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I had a similar situation in a retirement community (client of ours). None of the regular USB or PCI with antenna adapters worked. Had to use this one. http://www.thenerds.net/HAWKING_TECHNOL ... sku=HWU8DD I didn't get it from that webpage, but it should give you the idea of the looks of the adapter. Got about 60% signal as opposed to the 0-5% I was getting with the regular stock antenna's.

Have you tried to switch the channel? A lot of wireless routers use the same default channels causing interference from other routers, dropping your signal strenght. If you are on CH1 try to switch to CH6 or CH11.

I agree, the best results are usually with CH 6 or 11.

If you can move the wireless router to the most central and unobstructed place in the house, the better. Add-on antennas might help, depending on the obstacles.

If you need access in difficult spots, you can buy additional access points to extend the range. Stick with the same brand if at all possible.

All PCs and my printer run on our wireless. The wireless router is a Linksys, though I run an open source firmware on it rather than the software it came with. I purchased an additional router on ebay and configured it to extend my network to the upstairs room. It works like a charm.

You can also try high gain antennas

such as this
http://www.wlanparts.com/product/O24-9R ... tenna.html

9db gain will increase your coverage of your router by ALOT!

Check out the interesting antennas here..I found this site talking with some guys from Australia that were setting up wireless meshes that covered like 25 square miles

http://www.wlanparts.com/

tomneal wrote:My daughter has two computers at opposite ends of her house

It's not that big a house but the USB gadget gets a max of 25% signal from her router.

Is there a solution that doesn't require running wires in the attic?

A friend of mine from work had a problem with weak signals in his house and the router and computer were only one room apart, I asked him if he had a wireless home phone and he said he had a 2.4ghz wireless phone, I told him to unplug the phone it and see if it changed. So sure enough the connection went from weak to excellent and he bought a 5.8ghz phone with no problems afterwards.

Thanks

I'll pass the word to my daughter.

not to scare anyone into wearing a tinfoil hat or anything, but anytime you use anything wireless, you're putting out signals that anyone can receive. If you are going to use wireless, make sure you use WPA or WEP encryption. Even with encryption, I still go plug in if I'm going to access banking website or purchase anything.

-Paranoid Dude

LCplMustafa wrote:not to scare anyone into wearing a tinfoil hat or anything, but anytime you use anything wireless, you're putting out signals that anyone can receive. If you are going to use wireless, make sure you use WPA or WEP encryption. Even with encryption, I still go plug in if I'm going to access banking website or purchase anything.

-Paranoid Dude

Hopefully when you access your bank you are doing it via secured encrypted pages. Its all well to be encrypted during the wireless portion of your data's journey, but that is only a small portion of where exposure is at.

My son had a problem with weak wireless signal in his room, which is on the far side of the house from the wireless router. I went to Best Buy and bought a signal booster. I don't remember the cost, but it was under $100. I synched it to the router, and it sits closer to his room, out of sight on a small table. His signal is now improved.

tomneal wrote:My daughter has two computers at opposite ends of her house

It's not that big a house but the USB gadget gets a max of 25% signal from her router.

Is there a solution that doesn't require running wires in the attic?

Biggest advice I can give is to get away from the USB nic cards. Wireless was never really designed to run over a USB connection. Get an internal card with an external anntenna. Also I would recommned one of the better known brands like Linksys or Proxim or even Cisco. You might pay a little more but sometimes going with the lowest bidder is not the best.

I would also agree with trying to move the Access point higher in the house and centralize it. you can also try to increase the power.

One more thing that needs mentioning. Wireless will never be as fast as a hard line. It was designed as a convinces. Just cause its new does not make it better. Trust me I work with wireless on a daily basis where I work and its more of a head ache then a help.

Thats all for my 2 cents

KISS

http://any-tips.blogspot.com/2008/02/ho ... ender.html

I had a similar situation. My son's PC was using a USB wireless doo-hickey plugged into the back of his case that sat under the desk. Our simple solution was to get a 6 ft. USB extension and move the doo-hickey up from beneath the desk and tack it to the wall behind his monitor.

This may not be close to the topic at hand, but since your talking about Routers.
I have listen to a lot of folks talk about how they use their Laptop at home in an apartment complex, and they mention how they use someones elses router, well, that got me to wondering just how safe that is, especially if you check your Bank account, pay credit card bills online, or do anything that requires a Password.

It would seem to me that People could set up a Router in their home, or apartment, and let others use it, for the sole purpose of Fraud, and gathering personal information, How many people think about that?.

Another suggestion would be to turn off the broadcast on your router. You really don't want your router broadcasting that that you have a wireless network in your house.

You can try a wireless repeater. It sounds to me like the WAP is seriously underpowered; I can access the Internet from my laptop through my own WAP in my apartment from halfway to the clubhouse (about 50 yards away). Most wireless routers are designed for a two-story 2000sqft house with no problems.