Weak Wireless Signal

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

My son is currently living in a vacant hotel (don't ask). We are trying to get his broadband up and running. The landline telephone port is in 'reception' - unfortunately his room is miles from reception - and so his wireless signal in his room is very weak and disconnections all the time. Any thoughts?

Using a powerline adaptor is not likely to work as we have no idea what power circuit to plug adaptors in to.

 

[Rooter]

where is the router? would wireless extenders work? ie plus a power looking plug in halfway between the router and his room. like this: http://www.clasohlson.com/uk/Netgea...yKLNKvzJJgvMInyPjHQLpv_RunPpCwwuHoaAm3i8P8HAQ

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I guess he could find a socket somewhere between the reception (by the entrance of the hotel) and his room. Is the idea of that sort of thing that it picks up the signal from the router and the boosts it to a level that my son could pick up in his room? Would a high gain antenna plugged into USB port on his laptop also be required? I'm looking at these things and getting confused...

 

[Rooter]

I guess he could find a socket somewhere between the reception (by the entrance of the hotel) and his room. Is the idea of that sort of thing that it picks up the signal from the router and the boosts it to a level that my son could pick up in his room? Would a high gain antenna plugged into USB port on his laptop also be required? I'm looking at these things and getting confused...

nothing else required, just the plug like i posted. that grabs the wireless from the router and replicates it further.

 

[sawtooth]

I guess he could find a socket somewhere between the reception (by the entrance of the hotel) and his room. Is the idea of that sort of thing that it picks up the signal from the router and the boosts it to a level that my son could pick up in his room? Would a high gain antenna plugged into USB port on his laptop also be required? I'm looking at these things and getting confused...

A high gain antenna is unlikely to help in this situation. It may be useful if you were setting up a point to point bridge with another wireless router or AP.

If I were you (or your son) my first step would be to use a wifi analyzer (free one on google play store that goes by that name) and do a quick scan. Repeat scan near router and in the bedroom and see what the wireless landscape looks like. You can grab screens and post them on here if you want or PM them to me.

Its not always a signal strength issue some people just dont have a clue about configuring channels on access points. I was at BT offices in Birmingham today and they were broadcasting an SSID on channel 5

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

A high gain antenna is unlikely to help in this situation. It may be useful if you were setting up a point to point bridge with another wireless router or AP.

If I were you (or your son) my first step would be to use a wifi analyzer (free one on google play store that goes by that name) and do a quick scan. Repeat scan near router and in the bedroom and see what the wireless landscape looks like. You can grab screens and post them on here if you want or PM them to me.

Its not always a signal strength issue some people just dont have a clue about configuring channels on access points. I was at BT offices in Birmingham today and they were broadcasting an SSID on channel 5

Thanks for the offer. I'll ask my son to do some screen grabs. That said, he can connect to it wirelessly if he gets himself closer to it.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

nothing else required, just the plug like i posted. that grabs the wireless from the router and replicates it further.

Might just grab a cheap one of these from Amazon and get it too him - why don;t I try this cheapy

https://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-Wi-...rs-21&linkId=9de58439a270bc4b3690d0e9f70d8a06

 

[sawtooth]

Thanks for the offer. I'll ask my son to do some screen grabs. That said, he can connect to it wirelessly if he gets himself closer to it.

Always good to do a scan not only for him but for anyone who uses wifi. People can improve their wlan performance by simply selecting one of the 3 non overlapping channels 1, 6 and 11 and persuading neighbours to do the same. Assuming band is 2.4ghz which is by far the most prevalent still.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Thanks for that - I'll pass on that suggestion.

 

[Deleted member 21258]

We have thick walls/long house and I tried over the first 2-3 years of living here, wireless extenders, long reach wifi by unifi, electrical socket setup and we just found they are all rubbish for us. Just did not work well enough, reliable and speed wise.

In the end, whilst ripping out all the ceiling here(had to replace almost all of them here), I ran new cat 5e wiring the length of the property and we then used wifi sockets(Huawei ones which are cheap) at the end of the new cat5e wiring, problem solved, wifi everywhere in the property.

Can your son not just run cat 5 wiring to the location from the router and then a wifi socket setup ?(cat5 wiring is silly cheap)

 

[Beezerk]

We have thick walls/long house and I tried over the first 2-3 years of living here, wireless extenders, long reach wifi by unifi, electrical socket setup and we just found they are all rubbish for us. Just did not work well enough, reliable and speed wise.

In the end, whilst ripping out all the ceiling here(had to replace almost all of them here), I ran new cat 5e wiring the length of the property and we then used wifi sockets(Huawei ones which are cheap) at the end of the new cat5e wiring, problem solved, wifi everywhere in the property.

Can your son not just run cat 5 wiring to the location from the router and then a wifi socket setup ?(cat5 wiring is silly cheap)

Cat 5 would be my choice as well, easy enough to do and should be reasonably cheap if not a bit untidy, plus the bonus is he'll have no loss of speed. Off the top of my head the longest run with a cat 5 cable is 100 metres before it needs boosting, so plenty of scope there I imagine.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

We have thick walls/long house and I tried over the first 2-3 years of living here, wireless extenders, long reach wifi by unifi, electrical socket setup and we just found they are all rubbish for us. Just did not work well enough, reliable and speed wise.

In the end, whilst ripping out all the ceiling here(had to replace almost all of them here), I ran new cat 5e wiring the length of the property and we then used wifi sockets(Huawei ones which are cheap) at the end of the new cat5e wiring, problem solved, wifi everywhere in the property.

Can your son not just run cat 5 wiring to the location from the router and then a wifi socket setup ?(cat5 wiring is silly cheap)

He's living in a country house hotel that is currently closed with owners waiting for planning permission to convert to apartments. He is one of twelve guardians paying not a lot to live in it to keep out thieves, vandals and squatters. It's a long way from reception (where the landline ports are) to his room - and he's not allowed to make holes in walls, ceilings etc

 

[sawtooth]

Depending on where this i could drop in to take a look.PM me if you want.

I work in the field of enterprise WLAN and if i thought it would help I could dig out and donate some discontiuned kit which will soon be recycled anyway. Much better though than the average consumer grade kit that you can buy or get free from your ISP.

i have assumed that your router is old, if it isn't already 802.11n or 802.11ac then you will find that upgrading to one that is will help too. Apart from the greater bandwidth of these newer standards, range you also get improved range. However , you also require a laptop/smartphone/tablet/client that complies with these standards to reap the benefits.Even a cheap one that supports these standards may be an improvement on what you have. 802.11n on 2.4 is probably your best bet but I will probably have something lying around for nothing.

Also have you considered relocating the router to another part of the room or ground floor? Perhaps best chance for signal to reach bedroom is directly upwards through ceilings. Therefore if possible placement of router directly below sons bedroom would probably be better than going through ceilings and walls as well if the 2 are at diagonally opposite ends of the building. I hope that makes sense. Walls are likely to be solid and thick hence higher attentuation of signal.

A really cool solution that will be no doubt cost prohibitive in this case uses the telephone network in the building. Google T5 VDSL , it delivers wired and wireless broadband to each room where you have a telephone point.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Hi @sawtooth - in truth it's probably not worth it - he's not likely to be there that long (probably only a few months) - that said however, if you happen to be in the Sheffield area as it's costing a fair bit buying additional mobile data downloads

 

[sawtooth]

OK, i live down south but next time i am anywhere near Sheffield I can let you know.