stthrobber Posted 18 April, 2012 Share Posted 18 April, 2012 I'm fairly PC literate but for many years my router has been hard wired to my PC in my little computer room which is upstairs and was originally on the old house wall, but we had an extension built and it's now sort of in the middle. I always had very patchy coverage on my network downstairs. I've managed to get an upgrade from Virgin Media and they moved the hub downstairs to a more central location and the coverage is great now downstairs, but not as good where it was upstairs which is now via a Netgear WNDA3200 dongle. I was wondering if I bought a wireless PCI network card running at 300mbps whether the speed would be both faster and more reliable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotonjoe Posted 18 April, 2012 Share Posted 18 April, 2012 speed is not the same as signal. If you've got signal issues then you need to improve the signal that is being created, not the thing picking it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdearlove Posted 18 April, 2012 Share Posted 18 April, 2012 grab yourself some powerline adapters - they use your home wiring as a ethernet network. You can also get powerline devices with built in wireless access points. TP-Link are good and cheap: http://www.amazon.co.uk/TL-WPA281-Powerline-Extender-Wireless-Access/dp/B0067GS0YO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pedg Posted 18 April, 2012 Share Posted 18 April, 2012 Also worth having a play with changing the frequency of the router. There are 11 or so but they overlap. Often routers are set to either end so picking one one the middle could reduce interference from other routers nearby. Best thing, if you have a smart phone, is to download a wifi analyzer app and check out exactly what other routers are nearby and what frequencies they are using. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sev Posted 18 April, 2012 Share Posted 18 April, 2012 Also worth having a play with changing the frequency of the router. There are 11 or so but they overlap. Often routers are set to either end so picking one one the middle could reduce interference from other routers nearby. I use inSSIDer on the PC for this, also available for Mac http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stthrobber Posted 18 April, 2012 Author Share Posted 18 April, 2012 Thanks guys. Much appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Clarke Posted 19 April, 2012 Share Posted 19 April, 2012 If they've given you one of those Superhubs, the wireless built into that is simply horrific. I gave up with it in the end and bought my own Wireless router and set the 'superhub' in bridged mode (so it just runs as a cable modem, nothing else). You'd probably get a decent improvement by doing the same! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stthrobber Posted 19 April, 2012 Author Share Posted 19 April, 2012 If they've given you one of those Superhubs, the wireless built into that is simply horrific. I gave up with it in the end and bought my own Wireless router and set the 'superhub' in bridged mode (so it just runs as a cable modem, nothing else). You'd probably get a decent improvement by doing the same! That sounds a bit above my current capabilities. I have a Cisco Linksys Cable router which is now spare. Are you saying that you dispensed with the Netgear cable modem/router that they supplied or is that still in use as part of your network? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Clarke Posted 19 April, 2012 Share Posted 19 April, 2012 That sounds a bit above my current capabilities. I have a Cisco Linksys Cable router which is now spare. Are you saying that you dispensed with the Netgear cable modem/router that they supplied or is that still in use as part of your network? When I joined virgin they included the Superhub which was the wireless router and modem all in one box. I still have it on my network, but it operates in bridge mode so is just my modem - rather than providing any wireless or routing services. I bought an additional Netgear wireless N access point which gives me really good coverage around the house. I know Virgin used to offer a wireless router and a modem as 2 separate devices, I'm not sure if that's what you have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stthrobber Posted 19 April, 2012 Author Share Posted 19 April, 2012 I have the combined router/modem as supplied by them. I'm pleased overall with the coverage downstairs and moderately happy to slightly dubious about the dongle connection upstairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Clarke Posted 19 April, 2012 Share Posted 19 April, 2012 I have the combined router/modem as supplied by them. I'm pleased overall with the coverage downstairs and moderately happy to slightly dubious about the dongle connection upstairs. Ah ok. I don't think the range on their device is particularly good if I'm honest, and I experienced lots of wireless drop outs with mine, which was my main bug bear. (not sure if you've found that?). It might work better for you! but I'm a bit of a speed freak so I have my main access point upstairs and a repeater downstairs which knocks out my dead spots and gives me full signal up to the top of the garden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stthrobber Posted 20 April, 2012 Author Share Posted 20 April, 2012 (edited) Right, so I guess I need to do the reverse. Wonder if either of my old routers could do the job? I've got a DIR655 by Dlink and an E4200 by Cisco. Can you tell me what the repeater is that you have used? Edited 20 April, 2012 by stthrobber Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hutch Posted 21 April, 2012 Share Posted 21 April, 2012 Remember that a repeater cuts your bandwidth in half. If you can run an ethernet cable upstairs from the router, you can use an AP instead and get a better service upstairs. Just finished doing mine this morning, and now have separate strong wireless networks upstairs & downstairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_Jonny Posted 22 April, 2012 Share Posted 22 April, 2012 (edited) If they've given you one of those Superhubs, the wireless built into that is simply horrific. I gave up with it in the end and bought my own Wireless router and set the 'superhub' in bridged mode (so it just runs as a cable modem, nothing else). You'd probably get a decent improvement by doing the same! I did the same thing. It really is a god awful, hateful bit of kit. Edited 22 April, 2012 by Saint_Jonny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stthrobber Posted 22 April, 2012 Author Share Posted 22 April, 2012 I did the same thing. It really is a god awful, hateful bit of kit. So how do you run the super hub as a modem only? Is there a setting on the admin page? Given that the superhub has moved I would guess you connect the Virgin media via a network cable to your own router ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint_Jonny Posted 24 April, 2012 Share Posted 24 April, 2012 So how do you run the super hub as a modem only? Is there a setting on the admin page? Given that the superhub has moved I would guess you connect the Virgin media via a network cable to your own router ? I followed this guide mate, nice and easy http://help.virginmedia.com/system/selfservice.controller?CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=412750&CURRENT_CMD=SEARCH&CONFIGURATION=1002&PARTITION_ID=1&USERTYPE=1&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTY=us&VM_CUSTOMER_TYPE=Cable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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