Poor signal on other side of the house

I have a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 Router that I just bought. It's connectd to
my cable modem on one side of my house. My wife uses her laptop on the
other side of the house.

Her signal fluctuates between almost no bars to 2 full bars.

I read through the stuff on the EZLAN.NET site but I am still not
certain which is the best way to get a better signal.

The router came with a 4dBi Omni Antenna. Buffalo sells an 8dBi Antenna
but I'm reading that while devices farther away may get a better
connection, devices that are closer may lose signal strength because of
the way WiFi antennas work.

I don't have any way of running Cat5 cable anwhere else in the house
(it's a rental), so setting up a wired AP in the next room isn't an
option.

I'd have to set up a wireless AP, which I understand would halve my
wireless bandwidth.

Should I just try the $15 antenna first and if that doesn't work, go the
wireless AP route?

Would love some advice.

On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 22:48:33 -0500, Dave <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I'd have to set up a wireless AP, which I understand would halve my
>wireless bandwidth.

No. It would halve the throughput only to anyone connecting to the
repeater. Anyone connecting to the main router wouldn't be halved.

Unless you have a very fast Internet connection you probably wouldn't
notice the difference with the laptop's lan connection to the router
being halved.


Jim.

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed) says...
>
> On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 22:48:33 -0500, Dave <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >I'd have to set up a wireless AP, which I understand would halve my
> >wireless bandwidth.
>
> No. It would halve the throughput only to anyone connecting to the
> repeater. Anyone connecting to the main router wouldn't be halved.
>
> Unless you have a very fast Internet connection you probably wouldn't
> notice the difference with the laptop's lan connection to the router
> being halved.

I have a 20mbit connection to the Internet, so I don't know how that
compares as "fast".

Would I set up the repeater on a different channel? So that it connects
to the main AP on one channel but uses another to connect with devices?

In article <45347b1f-1ea7-4fcd-993f-fab2cb08f765
@b2g2000yqi.googlegroups.com>, (E-Mail Removed) says...
> On Oct 9, 4:48*am, Dave <d...@no.way> wrote:
> > I have a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 Router that I just bought. *It's connectdto
> > my cable modem on one side of my house. *My wife uses her laptop on the
> > other side of the house.
> >
> > Her signal fluctuates between almost no bars to 2 full bars.
> >
> > I read through the stuff on the EZLAN.NET site but I am still not
> > certain which is the best way to get a better signal.
> >
> > The router came with a 4dBi Omni Antenna. *Buffalo sells an 8dBi Antenna
> > but I'm reading that while devices farther away may get a better
> > connection, devices that are closer may lose signal strength because of
> > the way WiFi antennas work.
> >
> > I don't have any way of running Cat5 cable anwhere else in the house
> > (it's a rental), so setting up a wired AP in the next room isn't an
> > option.
> >
> > I'd have to set up a wireless AP, which I understand would halve my
> > wireless bandwidth.
> >
> > Should I just try the $15 antenna first and if that doesn't work, go the
> > wireless AP route?
> >
> > Would love some advice.
>
> Omni-directional antenna will / should boost the range. A directional
> antenna will redirect the signals to the farther system, while cutting
> out the closer system.

I have a 4 dBi omni on the AP now. Should I try an 8 dBi antenna first
to see if that helps before spending extra $$ on a repeater?

On Fri, 9 Oct 2009 16:51:47 -0500, Dave <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>I have a 20mbit connection to the Internet, so I don't know how that
>compares as "fast".

Well let's say, operationally speaking, you're very lucky and it's
half as fast as your 54mbit wireless lan. Halve, the wireless
throughtput and it's still on a par with your advertised Internet
speed.

If you're both on at the same time you share the wireless bandwidth
and the Internet bandwidth so it's going to go slower whether you use
a repeater or not.

>
>Would I set up the repeater on a different channel? So that it connects
>to the main AP on one channel but uses another to connect with devices?

Match the channel on the main router. This is a good tutorial.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge

If you have an old router, perhaps it can be re-configured as a
repeater using dd-wrt or similar firmware?


Jim.

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed) says...
> On Thu, 8 Oct 2009 22:48:33 -0500, Dave <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >I have a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 Router that I just bought. It's connectd to
> >my cable modem on one side of my house. My wife uses her laptop on the
> >other side of the house.
> >
> >Her signal fluctuates between almost no bars to 2 full bars.
> >
> >I read through the stuff on the EZLAN.NET site but I am still not
> >certain which is the best way to get a better signal.
> >
> >The router came with a 4dBi Omni Antenna. Buffalo sells an 8dBi Antenna
> >but I'm reading that while devices farther away may get a better
> >connection, devices that are closer may lose signal strength because of
> >the way WiFi antennas work.
> >
> >I don't have any way of running Cat5 cable anwhere else in the house
> >(it's a rental), so setting up a wired AP in the next room isn't an
> >option.
> >
> >I'd have to set up a wireless AP, which I understand would halve my
> >wireless bandwidth.
> >
> >Should I just try the $15 antenna first and if that doesn't work, go the
> >wireless AP route?
> >
> >Would love some advice.
>
> I then purchased a Hawking Wireless 300-N Range Extender. It's
> basically a repeater station -- it receives your wirelss signal from
> your access point and retransmits it.
>
> The 300N Range Extender solved my problem.

Thanks.

I found an old WiFi AP in the garage and pulled the antenna of it to see
if it would work on my new AP. Funny thing is.. When I pulled the
antenna off my new one, I suddenly got a better signal on the other side
of the house. I put the antenna back on and it dropped again.

The antenna from the old AP didn't fit, but for now leaving the antenna
off seems to be working great.... go figure.