Wireless Signal Boosters?

[C45P4R]

Hey all.

Is there any good ways of improving the wireless signal to my room? Unfortunately moving the router isn't an option. At the moment I get no signal whatsoever in most parts of my room. I bought a Huawei Wi-Fi Repeater hoping this would help but, it made no difference. All it did was tell me I had full signal and I was connected but, I still couldn't use the internet lol. Not only that but, it caused some devices to not connect at all anymore.

So if I pay a bit more am I going to have the same experience or will something else actually work? I feel like everyone who gave it good reviews has been tricked into thinking they have better signal when actually they don't lol.

Also, I want to run dual monitors, do you think 2 24"s will be too much and just be annoying? I've come from a laptop so I have no idea...

Ordered a custom desktop from pcspecialist and I cannot wait for it to arrive! So far it is in the configuration stage (loving the updates as they go). I have also ordered an anker gaming mouse, microsoft sidewinder x4 and an ASUS VE247H 24 inch monitor. Its all so exciting lol. I just wanted to share that because not many people I know care haha.

Processor (CPU) AMD FX-6300 Six Core CPU (3.50GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3+)
Graphics Card 2GB AMD RADEON™ HD7870 - DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
Sound Card ASUS Xonar DS
Power Supply 450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
64bit w7 ofc

 

[vanthus]

You could try homeplugs for a better connection.
The size of monitors is pretty much a personal preference,2 24"s should be fine,personally I prefer 22" monitors.

 

[C45P4R]

You could try homeplugs for a better connection.
The size of monitors is pretty much a personal preference,2 24"s should be fine,personally I prefer 22" monitors.

Yeah, I thought it probably was. I've ordered one for now and if I think it's too big to have a second the same size I guess I will get a smaller 2nd one. Don't suppose you have any idea on which brand/model of homeplugs are the best? Or at least good for their price? Didn't know they were called homeplugs so hopefully that should help me research. Cheers. +1

 

[Blackdog]

Yeah, I thought it probably was. I've ordered one for now and if I think it's too big to have a second the same size I guess I will get a smaller 2nd one. Don't suppose you have any idea on which brand/model of homeplugs are the best? Or at least good for their price? Didn't know they were called homeplugs so hopefully that should help me research. Cheers. +1

I have a pair of these and they work great.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-PA4...F8&qid=1372276029&sr=8-1&keywords=tp+link+500

 

[vanthus]

Yeah, I thought it probably was. I've ordered one for now and if I think it's too big to have a second the same size I guess I will get a smaller 2nd one. Don't suppose you have any idea on which brand/model of homeplugs are the best? Or at least good for their price? Didn't know they were called homeplugs so hopefully that should help me research. Cheers. +1

You could order homeplugs from PCS if you're an existing customer,not sure what make they are but don't recall any complaints about them on the forums.

 

[C45P4R]

Thanks both of you. I think I will order some right now .

 

[bigben]

I have one of these. Like homeplugs but one of them gives out wireless as well. Useful for phones/laptop/ipad etc. EDIT: I even found a way to configure it so it has the same network name and password so it switches to whichever has the best signal as you walk round the house.
I have 2 24" monitors and am very happy with them.

 

[ubuysa]

I'm certainly not going to argue with the Homeplugs suggestion, but there might be stuff you can do to help your wifi.

You say you have "no signal in most parts of your room"? Is the router in the same room (I guess not)? If the wifi repeater said it had good signal and was connected but you still couldn't connect, perhaps it's your PC/laptop with the issue? If you move your PC/laptop can you connect at all?

The problem may well be wifi channel interference. You probably know that (in the UK at least) there are 13 channels to choose from (you only ever use one channel) and most wifi routers come preset to use either channels 1, 6 or 11 because those channels do not overlap (frequency-wise). The problem is that every wifi router in your vicinity is almost certainly using either 1, 6 or 11 and they thus become saturated and often cause interference, this is most noticeable with weak or poor quality signals.

What you need is a tool that can survey all the hotspots in your vicinity and tell you what channels they use, and that tool is inSSIDer. So install and run it and the graphical view will show you clearly what channel everyone else is using, you'll see clearly that 1, 6 and 11 have many hotspots on them. So choose one of the others; 4 or 8 are often a good choice. Yes, they overlap others but that's less of a problem than sharing a channel with many other hotspots.

Your router config should let you select the channel to use. You will have to reconnect every other device once you've done this but they will happily use the new channel with no modification.

Something to think about anyway

 

[Yamikotai]

You probably know that (in the UK at least) there are 13 channels to choose from (you only ever use one channel)

Infodump - often in the UK you'll get devices that limit you to 11 channels; this is because they use a generic firmware/driver also used in the US, where channels 12 and 13 aren't legal for consumer use.