Upgrading my wireless router

I have recently got a smartphone with wireless access. The router is
in my sons bedroom becuase he has ps3 and xbox linked to it. If I'm
in the living room the signal strength drops from 4 bars to 1 bar. I
am probably about 20/30 foot away. I have now added voip to the phone
and don't want to risk drop out if the signal strength is weak. I work
from home so voip is an added bonus and avoids calls coming in on a
mobile number.

The current router is a Netgear 834G and I have been more than happy
with it, however in order to improve signal strength I am looking at a

Netgear RANGEMAX™ Wireless Modem Router - DGN483PN

is this a wise move or would I be better off getting a N type router?

Meanwhile, at the uk.telecom.broadband Job Justification Hearings, John R
chose the tried and tested strategy of:

> The current router is a Netgear 834G and I have been more than happy
> with it, however in order to improve signal strength I am looking at a
>
> Netgear RANGEMAX™ Wireless Modem Router - DGN483PN

That gets precisely 1 hit from Google. Do you mean a DG834PN?

> is this a wise move or would I be better off getting a N type router?

Do you have any N clients? If none of your clients are N then having an N
router won't make any difference.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
16:37:53 up 5 days, 16:23, 1 user, load average: 0.08, 0.18, 0.15
"I am utterly appalled at how I have been treated like a criminal"
-- Andrew Crossley, ACS:Law, 13 August 2010

On Fri, 17 Dec 2010 17:00:42 +0000, alexd <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Meanwhile, at the uk.telecom.broadband Job Justification Hearings, John R
>chose the tried and tested strategy of:
>
>> The current router is a Netgear 834G and I have been more than happy
>> with it, however in order to improve signal strength I am looking at a
>>
>> Netgear RANGEMAX™ Wireless Modem Router - DGN483PN
>
>That gets precisely 1 hit from Google. Do you mean a DG834PN?

Yes, I cut and pasted it from ebay, which is where I saw it.

http://www.netgear.co.uk/wireless_mo...er_dg834pn.php
>
>> is this a wise move or would I be better off getting a N type router?
>
>Do you have any N clients? If none of your clients are N then having an N
>router won't make any difference.

Not that I'm aware. Sony Vaio Laptop and HTC Wildfire are the two
wireless devices linked. I assumed (probably wrongly) that N gave
better wireless coverage.

On 17/12/2010 in message <(E-Mail Removed)> John
R wrote:

>Not that I'm aware. Sony Vaio Laptop and HTC Wildfire are the two
>wireless devices linked. I assumed (probably wrongly) that N gave
>better wireless coverage.

It's a different standard so you need the same at both ends. It does
something clever with the signals but I can't remember exactly what.
What sort of structure do you have between the smartphone and the router?
Walls, metal, foil backed plaster-board etc. etc.

--
Jeff Gaines Wiltshire UK
The facts, although interesting, are irrelevant

John R <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I have recently got a smartphone with wireless access. The router is
> in my sons bedroom becuase he has ps3 and xbox linked to it.

Are those links wireless or by LAN cable?

Assuming that your VOIP phone can't used a cabled connection to the router,
and assuming that no drop-outs etc really matter, I think I'd try to put a
wireless access point/extender close to where you're going to use the phone,
but have the AP cabled to the router.

Possibly you could move the router and run cables to your son's room?

Wired internet is much more reliable than wireless.

--
Jeremy C B Nicoll - my opinions are my own.

Email sent to my from-address will be deleted. Instead, please reply
to (E-Mail Removed) replacing "aaa" by "284".

John R <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
news:(E-Mail Removed):

> I have recently got a smartphone with wireless access. The router is
> in my sons bedroom becuase he has ps3 and xbox linked to it. If I'm
> in the living room the signal strength drops from 4 bars to 1 bar. I
> am probably about 20/30 foot away. I have now added voip to the phone
> and don't want to risk drop out if the signal strength is weak. I work
> from home so voip is an added bonus and avoids calls coming in on a
> mobile number.
>
> The current router is a Netgear 834G and I have been more than happy
> with it, however in order to improve signal strength I am looking at a
>
> Netgear RANGEMAX™ Wireless Modem Router - DGN483PN
>
> is this a wise move or would I be better off getting a N type router?

Depending on the local geography, placing the router antenna in a "better"
place might suffice. Search the well-known auction site for

wifi antenna base

and also for

wifi antenna extender

I use a base with 1.5 metres of cable to the router (also a DG834G) to get
the router's original antenna into reasonably clear space - this gives a
noticeable improvement in signal strength. A lot cheaper than buying a new
router :-)

ymmv

On 17 Dec 2010 18:12:31 GMT, "Jeff Gaines"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On 17/12/2010 in message <(E-Mail Removed)> John
>R wrote:
>
>>Not that I'm aware. Sony Vaio Laptop and HTC Wildfire are the two
>>wireless devices linked. I assumed (probably wrongly) that N gave
>>better wireless coverage.
>
>It's a different standard so you need the same at both ends. It does
>something clever with the signals but I can't remember exactly what.
>What sort of structure do you have between the smartphone and the router?
>Walls, metal, foil backed plaster-board etc. etc.

2 walls, brick or briese block, I think.

Meanwhile, at the uk.telecom.broadband Job Justification Hearings, John R
chose the tried and tested strategy of:

> is this a wise move or would I be better off getting a N type router?

If your problem is just wireless, you may not need to replace the router.
You've indicated that you can't reposition the existing one; if you can run
an ethernet cable of some length, then you could stick another one on that
to provide wireless where it's needed. Or using powerline networking is
another possibility.

> Not that I'm aware. Sony Vaio Laptop and HTC Wildfire are the two
> wireless devices linked. I assumed (probably wrongly) that N gave
> better wireless coverage.

Yeah, but only if you use it at both ends! And another thing, the AP will
fall back to the lowest common denominator, ie if you have a mixture of G
and N clients, you'll be running at G speeds. This may or may not be a
problem for you.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
21:40:29 up 1:18, 6 users, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.00
"I am utterly appalled at how I have been treated like a criminal"
-- Andrew Crossley, ACS:Law, 13 August 2010

On Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:18:26 +0000, Jeremy Nicoll - news posts
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>John R <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> I have recently got a smartphone with wireless access. The router is
>> in my sons bedroom becuase he has ps3 and xbox linked to it.
>
>Are those links wireless or by LAN cable?

Lan

>Assuming that your VOIP phone can't used a cabled connection to the router,
>and assuming that no drop-outs etc really matter, I think I'd try to put a
>wireless access point/extender close to where you're going to use the phone,
>but have the AP cabled to the router.

That sounds like a good idea.

>Possibly you could move the router and run cables to your son's room?

That was the original set up, running the ps3 and xbox on wireless.
One was ok, the other wasn't, so we moved the router to his room and
changed them to lan, then ran a cable to my desktop in the living
room.

>Wired internet is much more reliable than wireless.

I agree. I did at one time buy a Thompson Voip router off ebay for
£50 but it rebooted itself at least once a day, I didn't want that to
happen during a call so changed back to my netgear router.

Eventually I think I will get one again brand new but for now the
android will have to do. I havent done a lot with the business to be
honest this last year but want to get it up and running again properly
in the new year.

On Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:38:37 +0000 (UTC), Chris Cheney
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:


>Depending on the local geography, placing the router antenna in a "better"
>place might suffice. Search the well-known auction site for
>
> wifi antenna base
>
>and also for
>
> wifi antenna extender
>
>I use a base with 1.5 metres of cable to the router (also a DG834G) to get
>the router's original antenna into reasonably clear space - this gives a
>noticeable improvement in signal strength. A lot cheaper than buying a new
>router :-)

Yep, as i said to Jeremy that sounds like a good idea. Thanks