Member Avatar for mikeandike22

ok my friend is on a wireless home network with cable and one of his computers always has low signal strength or shuts off. Is there a way to improve the signal strength?Or does he have to buy a better netgear card or something. If so how much do good netgear cards cost.

personally i told him he should just get an ethernet connection and scrap the wireless but his parents don't want to have to run the wires.

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As described, one machine on the home WLAN has low signal or drops. and already mentioned boosters, powerline bridges and moving the router — those are possible routes, but the first step is to diagnose whether the problem is the network or that specific computer.

Quick diagnosis (do these before buying anything):

  • Bring another Wi‑Fi device to the problem PC's spot. If the other device sees good signal, the PC is the likely culprit. If not, the environment or AP is the issue.
  • On Windows run netsh wlan show interfaces to read the reported signal; or continuously ping the router (ping -t <router-IP>) to see packet loss or disconnects. Interpret signal roughly: >-50 dBm = excellent, -50 to -60 = good, -60 to -70 = usable, -70 to -80 = poor, <-80 = unreliable.

PC-specific fixes to try next:

  • Update the wireless adapter driver and the router firmware.
  • Disable adapter power saving (Device Manager → Network Adapter → Power Management → uncheck power‑save options).
  • Check adapter advanced settings (transmit power, roaming aggressiveness) if available.
  • For desktops: verify antenna connectors are tight; many PCI/PCIe cards accept replaceable RP‑SMA antennas you can swap for a higher‑gain version.
  • For laptops: test with a cheap USB Wi‑Fi dongle (or use a short USB extension to raise the antenna away from interference) to rule out a failed internal card or antenna cable.

If you still replace hardware, prefer a modern dual‑band (5 GHz-capable) adapter with an external antenna for desktops or a USB variant for laptops. Before opening a laptop, check warranty/repair notes — some models restrict internal card replacements. Follow the diagnostic order above to avoid unnecessary purchases.

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Member Avatar for Tommy101

The only way i know how to do it is to put Boosters near the Wifi to Boost the signal.
Ofcourse you could also use the Powerlines and put the network through there, No new Cables but a bit expensive!!!

Netgear do this and you can search on Google for Zeus Powerline Bridge.

Member Avatar for bentkey

Powerlines have some very serious limitations making them almost useless in this sort of situation. What?.. you ask. They must be located on the same electrical circuit. Just ask Belkin technical support, oh yeah, it's nowhere in the documentation. :( Point is the technology is distance challanged. A far better solution I've found is Ethernet over phoneline. Some things your friend could try though, possibly locate the wireless router in a different spot. Try changing the frequency it is broadcasting on. Some things in the house, and out of it, can affect one frequency more than another. One thing I've done for some of my customers with big houses is put a Router on one end of the house then run ethernet over phone to the other end and put another router there. Works well and they end up with wireless everywhere.

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