Need a router with a lot of range

porchrat

porchrat

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The router I use currently is an SMC Barricade using DraftN (SMCWBR14-N2). While it has been OK I find there are way too many patchy areas of coverage at home where the signal keeps dropping.

I'm not too keen on bridging if I can avoid it and so would prefer it if I could replace this router with a single one that does the job. What routers can folks recommend that are going to provide me with some range that I can replace this bugger with?
 
Now that is interesting.

They say it is a wireless repeater... is that thing not just a wireless bridge?

My problem with bridging is that the machines aren't going to automatically move to that bridged device when they leave the range of the main AP. Then you have to connect to the stronger device after the connection drops.
 
How bad is the current device? I had one of the first Netgear Draft N routers (bought in 2007 in the US). That thing worked like a charm. Tested it to about 200m range (one wall), and about 40m through a number of walls.
 
porchrat said:
Now that is interesting.

They say it is a wireless repeater... is that thing not just a wireless bridge?

My problem with bridging is that the machines aren't going to automatically move to that bridged device when they leave the range of the main AP. Then you have to connect to the stronger device after the connection drops.
Click to expand...

From the features:

Enhance Existing Equipment — Keep your current equipment and improve coverage to eliminate wireless “dead zones”
Click to expand...

I would read that as you keeping the same AP.
 
shogun said:
How bad is the current device? I had one of the first Netgear Draft N routers (bought in 2007 in the US). That thing worked like a charm. Tested it to about 200m range (one wall), and about 40m through a number of walls.
Click to expand...
The thing is horrific. It is a draftN. I got it when my last router konked out.

I think it is actually a case of too much interference in my area because the place isn't that big and the connectivity seems to vary from night to night. The furtherest point from the router is probably about 20-25m as the crow flies (and even that is probably an exaggeration) and there are maybe 2 walls in the way (and the walls are made of this space-brick stuff... there is a lot of air in there and not a lot of brick).

It also often drops connection for a few seconds to the stuff around the home. Especially when there is some traffic running through it like someone streaming something. That also makes me worried about further taxing the poor thing by adding bridges.

Thing is if memory serves this thing used to give a realtively decent connection all over. Sure there were issues every now and then but for the most part it was fine.
 
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Have you changed the channel yet?

Theoretically all routers should have ~ the same range since the max output is limited by law.

Sounds fairly normal to me. Round here the signal gets patchy after ~15m. (Multiple walls though)
 
HavocXphere said:
Have you changed the channel yet?

Theoretically all routers should have ~ the same range since the max output is limited by law.

Sounds fairly normal to me. Round here the signal gets patchy after ~15m. (Multiple walls though)
Click to expand...
Changing the channel sounds like a plan. I will try that out. I'm embarrassed now that that didn't occur to me before. :o

When I said 20-25m it was because I haven't bothered to measure it and I am shockingly bad with judging distance. Now that I think about it is probably about 10m or so.
 
Use netstumbler.

Channel 13 works nicely...if your gear supports it (some laptops etc don't). Thats not the "correct" way to do it (1, 6 & 12 is), but from experience 13 is best.
 
Changing the channel may help a lot. We've got a wireless security camera, and if that is set to the wrong channel, wifi dies completely. It floods with interference. There may be something else conflicting on the channel your router is using.

EDIT: Embarrassingly, this is how I lost my N router. It stopped working one day (connected, but there was no traffic). I threw it out going "oh well, it's dead", got a new router and had the same issue. I then thought to check for interference, and the camera was it:/
 
HavocXphere said:
Use netstumbler.

Channel 13 works nicely...if your gear supports it (some laptops etc don't). Thats not the "correct" way to do it (1, 6 & 12 is), but from experience 13 is best.
Click to expand...

shogun said:
Changing the channel may help a lot. We've got a wireless security camera, and if that is set to the wrong channel, wifi dies completely. It floods with interference. There may be something else conflicting on the channel your router is using.

EDIT: Embarrassingly, this is how I lost my N router. It stopped working one day (connected, but there was no traffic). I threw it out going "oh well, it's dead", got a new router and had the same issue. I then thought to check for interference, and the camera was it:/
Click to expand...
Thanks guys for the input. I tried channel 13 (it was on the router's gui) but for some reason the router refused to stick with channel 13 and just reverted back to channel 1 after I saved and left the logged out. Then I tried channel 11 and for some reason laptops couldn't connect. Now I have tried channel 12 and it seems like devices can connect.

Now I will just wait and see if connections drop.

It is strange because the connections drop despite the machines in those areas having 4 bars at the time. Either Win7's network signal measurement software is utter garbage or something really screwy is going on.

If this carries on I'm going to try netstumbler.

I'm glad I didn't rush out and but a new router before testing these simpler possibilities first. Thanks again guys I will keep you posted.

Please feel free to keep discussing this sort of thing and offerring suggestions.
 
Bugger. Connection unstable and it still drops regardless of which channel I run it on. I just left the Barricade to auto channel scan where it finds the channel with the least interference and just uses that. That coupled with the current router constantly rebooting itself whenever the load gets too high means I'm resigned to replacing it.

That Mikrotik looks good. A whole 1W for the transmitter is astronomical. If worst comes to worst and this thing still doesn't solve my problem I suppose I can always bridge the two.

I was looking at this Ubiquiti product: http://www.scoopdistribution.co.za/product_info.php?cPath=101_75&products_id=1093
Same idea with a 1W transmitter but it doesn't have gigabit LAN, it seems support is non-existent and I would have to use their really weird iptables firewall GUI thing that is just plain confusing.

EDIT: argh this routerboard's interface is even worse! :(
 
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