When a wireless signal drops to a noticeable level, you should consider some basic things before reconfiguring your router.
1. Check for physical location - try to place the router at least in an elevated level, if possible, you must replace it above your cabinet. by simply doing this, you can propagate the wireless signal properly
2. Check for any other wireless devices - any other devices that runs on 2.4 GHz freq such as a wireless phone may affect the performance of your router. With this, you can use the reserved channels (channels aside from 1,6,11) so that it wouldn't make any conflict with the phone if you can't replace them
3. Check for any interference - wireless network is always susceptible to inference, microwave devices, and such can affect it's performance
once this basic pieces are all set, you can now configure the router one-by-one:
1. Change the SSID to a shorter name - SSID is part of the packet heading once transmission takes place. Lowering the SSID will lower the header as well thus saves more time and resources to transmit the data
2. Change the channel - utilizing proper channel may affect the over-all performance of the wireless connection. channel is always directly proportional to distance. using ch.1 is adviseable when you are working at least more than 30 feet from the router, mid-range is ch.6 while close range is ch.11
You can also consider upgrading the network card's driver (wireless network adapter) for better performance in the receiving part as well of your network.
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