4 replies to this topic

[eric87crx]

I just bought a tower from my brother..my landlords across the driveway have wireless internet and they have a belkins router..i bought a belkins usb device, the best kind they had at the store (there was 3 different types, i bought the one with the supposed fastest speed etc.) and i receive little to no signal..even when i do have one bar i cannot access the internet, maybe the signal is too weak? anyways, what peice of hardware is out there that i can purchase to strengthen my signal? i do not have phone or cable hooked up in my appartment if that helps at all explaining anything...i was thinkin there might be some kind of waypoint router out there, google does almost nothing for me on this topic..thanks for any and all advice on this in advance

[DEIVIONCRX]

You bought a wireless card, and are using their internet? The problem is their signal is across the street, you wont get a decent signal till your sitting in their driveway.

[Lymitliss]

I know Linksys has signal boosters you can plug into an outlet, and it supposedly receives the signal, boosts it and sends it back out. I tried it once and it never worked right

[eric87crx]

I guess i forgot to add, my landlord's laptop recieves full bars sitting in my appartment, and the older than old school lap top i have gets 3 out of 5 bars up there...what do they have that i dont? It's reat mostally not that far of a distance..i would say prolly 35 yards at most

Edited by eric87crx, 07 September 2010 - 03:46 PM.

[Gimpalot]

Honestly, the usb wireless cards do not pick up signals anywhere near as well as the cards you plug into the PC internally.
At least that has been my experience with them.

Is your landlord's router set up to be an open network, or has he given you an access code to get into the network?

My wireless looks to the rest of the world like they can just hook up and go, but I have it set up to only allow certain devices to connect, based on their MAC address.
If the MAC isn't in the list, it looks like they connect, but then they just can't get anything to go...

Also keep in mind that going through walls at angles essentially adds the actual distance again for the effective distance travelled, so for example. If you are physically 100 feet away and at an exact 90 degree angle to the walls, from the network router, you are going STRAIGHT through a minimum of 2 walls so you are effectively about 105 feet away.
If you are physically 100 feet away, but at a 45 degree angle to the walls, from the network router, with the same 2 walls, you are effectively 300 feet away. Add 1 more wall and that makes it 400 feet effectively.
This can have a huge impact on wireless performance.