Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Hi can anyone advise please?

Live in a Villa and the router is downstairs making it virtually impossible to receive a signal upstairs. Are there various strengths of routers to allow a signal to be received upstairs? I think the one I have is an older model.

Any advice much appreciated. Not a technofob!!!!

Yes Holly,generally the more you pay the longer the range.
Most houses here have a lot of steel in them which doesn't help.
you can buy plugs which use your homes electrical circuit as a network cable which might give you better results like these-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-PA411KI ... ne+adapter.

The latest routers are quite powerful-I have one of the latest 'n' technology routers and can use it all over the house, even outside up to a point.
Hope this helps

Ok, lets start with some basics

1. Wireless Technologies in a Nutshell
If you laptop supports the new N technology (802.11n), and your router is the old G technology (802.11g), upgrading your router to a new N one should yield better results. If your laptop does not have the N technology wireless, upgrading your router is pretty much useless. Also, the new N technology supports MIMO (multi in multi out), meaning if your laptop has more than one antenna inside (which they usually have 2), getting a router with 2 or 3 antennas as opposed to 1 antenna routers should also yield slightly better results.

2. Wireless is a TWO way communication system
You need to understand that the router does not only send and the laptop wireless does not only receive. This is not a TV antenna, there is a constant 2 way communication between the router and the laptop. Increasing the Router's output power does not always yield better results if the laptop is not able to transmit its requests back to the router. We have seen a very big variation among laptop reception levels and I can easily tell you this is the single most important factor when it comes to range. If you are stuck with a laptop with poor reception with the internal antenna, your only option is to get an external USB one. They are cheap (<20usd) but not as convenient.

3. Understanding the elements.
Unless its something special, plastic does not have any effect on the wireless signals, it just passes through is as it is not there. Wood is also relatively easy to penetrate and the absorption of wireless signal depends on the humidity in the wood, more humid means you lose more signal passing through. Brick/Cement walls absorb a lot wireless signals, and finally steel REFLECTS them. you can possibly get away with using a more powerful system to get through brick walls, but this does not work as well when it comes to steel, you will only be reflecting a more powerful signal.

4. More power is not always a good thing
This applies especially to areas with high population density. Using a more powerful system usually means you improve your transmit powers but also increase your receive gain. What this means that 'better reception' means you will also be receiving the interference around you better, which may actually make things worse. You should always try to achieve intended results with the minimal required power levels.

Also, having a very powerful signal coming out of your access points will lead to very poor performance in short distances. Imagine somebody leaning to your ear and yell as much as they can, will it make you hear better?

5. Routers have directional antennas
Almost all of the routers have directional antennas on them. They are usually stand vertical to the ground, and transmits signals on a HORIZONTAL plane. In ideal/perfect scenarios, there should be almost no signal below or above the antenna. This is usually not the case and you always receive some signal because of sidelobes, but what you picking up is not the main beam and usually do not yield good results.

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What I suggest is to have one router on each floor, positioned in a location (central?) so that it is within close proximity to rooms where you like to have reception. If cabling between routers is an issue, the link philoz provided is a great solution to use existing electrical wires to connect 2 routers together.

Hope this helps.

Kemal- you just agreed with what I said but you used eleventeen paragraphs to do it.

I am a big believer in the K.I.S.S training method(K.eep it S.imple S.tupid)

All said though-great advise.

Wow! What a helpful response. Just what this forum is so good for.

Philoz wrote:Kemal- you just agreed with what I said but you used eleventeen paragraphs to do it.

I am a big believer in the K.I.S.S training method(K.eep it S.imple S.tupid)

All said though-great advise.

I was just going to write 'I agree with philoz', but then I saw the 'not a technophobe' remark...

Thanks for all that much appreciated .

Just to jump in here.

Does anyone know how much Wifi routers are in TRNC? Looking for one for my nethouse connection.

Many thanks