Member Avatar for Member #23858

I can't get my one computer to have excellent signal strength in the other room. How can this be accomplished or is this even necessary? Much of the time it is low and sometimes it is good. Once in a blue moon I have seen it very good. I have the Dlink DI 524 with a usb antenna on my desktop. It is about 30 or so feet away from the router. What do you suggest to boost the signal? Should I switch to a different antenna on my receiving computer? Suggestions?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by mikeandike22

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Brief practical notes and fixes that still help years later. had flaky signal and ultimately ran a cable (which solved it). That’s a perfectly valid final step, as suggested, but if you want to try improving wireless first, the items below are the things that make the biggest difference in real deployments — in order of impact.

  1. Quick test to isolate the problem

    • Measure throughput right next to the router, then again from the problem room. If speed collapses with distance, it’s a radio issue, not the ISP. Simple file copies or a local throughput test are fine.

  2. Placement and positioning

    • Move the router toward the center of coverage, higher off the floor, and away from metal/large appliances. Point antennas roughly toward the client. If the PC uses a USB dongle, put it on a short USB extension so the radio sees the router (USB tucked behind a metal case kills performance).

  3. Reduce RF noise and pick a good channel

    • 2.4 GHz is crowded. Scan for neighboring networks and choose a less-used channel (the standard non-overlap choices work best). Keep cordless phones and microwaves away from the path.

  4. Software and modest hardware upgrades

    • Update router firmware and adapter drivers. Replace a weak USB stick with a better external-antenna adapter or a PCI/PCIe card if the machine allows it. A powered USB hub or a quality extension can fix power-related USB dongle problems.

  5. Range extension options (if rewiring isn’t wanted)

    • Add an extra access point, a properly placed range extender, or use powerline adapters to get Ethernet into the other room. Cheap “boosters” often disappoint; choose reputable devices and match antennas/connectors to the router.

If absolute reliability and top sustained throughput are required, the wired route is still the cleanest solution. These wireless fixes, done in order, will save time and money in most cases.

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Member Avatar for mikeandike22

what type of wireless is it, i am not that familiar with wireless connections (wires are faster and not that hard to snake if you have electrical experience) but i am pretty sure that wireless b is reallt bad, so if you are using that i would upgrade. if you have g or something better than you might have a bad card on the other computer. if no one else can come up with some better suggestions there are wireless signal boosters that you can get for like $30-50 or so, other than that my only other opinion is go wired, 30 feet is pretty close so if you want a faster more reliable connection i would go out and buy a different router and about 100 ft of ethernet cable.

Member Avatar for Member #23858

I hard wired it. Too many obstacles in the way and didn't want to spend the money for boosters and such. Hard wired is 100%. Thanks.

Member Avatar for zeroth

If you don´t want to worry about that wire being in the way, you didn´t really have to wire it. The Dlink Dl-524 wireless router is capable of transferring data at rates of up to 54 Mbps, according to a google.

Depending on you data transfer from your internet connection, 54 Mbps is more than capable of handling anything you can throw at it, unless you have a commercial internet connection. If it´s DSL, for example, you might have a half meg or 1 Mbps/Roadrunner, which is a very fast cable is 5 Mbps. So let´s consider the Roadrunner, you can have a signal on the Dlink of only 10% strength and you will still be transferring data as fast as the modem will go. Of course, this is theoretical and in a real situation, you aren´t going to have any trouble as long as you can maintain about 40-50% signal strength...

Go back to wireless and forget the signal strength unless you are out in the backyard!:D

Member Avatar for Member #23858

But everything was slow. Downloads were minimal if at all. It just wasn't good. Now, wam bam and it's done.

Member Avatar for mikeandike22

wires can transfer 100 mbps why wouldnt you want that if you new how to wire stuff.

Member Avatar for Member #23858

Who are you talking to? That's why I wired it. Greased lightning now.

Member Avatar for mikeandike22

i was talking to zeroth.

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