dedicated' signal meter that is inexpensive. But Dell owners can download one in software that works great.

The meter must select one Wifi station and only report dB numbers for that station. It also should provide signal to noise numbers AND historical information so that changes over the past few minutes can be compared to other events; especially when the human is over there making those changes.

[Clodfobble]

A completely different option... We were having problems getting a good enough signal to our downstairs MythTV box (long story short: we have a homemade TiVo-ripoff machine running Linux, and a second slave box downstairs that can stream recorded programs off of it so we can watch either upstairs or downstairs, and while our wireless signal was plenty strong enough for internet throughout the house, we would occasionally get buffering problems in the streaming TV signal.)

Mr. Clod's solution was to use an Ethernet-over-power box, which I had never heard of before--basically it's a little box that directly plugs your wireless router into any power outlet, and then a companion box is plugged into whatever outlet is near the item you want to get a signal to. The signal goes throughout the electrical cables in your house, no need for any additional wiring. It's not truly wireless per se, since you do have to be plugged into a nearby power outlet, but it's great for fixing that one spot in the house.

[Elspode]

I use Netstumbler on my computers...

http://www.netstumbler.com/

If you have a laptop, run this, and move the laptop to different locations to model your signal strength variations...

[tw]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Mr. Clod's solution was to use an Ethernet-over-power box, which I had never heard of before--basically it's a little box that directly plugs your wireless router into any power outlet, and then a companion box is plugged into whatever outlet is near the item you want to get a signal to.

Ethernet over power is akin to a previous technology called X-10 Controller. X-10 works great in some places and is problematic in others. Furthermore things like plug-in protectors and some appliances can 'eat' the signal. If located on circuits powered by opposite phases, a 'signal shorting block' (forget the correct name) may be required in that breaker box so that signal will transfer to circuits powered by that other phase.

Signal strength can be fine and yet not enough to overcome intermittent noise pulses. IOW the signal is fine for asynchronous communication such as web surfing. But real-time communication (including Skype) would suffer from the periodic noise bursts. Yes, a neighbor's WiFi also could be noise to your Wifi connection.

Another testing tool is to use "Ping -t xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" to watch connections to that clone Tivo IP (xxx) address. Over an hour, every ping should be without loss. Same test on the Wifi connection could also be informative on the 'Ethernet on power' connection. And could be used to help locate something that was interfering with the Wifi connection (ie microwave oven).

Hardwired ethernet cable is a sure solution. Ethernet on power is a 'try it; you may like it' solution. However Wifi should have been more reliable if signal strength is so good that even running a microwave nearby does not cause signal loss. (Microwave ovens use the same frequency as WiFi.) Some tools and experiments to better understand what you have.

[classicman]

FWIW - the microwave at my parents eats their phone signal completely. To the point where the call is lost. That's on their "land line" cordless phone system.

[zippyt]

Running attic wires is easy - especially if the house has a chimeny. That chimeny means a hole exists all the way to the basement.

BUT fire codes have a stand off distance from chimneys,fire walls( fire proof walls to contain a fire) as do heating and cooling ducts.

what I was talking about was running wires thru closets that lign up from floor to floor ,
or if'n your feeling Gungy you can run said wires in side interior walls ,generally no insulation , but some time there are cross braces ( )
Or if all else fails you could run some pipe on the out side wall , this is a LAST resort as it costs more ( pipe , fittings , paint , sealer , etc,,, )