many hidden antennas.. but direction?

[bimbobo]

Hi,
is there a way to concentrate the direction of the wifi signal to a certain place in the house.

I bought the WNDR 3700.. the router is placed in the right side of the house, and 1 of the PCs is on wifi on the opposite side.

I have no option to place the router in the center of the house, 1 client is connected to the router through "Devolo Powerline 200mbps" and works fine, 1 desktop is connected with wire and it's fine too, but 1 laptop is on wifi only.. how do I position the router to have most of the signal in that direction?

Regards

 

[stevech]

Have you considered adding a second WiFi access device, not a router, but an Access Point (AP)? That's the usual way to improve/add coverage. Much easier than antenna, esp. with today's routers that rely on internal antennas for 11n/MIMO. A cheap AP is simply any old WiFi router with the WAN port unused, DPCH turned off, and a cat5 cable from it to the router or in your case, the IP connection provided on by the IP over power line adapter. You can use the four switch ports on this pseudo-AP; not the WAN port. Put the AP in the attic, a closet, basement, whatever.

As to directional antennas: there are antennas that are directional in the vertical but omnidirectional on the horizontal. The antenna's pattern is like a doughnut. The narrower the beamwidth (flatness of the doughnut) the more gain the antenna has.
here's some
http://www.l-com.com/familylist.aspx?id=2148


There are antennas that are both horizontally and vertically directional. The antenna's pattern is like a flashlight's beam. The narrower the beam the more antenna "gain" there is.
Here's some
http://www.4netonline.com/on/index.php?category_id=53&target=categories

 

[bimbobo]

Well I installed the WNDR 3700, placed in the same position of the Netgear Cable Modem that I have to use I have until my fiber connection is setup next week..

I have good connection to the laptop placed "15 meters and 4 walls away"
Vistumbler show 60-64% signal strength when using 54mbps settings, when I use 130mbps settings all is bad and jammed.. disconnection all the time. 300mbps is the same as 54mbps.
My Acer laptop has capability of N but I have the best performance and signal stability on G

I have right now 20/2 mbit connection and I get full speed testing with speedtest.com

As a start it's not bad, expecially considering that now I used the 3700 behind the Netgear CVG824G I have now..

Regards

 

[bimbobo]

..in the WNDR3700 130mbps settings are the default one, but why is the stability and performance so bad?

54mbps and 300mbps are more stable and not different in performance.
Which one should I use long term?

My laptop wifi uses Intel AR5B93 card... which is not the best and most configurable...

Any suggestions/recommandetion?
Regards

 

[thiggins]

You need to do a simple site survey and possibly an RF scan to see if you have a lot of interference. How To Fix Your Wireless Network - Part 2: Site Surveying

The WNDR3700 should be placed vertically in the stand that it comes with and have the front panel pointed in the direction where you want the best signal.

An AR5B93 is made by Atheros, not Intel. Check the Advanced Network properties settings to be sure N mode is enabled. Also check for newer drivers for the card.

 

[bimbobo]

Thanks for the answer..
Last driver is installed though it's from 2009.. 8.0.0.XXX
I could not find a newer one.
N is enabled in advanced settings..

I am also tired of I cannot choose the channel in the driver.. but the router is on Ch. 11 as we do have lots on 1 and 6 in my zone.

About position.. that's good to know, I will try that!
Regards

 

[thiggins]

You can not choose channel on the client side. That is determined by the router setting. Channel 11 is a good choice if neighboring networks are on 1 and 6.

If you have done a lot of settings changes in the router, try resetting it to factory default. Leave WMM settings alone and use WPA2 AES security.

 

[bimbobo]

..I use WPA2 AES already, but I disabled WMM settings..

Is there a place in the forum where there are some "good setup" options for this router.

I did not change that much.. only disabled the stuff Iread about in forums, like traffic meter and the "ready share part" as I right now do not want to connect my HDD to the router.

I encountered also difficulties with 130mbps settings, but works fine with 54 and 300 settings..

I read lots of stuff in this forum and Netgear's but "you never stop to learn"

Regards