Wireless Router

[Cassidy Nicole]

I was not sure where to put this... I guess it is kinda cam girl related, if it should be somewhere else please move it

But my wireless router sucks. I have a house with a lot of walls and doors so my signal sucks in my bedroom which is down a hall and through a door and on my back porch which is through a few doors and walls where as my living room it doesnt since the router is there. So my question is what is a good wireless router with good signal strength through walls and doors?

 

[FrankieFan]

Does your laptop have a wireless-g or n card?

 

[Cassidy Nicole]

I am VERY computer illiterate, so I have no idea. Haha.

 

[bawksy]

Get something with an external antenna connection, and then buy a really high quality, directional antenna, and point it in the general direction of your laptop. This will do wonders for you.

Before you buy more equipment, you could try some things like changing the channel the access point uses, or raising the access point up as much as possible. Hanging it from the ceiling is great.

 

[Cassidy Nicole]

Get something with an external antenna connection, and then buy a really high quality, directional antenna, and point it in the general direction of your laptop. This will do wonders for you.

Really? Do you know of any examples of what I should get with brand or anything or would Best Buy know what I am talking about?

 

[bawksy]

The kind of antenna you buy depends on where you want to project the signal (and receive it from). If your access point is against a wall on one of the sides of your house, you want to get a 180 degree antenna like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833980003

Otherwise, half the juice from your antenna is just getting blasted right into the wall.

If your access point sits in the very corner of your house, an antenna like this works even better:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833164110

That's because it can focus all the energy into a beam only 90 degrees wide.


The above antennas are just the first ones that came up in a search, I don't know if their necessarily the best for the price.


Also, the access point is only half the battle. Your laptop might have a crappy wireless card in it too. Your best bet is to get an adapter with an external antenna like this:

http://travelogue.travelvice.com/united ... fi-part-2/

But that limits your mobility a bit. Something like this is a good compromise:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833704045

 

[Cassidy Nicole]

The kind of antenna you buy depends on where you want to project the signal (and receive it from). If your access point is against a wall on one of the sides of your house, you want to get a 180 degree antenna like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833980003

Otherwise, half the juice from your antenna is just getting blasted right into the wall.

If your access point sits in the very corner of your house, an antenna like this works even better:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833164110

That's because it can focus all the energy into a beam only 90 degrees wide.


The above antennas are just the first ones that came up in a search, I don't know if their necessarily the best for the price.


Also, the access point is only half the battle. Your laptop might have a crappy wireless card in it too. Your best bet is to get an adapter with an external antenna like this:

http://travelogue.travelvice.com/united ... fi-part-2/

But that limits your mobility a bit. Something like this is a good compromise:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833704045

Bawsky, I love you. Thanks so much! My router is right in the front corner of my house so I will look for something like you showed me and look for a external access card as well. My laptop is new and my old laptop still had problems with the signal, but might as well get one just to make sure

 

[barman07]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833124190 is pretty much the de facto tinkering router

for a cheap directional antenna http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6833980003

reading the comments, it will take some trial and error to point the antenna properly

also check out this site for some useful info http://www.binarywolf.com/249/index.htm

 

[Cassidy Nicole]

Thanks barman! I am doing some research tonight and tomorrow before I head up to Best Buy because I dont know if it is just the people that work at mine but they are all idiots.

 

[barman07]

Thanks barman! I am doing some research tonight and tomorrow before I head up to Best Buy because I dont know if it is just the people that work at mine but they are all idiots.

most are idiots, regardless of your location.

 

[bawksy]

most are idiots, regardless of your location.

Agreed.

Before you go out and buy new equipment, definitely rule out any other problem. I assume you're living in a quiet area from a RF perspective (not an apartment complex), so neighbors probably aren't an issue. I'm guessing you don't have any baby monitors either. Wireless security cameras can cause interference. So can 2.4GHz cordless phones. If you have any, try unplugging them.

Then, try switching your router to each of channels 1, 6, and 11. If your router has power level setting (not too common), try cranking it up a bit.

I think most laptops have vertically polarized internal antennas, so make sure the antenna on your router is sticking straight up.

 

[Cassidy Nicole]

I dont have any home phones, baby monitor, or neighbors since I live on 5 acres surrounded by lake and orange groves. The people before me had a wireless security cam at the front porch but it is disconnected now so I dont think that would be an issue.

At first, I thought it was the actual internet provider, so I switched to Comcast and got 8 megs(?) of service which is the highest out here, but my internet will like be SUPER fast then SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW down then speed up again. I called Comcast someone came out and said it was my router.

 

[bawksy]

Only way to prove it is to wire in for a few camming sessions, and see how the performance changes.

The guys who do Comcast installs/repairs are like the Jiffy Lube technicians of the IT world. They know how to change oil pretty well, but get a second opinion on anything complicated.

 

[Cassidy Nicole]

Yeah I can always take it back if it doesn't help. Thanks for the help guys!

 

[barman07]

I dont have any home phones, baby monitor, or neighbors since I live on 5 acres surrounded by lake and orange groves. The people before me had a wireless security cam at the front porch but it is disconnected now so I dont think that would be an issue.

At first, I thought it was the actual internet provider, so I switched to Comcast and got 8 megs(?) of service which is the highest out here, but my internet will like be SUPER fast then SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW down then speed up again. I called Comcast someone came out and said it was my router.

if you dont have any concern with neighbors attaching to your wireless, you could also consider a high gain omnidirectional antenna

 

[bawksy]

if you dont have any concern with neighbors attaching to your wireless, you could also consider a high gain omnidirectional antenna

It sounds like in her setup, an omni would be okay on the laptop end, but it would be unnecessarily noisy for an access point in the corner of her house. Also she won't get any directionality gain with an omni.

 

[Cassidy Nicole]

Ohhh I forgot to mention, and I dont know if this really changes things.. but I have a regular computer and a ps3 hooked up to my router as well.. they are both in the living room

 

[bawksy]

It only matters if you're using them at the same time. If they're wired in, they won't be causing wi-fi contention, but they could be stealing some of your download speed. If they're wireless, they'll only cause interference if they're in use. Streaming a hi-def movie to your PS3 while concurrently trying to cam is not recommended.

 

[Cassidy Nicole]

I dont use the computers while I am camming usually. Sometimes the normal computer if I am downloading lectures or whatever, but usually not. The PS3 is never on when I am camming. Just making sure

 

[barman07]

if you dont have any concern with neighbors attaching to your wireless, you could also consider a high gain omnidirectional antenna

It sounds like in her setup, an omni would be okay on the laptop end, but it would be unnecessarily noisy for an access point in the corner of her house. Also she won't get any directionality gain with an omni.

all routers come with a low gain omni antenna, increasing the gain will increase the signal strength. for simplicity sake, omni would be more ideal for someone without a lot of technical knowledge. reason why directional is usually suggested is to prevent neighbors from leaching the wifi.

 

[Zoomer]

Router placement doesn't sound great. Is internet through phone line or cable or something?

We try to have the router in the most centralised location - however, I'm guessing yours is needed where it is

Here (UK) I've never seen those boosters. We just run a cable from one router to another instead, and set up the second router to not be a DHCP server. However, if those antenna's work great, then it'll be better than forking out for another router and the cable to connect the two together! May have to look to see if I can find those in the UK

 

[Cassidy Nicole]

It is run through the cable

 

[BebopBlue]

In my experience I've found that certain wireless security will impact the connection. WPA2 security usually solves this problem, but you may want to switch it up to see if you see a difference. Since it's a newer laptop WPA2 security on your router should provide you with the best connection.

 

[Mayorwells]

Alright please excuse my supposed stupidity. I am absolutely not tech-savvy. I need advice on how to speed up my internet connection. I have a 2wire ATT wireless setup. I work off an ASUS laptop. My problem is slow video on MFC and MGF. Also when I try to make videos on MGF I was told that they work up until halfway through and then it freezes and there is sound only. I have made videos at another residence and they worked just fine. I'm assuming that it is my internet connection. What options do I have to possibly make my internet go faster. ATT is the fastest internet available. I would appreciate a dumbed down answer if possible! Thanks in advance.
-Also I'm not sure how to check the security at the moment. I will be looking that up through ATT.

 

[JickyJuly]

I have a Ubee. Not very computer savvy over here either, but it never seems to cause a problem.

 

[bawksy]

Mayorwells - From what you've said it's difficult to determine whether the problem is with your AT&T internet, or with your wireless. Try camming for a few sessions using an ethernet cable instead of wireless and see how you make out. Make sure you disable your laptop's wireless to force it to use the cable. If you prove it's the wireless that's causing the problem, start from the top of this thread and check out the previous advice.

 

[UncleThursday]

Other things to mention BEFORE spending money for all models:

If you are sure it is signal related (you get 2 or less bars in your camming room) then do what has been suggested earlier.

If you are getting 3+ bars, then it is not your signal, and may be your NAT (the basic firewall of your router). If so, try these steps:

Hook in through Ethernet, see if you get similar issues. If you do, then you may need to adjust your port forwarding.

Most webcam related programs, including MFC, require unrestricted access to specific ports in order for the video and audio signal to work consistently. I would hope that the MFC model help/wiki/whatever they give models would have a list of the ports that need to be opened in order for the cams to work properly. In all reality, they should be the same ports that Skype, AIM, MSN MEssenger, and Yahoo Instant Messenger use.

Check your router by going to IP address 192.168.1.1 in a browser window. Most routers will use this as their IP adress. It should prompt you to enter a username and password. If you have not changed them, they should both be admin (no caps). IF you have not changed them, I do heartily suggest after getting inside, that you do so.

Next, look for an option for port forwarding/DMZ. In there enter the program that MFC gives you as the program name, and enter the ports that MFC hopefully specifies for you to have open. It will be a range of ports. For an easy example, it may be ports 1000-2000. The boxes will list the starting port and the ending port. simply enter those numbers, and make sure that TCP is specified (you can have both TCP and UDP specified, it won't hurt), and try again while on Ethernet. If this works, then also try again on WiFi.

If this does not solve any lag/cam/sound issues, you can also try putting your camming computer in the demilitarized zone (DMZ). This is NOT recommended if you have anything on your camming computer besides your camming software. Putting your computer in the DMZ means it bypasses the NAT in your router, completely, opening the computer up entirely to the internet. This makes it much easier to attack from the outside. You will have to assign the camming computer a static IP address in the router to do this, and ensure that the computer is set to use the static IP address.

Believe it, or not, many issues with webcams are the result of improper port forwarding in routers, be it Skype, AIM, MFC, or any other site that uses webcams. At 3+ bars of signal on your WiFi, you should have no problems with the signal, itself. Provided you are a steady 3+ bars.

 

[bawksy]

...

I really don't think this is the issue. If MFC needed custom port forwarding setups in order to work, like 98% of the girls on here wouldn't be able to handle it. Plus, if packets are getting stopped by a firewall, the cam feed would not work at all, as opposed to working poorly. Also, if a firewall was the problem, you'd see the problem when you're both wired in and wireless.

 

[LacieLaPlante]

Too tired to have posted, ignore me.

 

[bawksy]

Too tired to have posted, ignore me.

You're too cute to ignore.