Wireless range

[Gareth Tuckwell]

Is there any way to improve the range of a wireless card?

I have a desktop PC and a laptop, both have wireless network cards and are
talking to the same wireless broadband router in another room about 8m away,
through 2 internal walls. With the 2 computers sitting side-by-side, the
laptop PCMCIA card is completely reliable - almost never drops signal. So I
can deduce that the router is powerful enough. The desktop connection,
however is rubbish - only has signal about half of the time! When I got the
card I noticed that it says not to put the aerial next to anything metal,
which is surely impossible as is screws directly into the metal backplate on
the PCI card and it is designed to be installed into a metal PC case!! In
addition to the metal computer case, the aerial is surrounded by all sorts
of cabling at the back of the PC - will this cause problems??

Can I do anything to improve my reception???

I have seen some PCI cards that have a cable that lets you place the aerial
a few meters away from the PC case - can these cables be bought separately?
I have searched online found nothing. Anyone recommend any links (UK)??

 

[kony]

Is there any way to improve the range of a wireless card?

I have a desktop PC and a laptop, both have wireless network cards and are
talking to the same wireless broadband router in another room about 8m away,
through 2 internal walls. With the 2 computers sitting side-by-side, the
laptop PCMCIA card is completely reliable - almost never drops signal. So I
can deduce that the router is powerful enough. The desktop connection,
however is rubbish - only has signal about half of the time! When I got the
card I noticed that it says not to put the aerial next to anything metal,
which is surely impossible as is screws directly into the metal backplate on
the PCI card and it is designed to be installed into a metal PC case!! In
addition to the metal computer case, the aerial is surrounded by all sorts
of cabling at the back of the PC - will this cause problems??

Can I do anything to improve my reception???

I have seen some PCI cards that have a cable that lets you place the aerial
a few meters away from the PC case - can these cables be bought separately?
I have searched online found nothing. Anyone recommend any links (UK)??

Yes a cable may help, or a USB type that can be placed on a
USB cable extension to relocate it but I do hate USB network
adapters, PCI with an extension is the better way to go or
an upgraded antenna may come with extension and is even
better, but probably overkill for 8m since the laptop
traverses same ok.

Extension cables can be pretty pricey, varying a lot in
price per retailer, you'll have to determine what
connections yours uses (mine are all R-SMA) then look around
for some. There might be good prices at buy.com, for
example
http://www.buy.com/retail/product_jump.asp?sku=10356143

 

[Gareth Tuckwell]

Yes a cable may help, or a USB type that can be placed on a
USB cable extension to relocate it but I do hate USB network
adapters, PCI with an extension is the better way to go or
an upgraded antenna may come with extension and is even
better, but probably overkill for 8m since the laptop
traverses same ok.

http://www.buy.com/retail/product_jump.asp?sku=10356143

Thanks for that - looks like an extension cable is too expensive. I would be
just as well buying a different wireless card!

What about with the equipment I have now - is there an optimum angle for the
antenna? What about cabling around the antenna (power and PC screen, usb,
peripherals etc) - should I tie it all up somewhere out of the way or does
it make no difference. It is not seen behind the computer, so I haven't
bothered to tidy it!

 

[kony]

Thanks for that - looks like an extension cable is too expensive. I would be
just as well buying a different wireless card!

What about with the equipment I have now - is there an optimum angle for the
antenna? What about cabling around the antenna (power and PC screen, usb,
peripherals etc) - should I tie it all up somewhere out of the way or does
it make no difference. It is not seen behind the computer, so I haven't
bothered to tidy it!

Antenna angle just has to be manually adjusted while looking
at a signal strength utility (which hopefully came with the
card), there isn't any specific angle that always works best
but getting it tilted a little bit away from the metal case
usually helps. I"ve not noticed cabling make much if any
difference, though if it's really thick, yes it might help
to move it some, a perfect cable rerouting shouldn't be
necessary though. It might also help to adjust the router
antenna but not as much.

 

[John]

Thanks for that - looks like an extension cable is too expensive. I would be
just as well buying a different wireless card!

Are you in the UK? In the US the Belkins B cards are sold with a
pigtail and antenna often for $10 after rebafe. I actually sold one
for $10 - since I had an extra one brand new a few months ago.
Belkins pretty cool about support and I bought a new one for $10 after
the problems I had with older versions and complained about the old
one so they sent me a new one so I had two of them

You can try making one .

http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/has.html


http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/AntennaHowTo

http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/AntennaHowTo#head-ee091d06decc7259caa89e90d670bd394fd9b069

 

[Gareth Tuckwell]

Antenna angle just has to be manually adjusted while looking

at a signal strength utility (which hopefully came with the
card), there isn't any specific angle that always works best
but getting it tilted a little bit away from the metal case
usually helps.

This part confuses me - not your words, but the report given by the
software...
No matter what I do with the antenna, the signal strength is always 3/5 or
4/5, but it still completely drops the signal all the time. It operates at
full speed (11mbps) and doesn't need to slow down due to low signal
strength, so I just don't know what to do about it. Its very annoying!!

 

[kony]

This part confuses me - not your words, but the report given by the
software...
No matter what I do with the antenna, the signal strength is always 3/5 or
4/5, but it still completely drops the signal all the time. It operates at
full speed (11mbps) and doesn't need to slow down due to low signal
strength, so I just don't know what to do about it. Its very annoying!!

Might it vary based on proximity of people or use of other
equipement in same frequency range? Some report that
microwaves, telephones, etc, cause problems.

 

[Gareth Tuckwell]

Might it vary based on proximity of people or use of other
equipement in same frequency range? Some report that
microwaves, telephones, etc, cause problems.

Well that would make sense, but my laptop operates perfectly when placed on
the desk right next to the PC, so that rather rules out interference or a
poor signal - I think I must just have a cheap and nasty card in the
desktop!

 

[kony]

Well that would make sense, but my laptop operates perfectly when placed on
the desk right next to the PC, so that rather rules out interference or a
poor signal - I think I must just have a cheap and nasty card in the
desktop!

Could be poor desktop card, or simply that the signal
quality is still lower regardless of the antenna-position
adjustment, or both. Generally the antenna does need moved
out from behind the system for best results with any card.