Weak signal problem

[RichardZA7]

Hi all,

I have a problem with weak signal, and really need your advice on the best way to solve it (I'm very much a wifi newbie).

My girlfriend has a double-storey house with an 802.11b access point (LG LW2205AP - the website for LG's network product is supposed to be lgnetwork.com but it seems to not exist anymore!!) upstairs at one end of the house. There are two (802.11g) wireless clients that connect to the network: one upstairs and one downstairs. Signal upstairs is fine, but the signal at the downstairs client is little to none at all - often it doesn't connect. The floor & walls separating the AP and the downstairs client are very thick, and I'm sure that's a big reason for the poor signal.

I drew up some sketches (in mspaint hehe) to help explain the layout:

http://www.fishtank.za.net/side.GIF
http://www.fishtank.za.net/front.GIF

As can be seen, the downstairs client is located on the same end of the house as the AP, but it is not directly below the AP.

I have tried moving the AP to directly above the downstairs client which did solve the downstairs client's signal problem, but then the upstairs client (located in the middle of the house) loses signal due to an extra wall in the signal's path. It looks as if moving the AP won't solve the problem by itself (I could be wrong though).

What would be the easiest/cheapest way to solve this situation?

From the reading I have done, it looks like some possible solutions are:

1) Better antenna? Neither of the clients can take external antennas so only the AP could take a new antenna. The AP however has dual antennas and I don't think I can switch antenna diversity (or whatever it's called) off in the firmware:/ At the moment the AP still has the standard two little (dipole??) antennas it came with. Because the AP is at one end of the house, I would think that half the signal is being wastefully broadcast outside the house where it is not needed (but moving the AP to center of house would cause downstairs client's signal to become even worse).

2) Build a second AP from a spare wifi card (atheros based) & old pc I've got, using Pyramid Linux. Place this AP where it will give good signal to downstairs client. Not sure how feasible/easy this would be though?

3) Antenna reflector?

As you can see I'm pretty confused about the right way to go about this, so all help would be appreciated!

Thanks a lot,

Richard

 

[ath0]

try a reflector, it might save you

 

[FISHborn]

BPL - Homeplug

 

[JJF]

Hi all,

I have a problem with weak signal, and really need your advice on the best way to solve it (I'm very much a wifi newbie).

My girlfriend has a double-storey house with an 802.11b access point (LG LW2205AP - the website for LG's network product is supposed to be lgnetwork.com but it seems to not exist anymore!!) upstairs at one end of the house. There are two (802.11g) wireless clients that connect to the network: one upstairs and one downstairs. Signal upstairs is fine, but the signal at the downstairs client is little to none at all - often it doesn't connect. The floor & walls separating the AP and the downstairs client are very thick, and I'm sure that's a big reason for the poor signal.

I drew up some sketches (in mspaint hehe) to help explain the layout:

http://www.fishtank.za.net/side.GIF
http://www.fishtank.za.net/front.GIF

As can be seen, the downstairs client is located on the same end of the house as the AP, but it is not directly below the AP.

I have tried moving the AP to directly above the downstairs client which did solve the downstairs client's signal problem, but then the upstairs client (located in the middle of the house) loses signal due to an extra wall in the signal's path. It looks as if moving the AP won't solve the problem by itself (I could be wrong though).

What would be the easiest/cheapest way to solve this situation?

From the reading I have done, it looks like some possible solutions are:

1) Better antenna? Neither of the clients can take external antennas so only the AP could take a new antenna. The AP however has dual antennas and I don't think I can switch antenna diversity (or whatever it's called) off in the firmware:/ At the moment the AP still has the standard two little (dipole??) antennas it came with. Because the AP is at one end of the house, I would think that half the signal is being wastefully broadcast outside the house where it is not needed (but moving the AP to center of house would cause downstairs client's signal to become even worse).

2) Build a second AP from a spare wifi card (atheros based) & old pc I've got, using Pyramid Linux. Place this AP where it will give good signal to downstairs client. Not sure how feasible/easy this would be though?

3) Antenna reflector?

As you can see I'm pretty confused about the right way to go about this, so all help would be appreciated!

Thanks a lot,

Richard

Hi Richard,

I would get a piece of coax cable and extend one of the antennas so that it can be mounted downstairs somewhere. You can also connect a bigger antenna. Maybe if you connect a panel antenna upstairs and point it downstairs, but there might be too much losses through the floor.

Regards,

JJF.

 

[[OUPA]MrNutz]

i'd for one would try to get another AP...

i'm sure that LG unit only broadcasts at 28mW ...

get a wrt54GL that u can flash with ddwrt23sp2

then u can up the signal strength to 100mW.

my2c

 

[Connectedsa]

run a cable...

 

[MobileAllOver]

Mw's wont work, go for cable...

 

[RichardZA7]

Thanks for all the advice. I made one of those parabolic reflectors from cardboard and tin foil, still need to test it at the site but it's looking like it's not going to sort the problem out because the area to cover is in two different directions from the AP:/

I need a low cost solution, might go with cable if all else fails. If the reflector doesn't work I think I'll try the DIY AP, and then place that 2nd AP closer to the downstairs section where the weak signal is.

Thanks again for the advice, much appreciated

 

[Dolby]

How do these two antenna work and what is antenna diversity? I have two antenna ... they supposed to point opposite or something?

 

[Rocket-Boy]

You could always just get a higher gain antenna for the AP or probably 2 in your case. The idea with extending one of them in the direction with coax is pretty interesting but you would lose so much gain from an already very low gain antenna.
Antenna diversity might also be a problem if you extend one only.

I would say getting some larger rubber ducky antennas (like the standard ones but stronger) would be your best bet as they are relatively inexpensive.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

How do these two antenna work and what is antenna diversity? I have two antenna ... they supposed to point opposite or something?

Dolby yours is the 802.11N unit isnt it?

the main thing with antenna diversity is that is will use MIMO (multiple in multiple out) where one antenna is pretty much didcated to sending signals (Tx) and the other for receiving signal (Rx) with 802.11N they normally have 2 plus a panel type thingy on the router somewhere and its deal is to create a whole bunch of signals that bounce around all over the place and is supposed to boost the coverage area/throughput

Does that make any sense?

 

[ElphieSA]

Slightly off-topic but re: the same product. I found one of these in a friend's computer stash and was wondering if anybody knows if it comes with an installation disk because, if it does, that is long gone. I can't seem to find anything online regarding this and LG no longer supports the product (their website doesn't even recognise the model number). Any help on this would be greatly appreciated