RLGaming.com

Ok, we moved Karen's comp out into the living room area and she is only getting 11mb, or very low signal strength. I thought of buying an antenna for DI-524 D-Link Router, but I'm unsure which to buy. What would work best? I've got three interior walls blocking line of sight to the transceiver. Would you guys, who are in the know, take a look at this chart of available antennas below and, if you can, tell me what might be my best bet?

http://www.dlink.com/products/antenna-c ... -chart.asp

well, to do this right one would need a map of the house and the computer locations. is Karen's PC the only one on wireless? are there likely to be others? where would thgey be located in relation to Karen's PC.

BTW, your internet connection is not going faster than the 11Mbs so it is not likely a real problem. the only issue might be if the signal is getting dropped and giving an intermittent connection.

Well when Smitty was here and using his laptop, he was registering a 54 mb. But I think you're right, it's just intermittment connecitivity. yes hers is the only one. And it will be the only one for quite some time. I prefer a hard wire connection myself to ensure max performance. Anway, she has three walls between her and the transmitter. It's a simple ranch home One floor:

dang it... I'll line the blue prints tomorrow. I'll scan them in.

Yeah, kinda like that, only less ASCII in my living Room.

just a drawing on a napkin is fine, but you have given enough. i will check itm out tomorrow. what is the distance between the wireless router and her pc - approximately?

The house is only a 1,000 sqft. So I would say 30 ft as a round number. Probably a little less.

i would recommend either the ant24-0700 or the dwl-m60at.

the second one is a directional, so you will have to make sure it is pointed correctly at karen's computer. the documentation from the antenna should show you how to do that.

the first antenna is just a more powerful all direction antenna. my guess is either may work, but you won't really know until you can actually try it. just remember if you get the second antenna, it will only work in one direction.

an alternative would be to see if you can get that router closer to Karen's computer...it just depends upon your cable and network wiring in the house.

fyi - if you have not done it yet, make sure you secure your wireless network.

you mean put the firewall back up after gaming the other night? Yeah I did that. Thanks for the help Steel, I discuss these options with Karen and see...but I don't think moving the router closer to her is a real option, I'll have get the antenna.

no, i mean putting encryption on your wireless network. if you do not, anyone within range can connect through your wireless connection and use your bandwidth, and worse if you have shares from your pc's.

Well I'm sure Smitty put that on when he set it up. But how would I check to make sure? You wouldn't happen to know?

did you have to enter a weird number to get Karen to connect to the wireless network?

No. But then that doesn't mean he did'nt said up some sort of password system? Login? I should email him eh?

no, it is a one time thing. you should have WEP enabled and would have had to put in a number as a password on Karen's system to connect t the wireless network. you can just ask him if he enabled WEP and what the word was he used to generate the passkeys.

If her computer is a desktop and you want to run a connection to the other room, and are having trouble with wireless AND you don't want to run an ethernet cable across the floor or through the wall and do face plates and all that fancy shit I have one suggestion:

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellit ... torWrapper

Run a network over the power adapters in your house. Setup is exceedingly easy, and while not blazing fast, the connection should be quite solid, and more than sufficient to match your internet connection speed. Understandably this restricts mobility somewhat, so if it is a laptop, it isn't the best solution. I have a pair and if I were in the states I woulda dug them out and given them to you all free and stuff, but I'm not and I can't so

Bit expensive mind you, because you need two...
http://castle.pricewatch.com/s/search.asp?s=PLEBR10

My experience is that wireless blows a big fat one when LOS is lost. Shit in the barracks two rooms down, which is maybe 30 feet you are done; not gonna do squat; granted every other wall is concrete, but still...

It certainly satisfies your preference for a hard wire connection; and probably barely at more than the cost of one of the stupid antennas; though I didn't look at them and am merely making wild conjecture on that part.

my wireless at home is not LOS and works great. goes through one wall and about 50ft. and i still have excellent to good connection for my laptop in the living room, getting about 38 Kbs on wireless-G.

i do have a 7db omni-directional antenna set and use linksys gear WAP and broadcom wireless in my laptop.