[SamT]

Thinking of moving the wifi router.. at the moment its in right one corner of the house - and I cant get a signal in the kitchen - opposite corner.

Thinking of moving it into the under stair cupboard, as this is more central in the house - and should hopefully get a signal everywhere then.  (I'm also probably going to get a NAS to attach to it too, which will be a bit less likely to get nicked in the event of a burglary if its tucked away under the stairs).

However..

Will this knacker the signal even further (by having it in a cupboard) or will it not make any difference.   

[Fultonius]

Get yourself a really long cable to connect it to the phone socket (they're only a couple of fuck alls) and then move it around to various locations, then tst the signal strength.

Better than going to all the hassle of permanently moving it and finding out it's worse.

[Bubba]

Worth looking at something like using another old router as a repeater.

Or, we have the main router upstairs but I ran a cable downstairs to a cheap wireless access point in the living room. Set both SSIDs to be the same with same credentials and devices should just select the strongest signal depending upon where you are in the house at the time.

[Wipey Why]

Worth looking at something like using another old router as a repeater.

Or, we have the main router upstairs but I ran a cable downstairs to a cheap wireless access point in the living room. Set both SSIDs to be the same with same credentials and devices should just select the strongest signal depending upon where you are in the house at the time.

This is what I did. Works well (after a lots of shouting and swearing trying to set it up)

[slackline]

If you've an Android phone a really useful application is WiFi Analyzer.  Fire it up and it will tell you the strength of different channels, adjust this setting in your router accordingly (wherever you end up placing it).

[Bubba]

That app is also useful for checking what channel your neighbour's wifi is using.  If you're on the same one, go into your router control panel and change it - you'll potentially get less interference.

[SamT]

If you've an Android phone a really useful application is WiFi Analyzer.  Fire it up and it will tell you the strength of different channels, adjust this setting in your router accordingly (wherever you end up placing it).

Would love to - but my HTC desire is bang out of memory, Cant even get my calendar and yahoo to update on there.  Tried App2SD and blah blah blah - gonna upgrade v soon and will try this.. cheers.

Get yourself a really long cable to connect it to the phone socket (they're only a couple of fuck alls) and then move it around to various locations, then tst the signal strength.
Better than going to all the hassle of permanently moving it and finding out it's worse.

  thought of this and I reckon I'll try it tomorrow.

[underground]

Samwise... I have a 10m cable you can borrow.. yada yada, forgot etc.... but if you want it, hit me up...

[tregiffian]

BT Desktop Help will get your hub on the best channel, if you have a Hub........

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Bit off topic, but to free up memory on your Desire, delete all caches and data from all big apps. Check the size of your address book. Theres is a common memory leak issue I had on mine.. If your address book is synched with your Google account just delete the whole thing and let it re sync. Mine got up to 40mb at times. Sorry if you've already done all this.

[chris j]

What's the house construction - if it's mostly stud wall / wood floors then there shouldn't be any problem. At present my wifi router is in a wood cupboard under the stairs, two floors away and I've dropped one bar of signal in the Windows system tray. OTOH my parents' last house was all block walls and with the router in the study at one end of the house they couldn't pick up the wifi in the living room (~15m through two external brick/block walls).

[butters]

Sounds exactly like what I am doing at the minute - just the small matter of rebuilding the cellar head to be got round before re-routing cables and the like to make it all work...

ove to - but my HTC desire is bang out of memory, Cant even get my calendar and yahoo to update on there.  Tried App2SD and blah blah blah - gonna upgrade v soon and will try this.. cheers.

Running Netstumbler on a laptop is a possible alternative. 

[Bubba]

Another idea - never tried one of these but you can also get a Wifi Booster Antenna if you can find one to fit your particular router.

[Ti_pin_man]

 

Plug in relay devices are the answer for dead spots . 

[Bubba]

Never tried them as I've always had some old routers/access points lying about - do they work well? Any brand recommendation?

[jmews]

I also had this problem. I solved it as suggested above- a long cat5 cable from main acess point to a second wireless access point. I turned wireless broadcasting off on the original point as it was confusing things at the point where the two signals were roughly equal.

[slackline]

I also had this problem. I solved it as suggested above- a long cat5 cable from main acess point to a second wireless access point. I turned wireless broadcasting off on the original point as it was confusing things at the point where the two signals were roughly equal.

Tidier (but more expensive) to use powerline between the two routers if you've plug sockets to spare.  In fact you can get wifi powerlines these days if you don't have a spare wireless router to turn into a repeater.

[SamT]

Hi - managed to fit Wifi Analyzer on the phone and put the router in the desired cupboard (no need to bother connecting it to the phone line, as the wifi still broadcasts without a connection of course)  Worked a treat and I get a OK signal in all parts of the house now. Woo.

Hoping the Virgin router may have a bit more oomph than the crappy D-Link one from T-mobile too. 

[jmews]

I also had this problem. I solved it as suggested above- a long cat5 cable from main acess point to a second wireless access point. I turned wireless broadcasting off on the original point as it was confusing things at the point where the two signals were roughly equal.

Tidier (but more expensive) to use powerline between the two routers if you've plug sockets to spare.  In fact you can get wifi powerlines these days if you don't have a spare wireless router to turn into a repeater.

Agreed. If budget had allowed, then this is definitely the route I would have taken.