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[dawniezinha]

hey, i have this router for a few months already but i always had wifi disabled on it coz i was using cables to connect to my 2 PCs.... this week i bought a sony vaio netbook so i had to enable wifi again.

it worked immediately, i even downloaded at almost my max speed (the speed i get if im using cables)...

but something is annoying me, the signal is always 46-48%... sometimes even 34-40%....

WHYYYYY.... lol  im posting screenshots so maybe any of you guys can tell me if i have the right settings?

ah, the router is at the living room, on a table (open place), and the netbook is in my room (doors between are opened), distance about 10 meters max (32.8 feet if u dont have metric system )

and i always have only 2 filled bars (out of 5, from the windows wireless thingy)... only gets maxed if i go to the living room.

LOL i just went to the living room and now SIGNAL is 100% :[

cmon, its just 10meters from the router.... is there any way i can increase the range or something... ?

[buckm]

it the signal strength the same doesn't matter how far you are away? or does it get better the closer you get to the router?

[dawniezinha]

if i go to the living room (where the router is), i get 100% signal..... in my bedroom, i get 40%....i live in an appartment, theres the living room, a small highway and my bedroom... doors always opened, distance is max 10 meters from where i am now and where the router is....

is it possible to increase the range? i wont use the netbook in the living room coz i already got 2 computers there, i bought this to use it while in bed lol  wish i could get full signal here.

i cant put the router in the bedroom coz the internet cable is in the living room...


look, i made a small drawing of my apartment

BLUE = router
RED = netbook

[buckm]

mmm, ok so I would expect some reduction in signal, and it would be worse if you have solid concrete walls instead of wood partition walls, WIFI signals tend to go in a straight line, so looking at your lovely picture it would be going through 2 walls.  depending on those walls depends on the strength you'll get.

The only thing I have found is that my laptops connection depended on what mode of wireless I had connected, I have an N laptop and yet if I set my router to N only, it would only connect at G.  If I set the type back to mixed, the laptop connected at N, odd!!!!  So try manually setting your mode on the router to the mode of your laptop and see if the signal gets better or worse.

I dumped the D-link firmware and installed the custom DD-WRT firmware from this site (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=13599.0), and my router is vasty better performing now, so if you haven't already, it may be worth looking into that, the install is easy, i just updated it using the firmware update page on the firmware that came with it.  so the issues I was seeing did't seem to be with the hardware it seems to be more software based.  My router is quicker, more reliable and so much more stable its amazing.

[dawniezinha]

mmm, ok so I would expect some reduction in signal, and it would be worse if you have solid concrete walls instead of wood partition walls, WIFI signals tend to go in a straight line, so looking at your lovely picture it would be going through 2 walls.  depending on those walls depends on the strength you'll get.

The only thing I have found is that my laptops connection depended on what mode of wireless I had connected, I have an N laptop and yet if I set my router to N only, it would only connect at G.  If I set the type back to mixed, the laptop connected at N, odd!!!!  So try manually setting your mode on the router to the mode of your laptop and see if the signal gets better or worse.

I dumped the D-link firmware and installed the custom DD-WRT firmware from this site (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=13599.0), and my router is vasty better performing now, so if you haven't already, it may be worth looking into that, the install is easy, i just updated it using the firmware update page on the firmware that came with it.  so the issues I was seeing did't seem to be with the hardware it seems to be more software based.  My router is quicker, more reliable and so much more stable its amazing.

thx for the compliment on my drawing  

I installed:
DD-WRT v24-sp2 (08/07/10) std
(SVN revision 14896)

but i still get the same signal rate... ill save my current router config and then mess with it... ill try that N thingy (my netbook only connects to N, even if I have it set "Mixed" on the router)..

thanks buckm   btw, my walls are thick concrete ;/  now i see why japanese have wooden house...

[pewchewpew]

thx for the compliment on my drawing  

I installed:
DD-WRT v24-sp2 (08/07/10) std
(SVN revision 14896)

but i still get the same signal rate... ill save my current router config and then mess with it... ill try that N thingy (my netbook only connects to N, even if I have it set "Mixed" on the router)..

thanks buckm   btw, my walls are thick concrete ;/  now i see why japanese have wooden house...

Hey dawniezhinha, can you provide us with an update on any differences you find the performance of your router after installing DD-WRT?

Thank you

[Skello]

Set band width to always be 40 Mhz. By default in DD-WRT it's 20 for compatibility reasons, because not all wireless cards support double rate. Newer ones like the one in your notebook most likely do. Also in DD-WRT it doesn't make much of a difference if you leave N-only or Mixed. In fact, I've seen people who had trouble when they switched from mixed to n-only, even though they had n-compatible cards.

[dawniezinha]

Hey dawniezhinha, can you provide us with an update on any differences you find the performance of your router after installing DD-WRT?

Thank you

Honestly, i didnt notice any difference :x but i didnt change any of the settings from DD-WRT (i saw it has TONS of settings that you can change) because i dont know what they are for.... probably someone with more advanced knowledge could have set it better... i only inserted my pppoe login and wireless settings... Ah, and I put wireless to connect only with N channel.

I think its really the walls thingy, stupid walls

[Skello]

Have you tried my suggest? It's under Wireless > Basic Settings > Channel Width. Set it to 40 Mhz. Also try a different channel number than the default one. If you have a lot of neighbors which use the same wireless channel for their setups, you will get poor signal.

So, set channel width to 40 Mhz then experiment with two, three different channel numbers. See if there's any difference. I personally use 7.

[dawniezinha]

Have you tried my suggest? It's under Wireless > Basic Settings > Channel Width. Set it to 40 Mhz. Also try a different channel number than the default one. If you have a lot of neighbors which use the same wireless channel for their setups, you will get poor signal.

So, set channel width to 40 Mhz then experiment with two, three different channel numbers. See if there's any difference. I personally use 7.

hey skello! i just went to my router settings to put the 40mhz channel width.... when i saw it was already on 40mhz :x  And instead of AUTO, I put channel 7 (2.442ghz)...

I guess its the walls thing.... but why does the signal rate changes without me even changing position? While i was typing this, the signal switched between 2 and 4 a bunch of times (on the 5 bar thingy, on windows).

Anywayz, right after I enabled wireless (still on original d-link firmware) I used to get only 2 bars. So yeah, I gotta say that DD-WRT improved the signal rate

I just wish the signal rate was a little more stable. Thanks for all the help!

[buckm]

You'll be amazed what can cause your wifi signal to go up and down, Microwaves going, wireless telephones being used, etc etc, the amount of radio waves flying round the world now, its almost normal.  As Skello said the best you can do is pick a specific channel, which you have done, and then see what you get.

Mike