Wireless router/Card antennas question.

[Aboulaly]

I have a wireless modem/router in the lounge room, I usually pick it up on my laptop from anywhere around the house, I even pick up few other connections from my building at full bars, and recently I have built a desktop for my kids in the bedroom and I have a tp-link wireless card on it but my tower is sitting in the corner under the desk and it's not picking up very well, now I am thinking of changing the antennas on the card and the router to boost the signal, my question is, would a 5Dbi antenna be enough or is there a better way to get around this?
Cheers

[urban_s0ulja]

does your laptop work in that area?

try changing the channel of your wireless...

do you have any other 2.4ghz devices?

[alalli]

We use a USB wieless connection in my daughters room. We mount the unit as high up on the wall as we can and it works for us. This might be cheaper than purchasing an antenna.

regards,

[tristen]

Try urban_s0ulja's suggestions, but in addition..

1/. Is the antenna on your desktop fully extended so that it is not parallel to and close to the metal case or any other metal objects?
2/. Is it in the same plane as that of the router?
3/. Sometimes simply moving things around a little results in an increase in signal.

[Aboulaly]

well I have a 2.4ghz phone in the bedroom, but my laptop still picks up my router at 100% from the same place, I made that aluminum foil booster thing and it made my signal better but my doesn't like the sight of it in the lounge room, LOL
eventhough my wireles card is a 108Mbps not a 54Mbps.

could there be a setting that I have missed?

[urban_s0ulja]

well I have a 2.4ghz phone in the bedroom,

unplug from power and try

[Aboulaly]

unplug from power and try

I gave that a go and changed the channel from 6 to 10 and changed the 802.11 mode to G only but still no improvement.
I think it's where the tower is sitting and the antenna being behind it against the desk, there isn't a good room for it to breath. I think it's better to get another antenna like one of those but I am not sure how much dbi I need to do the job.

[Pugs]

that one you linked too will be fine

[Aboulaly]

that one you linked too will be fine

do I need to change it at both ends, one on the router and one on the card, or just one end will do and which end is better to change? Cheers

[Pugs]

try changing the one at the pc end first, unless you can afford both new anteenas then get both then just chnage the one furthest away then chnage the "transmitting" anteena last

[urban_s0ulja]

what tp link units are you using mate?
some of the lower end ones dont have removable antenna's
bit of chopping and soldering may be involved.

[Aboulaly]

The card I have has a detachable antenna, so it should be all good, hopefully.

[gordon_s1942]

you did say the laptop works ok on the desk next to the tower didnt you?
Is there a wall or partion between the tower and the router antenna so it hasnt got a clear line of sight as I was wondering if there is, could there be metal in that like a mesh or metal framing hidden in the wall or partition.
You never know what lurks under the Gyprock.
Of course you could be just plumb lucky to find a Null spot where for some inexplicable reason there is only a poor signal.

[Aboulaly]

I live in a unit so it's all brick mate, but the router is in the loungeroom and the 2nd pc is in the bedroom it's about 10 meters away and one wall in between, I don't know what it is, I am just gonna get an other good antenna and see how it would be.

[Jack Frost]

Hello Aboulaly

Is your router also a TP Link Unit ? 10M should pose no problem for the extended range feature for wireless G. My TP Link router works a dream, My office is 30M from the main residence and the signal rating is 4 bars. The position of the router is in the study (main residence) signal travelling through 2 brick walls. I have the TP Link TL-ANT2406A Directional Antenna connected to the Office PC. Note that I did try a D DLink 5dba OmniDirectional on the Router, to my surprise the OEM TP Link Antenna Outperformed the D Link Unit.


Although the D Link Omni was a good performer in the colorbond garage it failed in the office($70.00 Waste). A $50.00 investment for the directional antenna is well worth it.

The trick is the Directional Antenna, works a treat ( On the receiving PC ).

Good Luck

[Aboulaly]

actually my router is a netcomm, but after doing a bit of research I decide it to get one of these antennas which is only $49 and place it on the wireless card. thanks for all your input guys

[Pugs]

no dramas hope it all works out for you... cable ftw..

[gordon_s1942]

3 or 4 years ago I bought a pair of cordless phones on 2.4ghz that were advertised as 'having up to a kilometre range'.
Briiliant says I as I am in a rural village on a 1/2 acre block, 60 feet wide X 300 feet long with the house at one end. The house is an old timber framed fibro clad inside and out with a corrugated iron roof.
To this day even with the base sitting on a widow sill in clear line of sight of the hand piece, I am flat out getting 30 metres range.
Prior to that I had no other items using 2.4 Ghz unlike today with the wireless router and room AV senders.
There is only one house within 75 metres of me and I doubted then and now that they could be using anything that might have interferred with the signal.
I hope the new antenna fixes up the problem for you.

[Aboulaly]

Ok I ended up getting this antenna and everything is sweet now, I am picking up my router at 100% and half of the neighbourhood's routers.LOL
Thanks for all your help guys.
Oh and I downloaded this very very nice software for the network it's called Cisco speed meter.
read about it here.
Download from here.