Stonkin Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 I've got a friend who has virgin media for his house phone and his broadband. The router is downstairs and even in the room next door the wirles signal drops to 2 bars, upstairs its non existant. He has just bought his son a laptop for xmas and can forsee issues on xmas day when laptop doesnt work in the kids room He's using the router supplied by Virgin which is a netgear, are they just naff? I'm presuming he cant just use a normal router as i noticed he has what looks like a round coax connection going into it, as opposed to the rj11 / rj45 connections. It has 4 rj45 connections on it, 1 is going to the office for his pc and another runs upstairs to the kids xbox. He would prefer not to run another cable upstairs for the laptop, working wireless would be much better as it would also supply the mobiles in the house to. What does he need to get? cheers, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Wireless-N isn't that great for range unfortunately. I have similar issues although not quite as extreme. To get the most out the router it needs to be set up properly, with the best settings to maximise it's potenital. I scanned all my neighbours wireless routers to see what channels they were using, I then set my router to a channel different from everyone elses in order that I have a clear signal. I think there is also an option to maximise it's output signal, maximum throughput or something like that. The laptop/PC also has to be setup correctly to get the most out of it. It's a lot of faffing around but once done can make all the difference. Another option is to use the mains to transmit the signal around. A great way to do this is to have a spare router and a set of home plugs like these. Simply connect the router to 1 of the plugs via a cat 5 cable, then upstairs connect the 2nd plug to the 2nd router upstairs. This will allow you to run the router as a bridge to the internet signal. That way you could have 2 seperate wireless signals in the house using the same network and the same internet. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbourner Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 We've just got the Virgin modem with the white coax type cable going into it, then we bought a wireless hub ourselves - they keep trying to sell me their wireless super hub thing but I'm not having any of it. So if you get your own wireless router, just plug the RJ45 from the Virgin one into that, then any other RJ45s into your PCs from the new router, set it up from the PC connected to it and connect the wifi to the new router rather than the Virgin one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonkin Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 Cheers Scott, havent seen those plugs before. Can the router not be replaced for a better one? Its just the coax style input on it i was unsure about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonkin Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 We've just got the Virgin modem with the white coax type cable going into it, then we bought a wireless hub ourselves - they keep trying to sell me their wireless super hub thing but I'm not having any of it. So if you get your own wireless router, just plug the RJ45 from the Virgin one into that, then any other RJ45s into your PCs from the new router, set it up from the PC connected to it and connect the wifi to the new router rather than the Virgin one. Thats the thing mate, on my BT router i could change that to any other type easily but this virgin one has a connection on it which i dont think another router down pc world (for example) will have, or will they? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Cheers Scott, havent seen those plugs before. Can the router not be replaced for a better one? Its just the coax style input on it i was unsure about. I've had 3 routers and they have all been the same bud. One of them was VERY expensive. I'm using it as the bridge upstairs at the moment As Trev says the Virgin one isn't the best. Reason being it has to be setup properly to get the best out of it. Before I setup the channels etc I kept getting signal drops. The signal isn't any worse than I have had from my other routers though. If he wants to get another router he will need to get a modem from Virgin or if he still has one he will need to get it re-activated. It won't make any difference to signal strength though, unless he goes for one with lots of external aerials.... then it might make a difference (it will be minimal IMO though). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonkin Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 Ok cool. How do i find out what other channels the neighbours are using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 I used inssider http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonkin Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 Cheers Scott, will have a read through Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_b Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 About those homeplugs: I use a pair at home, and they're very good. I would recommend buying ones with mains pass-through though because apparently they need to be plugged directly into a wall socket, not on a socket on an extension bar (most extension bars clean up the AC current, inadvertently cleaning off some of the ethernet signal). http://www.amazon.co.uk/Max-Value-MV141611-200Mbps-Pass-Thru/dp/B003VTY6C0/ref=pd_sim_computers_5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-Plethora Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 I had the same thing with my wireless router being slow, turns out my new neighbours who moved in had got wireless internet installed and was using the same channel as mine. I used inSSIDer also and found they were overlapping, chaned mine to channel 11 and all has been well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stonkin Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 I had the same thing with my wireless router being slow, turns out my new neighbours who moved in had got wireless internet installed and was using the same channel as mine. I used inSSIDer also and found they were overlapping, chaned mine to channel 11 and all has been well. sounds promising, thanks for your input guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaveriK Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Wireless-N isn't that great for range unfortunately. What kit have you been using to consider this to be the case? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 What kit have you been using to consider this to be the case? It's proven to be the case, in an open field Wireless-N would be fantastic but it's proven to be far easier to interfere with than Wireless-G. I had a WRT54G for YEARS and never had an issue, I could watch my laptop while in the bath, streaming movies/shows, with ease. With the Wireless-N, which I have had for a few years now, I've never been able to do this on a consistant basis. It's always depended what else is going on, radio frequency wise, in the environment at the time. Wireless-N also doesn't seem to penetrate walls anywhere near as well as G did. At the moment I am using the following: 5100 AGN intel Wifi - Laptop Virgin Wireless-N SuperHub WRT610N with DD-WRT firmware - Wireless Bridge (so that I get a consistent signal usptairs) In the past I have used the following.. WRT54G - Fantastic WRT54G-S - Fantastic WRT610N - Rubbish WRT610N with DD WRT Firmware - Slightly better but still not consistent DLink Something or other - Bought to see if there was an issue with the WRT610N, it was even worse. Netgear WNR3500 - A tiny bit better than the WRT610N with DD WRT but not worth what it cost. In the living room I see 300mb/s connections and can get consistant 5MB/s transfers from my latoptop to my PC (both wireless). If I move up to my bedroom or bathroom I am lucky to see 50mb/s connections and even when I do they often drop off when trying to do anything. Depending on what's going on, without the secondary bridge router, I generally can't watch/browse/use anything outside the area. I searched for months for a solution to this but every piece of reference material I have read has said that Wireless-N is the reason for this. It's fantastic in the correct scenario but ITRW it's pretty much hopeless unless you sit on top of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaveriK Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 True the benefits you get are at their highest when in a green enviroment but i have seen improvments in a built up area especially if all that is required is N. Have you turned off a/b/g while doing your testing? Sorry if i am telling you to suck eggs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 True the benefits you get are at their highest when in a green enviroment but i have seen improvments in a built up area especially if all that is required is N. Have you turned off a/b/g while doing your testing? Sorry if i am telling you to suck eggs I've tried just about everything on every setting, I've followed guide after guide and most have had no effect whatsoever. Any effect noticed has normally been negative. I even turned adhoc off altogether to see if it helped, no difference. In the endup I created the wireless bridge using the DDWRT firmware WRT610N. It's working quite well at the moment, unfortunately it is the only thing that has had a truely positive effect on the signal. I don't mind being taught to suck eggs, there is always something that can be overlooked regardless of how experienced you are with something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sideexitsupra Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 I have a virgin super hub upstairs and everything works fine. Had a small issue with the Xbox but got a USB extension cable to reposition the wifi receiver and all now perfect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaveriK Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 I don't mind being taught to suck eggs, there is always something that can be overlooked regardless of how experienced you are with something With the Cisco gear that i am working with it is really important to understand the aerial setup and where its going to push the signal. Their office based units tend to push the signal out 360 and down so you get little feed going up other than spill. Factory based stuff requires external aerials and they will do what ever you want them to do. http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps7183/ps469/product_data_sheet09186a008008883b.html It may be worth looking into the direction of the spread on the devices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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