RE: Wifi problems

["Andy Laurence" <andy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Neil Ball wrote:
> I've got a Linksys Wag54G which has been serving me well for
> around 6 months. I moved house before Christmas and now have
> a problem with poor signal strength in the lounge which
> causes the wifi signal to drop out. I have tried moving the
> Linksys around the room in which it lives to see if I can
> gain a bit more signal downstairs but it has no effect. I had
> a couple of high gain antennae spare from a Draytek unit I
> bought for work so thought that would be worth trying but the
> Linksys aerial cannot be removed :-(

I had the same problem when my access point was in the back room (in an
extension).  I moved the access point to the stairs, and I now have
wireless access from the front garden to the back garden and everywhere
in between.  My first suggestion would be to place the access point in
the most central point of your house.  I know people who have installed
them beneath the floorboards as that was most central.  Power over
Ethernet certainly helps here.

> Is there such a thing as a relay station I could place downstairs to
> "boost" the signal? If not should I just swap it for the
Draytek?

If you find one access point doesn't cover the whole house, you'll need
to use two.  The best way would be to use two access points connected to
the same wired network.  This would assume you have CAT5 laid round the
house.  If not, you can use WDS to relay the signal.  Bear in mind that
the bandwidth on the network will halve if you do this (well, you'll use
twice as much of it).  Also, different manufacturers implement WDS in
different ways (and many not at all), so you'll have to use the same
make/model of access point in both locations.

Cheers,
Andy
--
http://www.bristolwireless.net