Need Better coverage & speed

[newman]

I have an issue in my 3 storey town house with my wireless network. I want to get better coverage and faster speeds from my wireless network.

My current wireless configuration is as follows

Virgin modem with a Belkin N Wireless F5D 8233 -4 V3 Router - 802.11N . 10meg Broadband

I have 3 storey town house and my office is on the ground floor with its own ring main. In my office I use a brand new Lenovo Think PAd Edge laptop which runs at about 144.5 Mbps wirelessly and I am only about 7 ft away from the Router. There is a desktop Compaq Presario CQ 5226UK connected to the router via a cable and also a desktop NEC Powermate which was our old office computer which we replaced with the Compaq.

I have noticed that since installing the new lap top last week the signal keeps dropping and I lose internet connectivity and it then reconnects. We have had Virgin in to look at to modem as it was having a problem with it having too much power, but the problem with the laptop losing signal is still there, particularly if I take the laptop to another part of the house. The network card in the Lenovo is a Reltek Semi conductor Corp, 11b/g/n Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Express Adapter IIEthernet , Fast Ethernet , Gigabit Ethernet , IEEE 802.11b , IEEE 802.11g , IEEE 802.11n , Bluetooth 2.1

I have tried working in our lounge which is on the 1st floor but the wireless connection speeds have been diabolical so I cant do that. At one point it dropped to only 7Mbps!

I want to move the NEC machine to another part of the house for the kids to use as their main PC but the speed of the wireless wont work so I need to upgrade and would welcome some suggestions as to what the best option may be. I was thinking of using the wirelss dongle that came with the router to make that machine wireless but that doesnt seem to work either.

I have WIFI monster on my HTC HD2 which gives readings of -45dBm in the office, -75dBm on the first floor and -85dBM on the top floor. I also have inSSIDer 2.0 on my laptop and the readings are the same. I appreciate that these tools are not calibrated but they give fairly accurate readings I think.

I have looked at upgrading our current router I have and I like the look of the Netgear WNDR 3700 and I have also looked at the DLink DIR-855 both of which seems to give greater coverage and better speeds as well as other features which appeal to me. I run our businesses from our home office and I think these dual band routers would offer me greater flexibility than the Belkin. To operate at 5Ghz is also an attraction as this would be useful for both work and home for streaming movies and playing games on the games consoles upstairs.

I am open to other suggestions.

I have resorted to having the laptop connected to the router with an ethernet cable running at 100Mbps - certainly not stunning speeds but adequate for data.

I use Voip all the time with Skype in the business for conference calls and I think that from what I have read the Netgear may be better because it includes Qos but I am definately no expert.

I have also considered a Powerline option with a combination of AV Ethernet Adapter and a wireless network adaptor/s at a rated speed of 200Mbps as a way of giving better coverage in the rest of the house, however, the main problem with going this route is that my office where the router would be located has its own ring main so to facilitate that solution I would have to have a socket installed elsewhere in the house connected to the ringmain.

Important things are 1) speed and 2) maximum coverage to work in any part of the house.

Suggestions of alternative solutions very welcome

Thanks in advance.

 

[stevech]

ensure central router is optimally located for RF purposes.

if you can get some cat5 cables nearer to the weak signal, add access points (APs). Read about that here.

Instead of cat5 cables, consider MoCA (IP over existing cable TV cables in the walls). Connect APs to MoCA devices

Same as above, but using IP over power wires. HPNA.

VoIP over WiFi is not recommended due to competition for access to the Wireless media since it's unlicensed. It can work with ideal signals, but VoIP on full wired networks is flakey and WiFi makes it worse.

QoS is present in all good consumer routers. My preference is Cradlepoint MBR900. Netgear is not on the top of my best product list. D-link is on the bottom of my list.

 

[newman]

ensure central router is optimally located for RF purposes.

if you can get some cat5 cables nearer to the weak signal, add access points (APs). Read about that here.

Instead of cat5 cables, consider MoCA (IP over existing cable TV cables in the walls). Connect APs to MoCA devices

Same as above, but using IP over power wires. HPNA.

VoIP over WiFi is not recommended due to competition for access to the Wireless media since it's unlicensed. It can work with ideal signals, but VoIP on full wired networks is flakey and WiFi makes it worse.

QoS is present in all good consumer routers. My preference is Cradlepoint MBR900. Netgear is not on the top of my best product list. D-link is on the bottom of my list.

Hi Stevech

Thanks for this. Not sure what MoCA is that you refer to but it sounds similar to the Powerline option I mentioned in my post. - The one I have been considering is Powerline ethernet network adaptors that plug straight in to any 3 pin mains socket. They will then automatically detect one another and form an 200mbps powerline ethernet network between themselves using my existing mains wires rather than requiring me to install specialised network cable.

Is this what you were referring to?

With respect to Skype we have had very few problems in the last 2 years either using the PC that is connected directly to the router or with my lap top which is wireless - but then again I am only about 7 feet away from my router so the signal is strong.

 

[stevech]

MoCA - as said above, is IP over TV Coax. There's a MoCA section here among the topics of the forum.