If you find the signals to be better, when following the suggested
testing downstairs, there does exist a solution that may help you out on
poor wireless connections.
As indicated in an earlier message, the wireless signals can be affected
by numerous conditions in your home. Is it a concrete building, signals
will have a harder time in coming through, than in a wooden building.
Electrical and electronic equipment that sits in between you and the
router, may have their impact. Metal of any kind, like water pipes, or
even the casing on appliances, could disturb the signals. And also other
wireless activity could be playing its role.
OK, you may be on your own, with noone else accessing your wireless
network. But if your nextdoor has a wireless router - which she likely
does - your router and her will compete over the access. If now you have
ten nextdoors, with each their router, and maybe an untold number of
wireless units connecting to the different access points, there will be
pretty crowded in the atmosphere around you. These other activities may
for uncertain reasons be more conflicting to you, upstairs in your home.
Trying to move to another spot, even upstairs, may prove slightly helpful.
Of course the router's positioning may have almost everything to say. If
possible, try to move it to a higher position in the room, like on top
of a bookshelf, to bring it somehow closer to upstairs. If it sits near
the outer wall, move it more into the room. If possible, try placing it
near a door, since the door material will be thinner than a wall, hence
signals will creep through much easier. Does your router sit next to -
or in any way near - any electrical equipment like appliances, even if
these are on the other side of a wall, you may again want to reconsider
the positioning of the router.
OK, so what if all of this fails? I do know some people have used
equipment that includes an indoor antenna, running underneath the
cealing. To what extent you can get an antenna to work just out of the
air, or if your router has a connector for external antennas, you would
have to investigate on your own. Perhaps your router already is equipped
with an antenna right on the box, and simply angling it to a different
position may have the desired effect.
But recently, I read about something called a wireless repeater, booster
or duplicator. I do see different terms used, so gave you the three of
them. This is a small unit, that you plug into an empty wall-socket (to
power it), and pretty much should be up running. What it does, is to
pick up any wireless signals, and give them a boost or amplification,
before throwing them into the air again. It seemingly has no effect on
the speed on your net, but reports are that it does have a great impact
on the signal capacity on your network. One report even told it to work
from 1st to 3rd floor in a residential home. From what I can see, prices
would range from something around 50 US dollars, and upward. You may
argue that this is almost the price of a new router. If you desire to go
for the router, do so. It may help you, in case your new router happens
to have a better wireless transmitter onboard. Yet, I am ready to think
it may not help you much, should any of the above concerns be the case.
A new router would have to deal with just as many disturbances, and the
signals will have to go through exactly the same walls and materials.
A booster, you could put where the signals start to go low. Take your
wireless unit - like your cellphone, and walk around in the house. Stop
up on certain spots, and test the signals over a short period of time.
Or, through the next week or so, try using the unit for prolonged
activity on different locations around the house. Be fair. Don't base on
what you feel or think, but really do notice what is actually going on.
Does the signals in any of the locations come through just fine, then to
drop all the certain? Or do they seem to be steadily ongoing, but with a
lower strength? The answers may help you in determining where to locate
a repeater or booster. Be sure to place it in a location, just before
the signals go poor. Does the booster get poor signals, it will boost
poor signals; so you most definitely want it to pick up on the very best
signals, and have them boosted.
These would be only a few considerations to keep in mind. Hopefully you
will find them of any use, or others reading this rather long message
may have benefitted in making their wireless network more accessible. As
a final reminder, keep in mind that if you live in an apartment
building, and place your router near the wall you share with your
nextdoor, they may have done the exactly same thing on their side of
that wall. In such a case, you both will have trouble. Or, maybe your
nextdoor has left his router upstairs, so as not to be disturbed by your
router, and that is why you happen to have the trouble upstairs.
HTH,David
On 7/21/2016 3:38 AM, Andre via Talk wrote:
I think you should test it also downstairs with your iphone. Wi-fi signals,
the walls, pipes, etc. could be enterfering with the type of signal you're
receiving upstairs. So before tossing your lynksis, if you haven't already
done so, then make sure to do the speed test with your iphone closest to the
router.
I've experienced the same thing as well.
-----Original Message-----
From: Talk [mailto:[email protected]]
On Behalf Of Kevin Barry via Talk
Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2016 7:31 PM
To: [email protected]; Jed Barton; Window-Eyes Discussion List
Subject: Re: router suggestions
synology makes a very nice one, $150.
On Thursday, July 21, 2016, Jed Barton via Talk <[email protected]>
wrote:
Hey guys,
OK, i need to get a new router. Perhaps some of you guys can comment,
perhaps it's me, but the quality of routers seems to be really going down
hill. I've had this linksys for about 2 years and it's nearly shot. Put
it this way, we measured the speed of my cable modem, it's 60 megs
download, and when i tested it upstairs with speedtest on my iphone it
went
down to 20 megs. I really suspect the signal is just not getting out. I
need to fix this once and for all. Any ideas?
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