Wireless Internet Issues

[Nightfire]

So I got an XBox Live account two weeks ago and I'm starting to enjoy it and I made a few friends and got in to a gang on Saints Row as well. Now my mum told me to pack up my stuff and move to another room today so I did just that thinking I will be back up in no time after doing so.

Problem is for both XBox and my PC they use a wireless method to go online one of the major problems with wireless is that the farther you move away from the source of the Internet the more gimped the speed becomes. The room I'm in now is the far back room of the house and the source of the Internet is in the living room. And when I tried to get on Live after I moved my stuff Internet for my PC is down to 18.0 mbps from 54.0 mbps when I was in the room next to the source of the Internet and Live barely works or does not work at all (shows only one bar or says Live does not work). I tried it and I only got to play one game of Saints Row on Live before the Internet crapped out all together for Live and my PC Internet soon went after to the point that it turns off and on. I manged to find an hard line that my sister left behind when she moved out.

So I was wondering is anybody here know the in's and out's of wireless so I can boost my Wi-Fi Internet speed to a better rate for my computer and my XBox?

If you do here are the spects of what my router is and the rough floor plan to my house:

My router is a D-Link DI-624 RevC router. One of these:

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/3919/di624revcvua5.jpg


And the floor plan for my house goes like this from Internet source to where I'm at now:

Living Room
Kitchen (on left side from Living Room)
Bedroom 1 (where I was before I was forced out)
Front Door Area
Hall/Half Bathroom (on left side at hall start)
Bedroom 2
Bathroom
Large Closet
Bedroom 3 (where I'm at now)

I got a bit of a feeling that I may need to buy a Wi-Fi signal booster to fix this problem (goody more money to spend to fix what my mum sort of crippled) or I may need a very strong router like close to the top grade what businesses use for their Internet and I don't want to really do that because I got my router about two years ago and I had to pay quite a bit to buy it (I got it from a computer store). I don't know what to do anymore really and I don't want to waste 4 months of free XBox Live to tell the truth.

[BetaSword]

Ugh... We used that have that router... It sucked in general. Crappy range being the main culprit.

Basically, depending on your current monetary status, I'd suggest going with one of the Linksys routers, the one with two antennas. Better range and stability in general.

If you can't do that, then there are ways of increasing the range of the one you already have. You could either buy a range boosting antenna for it (they can be found at most electronics stores), or make yourself a cantenna (just look it up on google to find out how).

Besides that... Well... not much you can do. Except move the router itself.

[Nightfire]

Ugh... We used that have that router... It sucked in general. Crappy range being the main culprit.

Basically, depending on your current monetary status, I'd suggest going with one of the Linksys routers, the one with two antennas. Better range and stability in general.

If you can't do that, then there are ways of increasing the range of the one you already have. You could either buy a range boosting antenna for it (they can be found at most electronics stores), or make yourself a cantenna (just look it up on google to find out how).

Besides that... Well... not much you can do. Except move the router itself.

Funny thing about the two antenna router when I was going to buy my router a month after I got my custom built computer setted up (I did not have the money for a router then) I asked them for a two antenna router and what they gave me instead was that piece of crap that you saw in the picture I provided and I did not know at the time it was one of the gimped routers on the market strangest thing was the wireless plug where you screw in the antenna is from Linksys so I don't know why did just gave me a crappy D-Link router instade of a Linksys one. I had a funny feeling that router had problems with range because I had to move this computer around before and it always made my speed go down to around 45.0 mbps or 35.0 mbps and I use BitComet quite a bit to download the newest Venture Bros. and/or Metalocalypse episode of the week and on a slower speed it takes more of a long time to download.

Moving the router is out of the question because my largely computer illiterate mum has her standard hardline computer not too far from the router area. More or less I might as well buy a new router altogether because I'm getting payed in about a few days from my government job and from my crappy store slave job and the Linksys router I'm looking at is about 130 bucks with tax on top at my nearest Future Shop (the Canada version of Best Buy that Best Buy owns) and I can get it easily enough.

[KN]

Do not get a Belkin. That's all I can say.

Basically, find one with a wee bit better range. Some routers are actually marked as being tested with XBLive, and Nintendo has a list of routers that preform well with the DS/Wii Wifi Connection as well.

[pixelante_ninja]

Ah yes do not get a Belkin, I got one that didn't work and i couldn't return it, luckily it only cost me 8 bucks after rebates. Had to buy a usb adapter for my DS.

[kurisu7885]

Say, since we're talking about wireless networks, I'm on one with a D link wireless card and a Linksys router, I do notice that my dad's PC[the host computer] downloads tons faster than mine does, would a Cantenna improve my WiFi performance?

My PC also runs Flash animatiosn rather slow, would WiFi speed be a contributing factor?

[KN]

Say, since we're talking about wireless networks, I'm on one with a D link wireless card and a Linksys router, I do notice that my dad's PC[the host computer] downloads tons faster than mine does, would a Cantenna improve my WiFi performance?

My PC also runs Flash animatiosn rather slow, would WiFi speed be a contributing factor?

Flash is generally download entirely before it begins playing. Unless it is streaming, wifi has little to do with that.

If you only get a weak signal, there will be some serious slowdown as far as downloading is concerned.

[steelcobra]

Run a Cat5e cable. As long as it's 100m(300ft) or less, you'll get a far better signal than any wireless connection will yield.

Edit: have you guys ctually posted that much since the forums came back up, or did the reset your count to the old board's numbers?

[Theory?]

Dennis is giving post counts back. Check the announcements forum.

[Nightfire]

So I bought a $50 booster (it's just a base with a tail to the router with a screw point for a longer antenna) from D-Link today when I went down to a computer store. I brought the thing home and set it up and placed the new antenna more in the general direction to where my computer and XBox is and I went to test out the new configuration.

The computer's wireless speed read out only went up to 24.0 mbps from 18.0 and it also bounced to 36.0 mbps at times as well. And also XBox Live has no change in the number of bars that show on the Network Config menu and that booster did not stay long I returned it a few hours later after tinkering with it and got my money back.

Now it looks like I need to get a whole new router now after I tried a few fixes and nothing worked well. So I been looking on the Linksys website and I found a router that looks to be a good candidate for replacing the one I have right now. The name of this one is called WRT300N (http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1144763513404&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper):

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/6612/wrt300nlrgmd6.jpg

And if it works as well as it says it does on the website it can blanket the whole house with an even distributed signal no mater where I'm at in the joint and from what I been reading it's good for more bandwidth demanding tasks that I use a lot like BitComet and XBox Live. Problem is this router costs between around 170 to 200 depending where I shop. But oh well I can chock this experience up to "sh*t happens" and also I don't need to bitch to my mum about how crappy she made my Internet experience anymore. Then I can sell off my old router for around $60 (I payed $80 for it two years ago) to somebody or take it to an EBay office and get it sold though them. I hope this is the last time I need to deal with this crap because routers cost a lot for a name brand populare one.

Do not get a Belkin. That's all I can say.

Basically, find one with a wee bit better range. Some routers are actually marked as being tested with XBLive, and Nintendo has a list of routers that preform well with the DS/Wii Wifi Connection as well.

I herd bad things about Belkin when I was investigating different routers on the Internet so that counted them right out for me.

If I can get the one that I was talking about above and it works as it says I don't think I need to get another router for a long time to come. The router I have is XBox Live compatible I just needed to upgrade the firmware to 2.70.

[steelcobra]

Don't get anything Pre- or Draft-N. Their performance is questionable, none of them are using the exact same standard, and they probably won't work with the official 802.11n standard. And Draft (which is the latest version) has even more questionable performance than Pre-n.

[Nightfire]

Don't get anything Pre- or Draft-N. Their performance is questionable, none of them are using the exact same standard, and they probably won't work with the official 802.11n standard. And Draft (which is the latest version) has even more questionable performance than Pre-n.

But the next lowest on the Linksys router food chain is this one what I also saw in the store was the WRT54GS:

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/3995/wrt54gsib3.jpg

They look like that and even though they have two antennas the range is questionable to me when I asked the hired help at the store about that one and he said maybe but the hired help can be largey useless depending of what store you go to. And I don't have wireless N stuff here I only have a wireless G card in my tower and I think my new XBox uses some form of wireless G for it's signal.

[Tollwutig]

You're best option would be to put a Wireless Repeater halfway between your Living room and the room you're equipment is. Most companies call them range extenders, a few don't need much configuration other than plugging them in.

[Nightfire]

I'm just going to get anouther router and some more computer internet cord. I found a cheap one (that also has wireless) for 35 that can get marked down to 15 by mail rebate. Thanks for you help eveybody! ;)

[BeardedFerret]

I have the D-Link Router you originally posted and the add-on antenna and I've had no problems with coverage ever since on my Laptop.

My desktop on the other hand seems to develop connection problems whenever it's a hot day. WTF.

[steelcobra]

I'm just going to get anouther router and some more computer internet cord. I found a cheap one (that also has wireless) for 35 that can get marked down to 15 by mail rebate. Thanks for you help eveybody! ;)

If your just going to run more Cat5, run it straight to your hardware. It's much faster and more stable that way. As I said, you can run up to 300 feet before needing to reboost the signal.