problem wireless house

have a client that i setup a wireless desktop in the basement roughly 30 as the crow flies from the wrt54gs router. quite frequently the wireless adapter kept searching for a signal and quite frequently the whole machine would lock up tighter than a drum. had to hard boot. reversed the wireless and put it in the other machine and hard wired the machine that had the wireless adapter. problem followed to the other machine. also tried 2 different adapters so am sure its not the adapters or the machines. cell phone has no connection in basement but as soon as you go upstairs you get couple bars on the phone. so it appears that something in the floor between upper and lower level is interferring with the wireless signal. also have tried different channels in the router to no avail.

now my question. what can i do basically to make that signal more stable. would some sort of db gain antenna work or say a extender be better. all devices are linksys and now the adapter is the N wmp300n.

thoughts would be appreciate....greg

 

The biggest problem by far with wireless is neighbor's signals drifting in out of nowhere. The wireless adapter will flip between the two or more , not be able to lock on solidly. You will have a good signal but no internet.
The answer is to change the channel from the default channel 6 to anything else
Channels 1 and 11 are first picks as they are non overlapping channels
You may have to play around from time to time as routers in the area may be changed or the signal drifts in
The router should be high as possible and uncluttered
Wi fi is generally seen as line of sight. It is but a lot of the signal is the bouncearound.
Sometimes just by moving over the router a foot or two it makes all the difference
Metal object , doors , metal file cabinets, aquariums etc will block signals
Change the ssid from the default - even if only to add a digit
Turn on encryption so it cannot lock easily on other signals
Some people say that if you are having trouble with the signal they switch the wireless to g only ( with a g card ) and are able to maintain a good connection that way. You are only 30 feet away so that should not be an issue of long distance
One last point - if the adapters are pci - they are hidden behind the metal case of the computer down low and may be sheltered by pipes in the wall
If the wireless network adapter is usb get a usb extension cable so that you can get the adapter high and away from the computer case shielding

The key things are

1) make sure router is high and uncluttered
2) Change the channel from the default channel 6. channels 1 and 11 are first picks
3) change the ssid from the default - linksys or wireless ssid
4) turn on some type of encryption

if you are really stuck you can use a powerline network adapter but this should work and be fairly routine. Change the channel

 

visionof - have tried both channel 6 and 11. will switch to channel 1. this home is isolated on a lake with no neighbors that close to cause a problem so i dont think thats the problem. the pci card is the wmp300n with the 3 antennas that sit on the desk above every thing so we should be good there.
not sure why the default ssid would cause a problem but will change as you suggest. done a hundred plus wireless in homes and this is the first one to give me a problem. i wish the client would just let me drill a hole in the floor and run cat5 to the router. that would take care of everything.

thanks for your response....greg

 

tonyt

from where the back of the wrt54gs is on the main computer in the basement to the wireless machine upstairs one level is roughly 30 - 40 feet.

nobody seems to know what the floor between them is made of but its the most solid floor ive ever jumped on. no give whatsoever. it is wood on the floor and speckle on the ceiling. to me thats where the interference is coming from. like i mentioned no cell bars in basement but when i go upstairs i at least get 2 bars.

the linksys pci card is using its software with the green monitor displaying in toolbar. so you think that maybe if i change that and let xp handle it vs linksys. ill give that a shot.

both machine NOT in basement main machine in basement other machine up one level.

 

if you are not allowed to drill through the floor a very good option is a powerline network adapter

 

ive never heard of a power line network adapter. what is that and how does it work ???

 

tonyt

naw the walls are solid no way to run through them. can however just get about a 100 feet of cable and run it along the walls up to the upstairs machine. i could use carpet tape to secure it. that could work.

did a little research on power line network adapter but am a little confused. is this a way to have a data port where no data port was built into the home???

still confused at how it would be setup in my situation. could you help explain please.