How can i increase my routers signal range?

Question

I have a room in a house with the rest of my family. The router is a d-link and is downstairs at the bottom left corner of the house. My room is upstairs 10 feet high and I'm about 50-60 feet away from the router. My playstation 3 doesn't get a signal upstairs and i refuse to put it downstairs with that crummy tv from 1990. Does anyone know how to boost signal strength on a wireless router? The reason it is downstairs is because we have verizon internet and i have the wire that connects to the router. I cant move the router because the wire is stapled to the wall so if i move the router the wire will pop out so i cant move it. Any tips?

Answer 1

Get a larger, and more powerful antenna for your router. It might help.

They are cheap. That is of course, if your current antenna on your router is the kind that can unscrew.

Or, get yourself a Access Point. They only act as a booster or wifi access point.

The access point basically "sits" between your current wireless router and your equipment upstairs.

I use the d-link DWL 2100AP - access point for exactly what you're wanting to do.

Answer 2

That's somewhat harder if you can't move the router...moving the router is the cheapest/easiest way of improoving signal...here's what I'd say you try as much as you can...

Put your wireless router as high up as you can and as far from electrical and metal things as you can, that'll give you the best coverage.  Try to put it in the middle of where you expect to be (usually the middle of the house).  If you have 2.4GHz cordless phones you may want to replace them with 5.8GHz, 900MHz, or the new DECT6.0 phones that won't cause interference.  Also, wireless video senders, or wireless cameras that run on 2.4GHz should be set to the farthest channel from your router (e.g. set video sender to 1 or A and put the router on channel 11).  Channels 1, 6, and 11 are preferable because they don't "overlap" with each other.

A few routers support replacing the antennas with either directional or high-gain antennas, sometimes that works, sometimes not.  I've found it's usually hard to find out if the replacment antenna will be comptible though.

If you really need more range after positioning your router as best you can, some companies sell "WiFi Repeaters" that re-transmit the information stronger to boost the signal.  If you can run wires to (or near) the location where you have weak signal, get an "Access Point" or a router that can be configured as an access point (a second router would cause problems) and set it to the same SSID (name) and Encryption key (security) - then computers will pick whichever is strongest.

I suppose you could always try making one of these, it will decrease the range on one side but increase range wherever it's pointed.  I was able to get from 60 up to 85 percent in my basement.  For free...well ok, a sheet of cooking foil, some glue, and cardstock or photopaper...it's worth a try!

http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/tem...

Even if it doesn't help, it sure looks cool :)

Answer 3

I've seen some pretty redneck ways of doing this using a coke can, tin foil and a hangar.

It looks hella funny, but apparently it does work.

Just google the question and you'll probly find lots of funny ideas.

Answer 4

You can put a parabolic concentrator on the aerial in your room, it might look weird but it works great

go to  http://binarywolf.com/249/diy-parabolic-...