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Poor wireless signal? - how to improve the range of your wireless network

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I recently set up a new wireless router at home and was disappointed to find that I couldn't connect to the network whilst upstairs. This didn't make a great deal of sense as I live in a house that's only ten years old so it's pretty much made of cardboard - hardly the stuff that's likely to block wireless signals!

The solution was pretty straight forward.

All I did was to connect to the wireless router (browse to https://192.168.2.1 - it's an SMC device), sign in, access the "wireless" settings and change the channel from the default of 11 to something else.

I re-connected to the wireless network from my Vista client and observed a much stronger signal - getting 4 out of 5 bars whilst upstairs.

Many of my neighbors have wireless access points that also default to channel 11 hence there was a great deal of contention.  

I wonder whether the signal will reach out to the garden...?

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    B.Tabrah> Sadly they're not obvious... Thanks for contributing

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Nick> Fon actually gave away a whole load of their dual APs on a first come first served basis @ the start of the year

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 15, 2007
    Another option is to get a directional antenna, place that at one edge of your house, and have it blast signal just where you want it to go. Fon (www.fon.com) sell a very cheap directional antenna, the Fontenna, which I've found to be really effective. They also do a very cool, cheap, dual signal wireless AP - it broadcasts a public signal you can share with others, and a wpa protected signal that gets you full access to your own network. When you're buying one, the directional antenna is really cheap.

  • Anonymous
    August 19, 2007
    The comment has been removed