Many people encounter various types of problems with their home wireless networks, but most of the problems come from a poor signal. This often happens when you have a rather weak router or a very big house.

1. Position the router as close as possible to the center of the house, this way the signal will be uniform. If the router is near a wall, half the signal will get lost on the outside and you wont be enjoying that coverage unless you plan to go and connect from the yard.

2. Dont place the router on the floor, near a wall or near metal objects because they will affect the signal and the connection will end up being very weak.

3. Replace the routers antenna. From the factory, all routers come with an omni directional antenna, which means the signal is propagated in all directions, at the same values. If you place the router near a wall, half the signal will be lost on the other side. With a bigger antenna which can transmit the signal in only one direction you wont encounter this wall problem anymore.

4. Replace the computers wireless card. In some cases, the router can transmit a strong signal but the computer can not receive it and retransmit an equally strong one. Replacing the wireless adapter can significantly improve the signals quality. For laptops, which have an integrated wireless card, you wont need to replace it because it is strong enough if the laptop is only a few years old at most.

5. When distances are too big, add an access point. If you feel that the power of the router can not lead the signal where it should, it is recommended to add an access point to the network. It will take the routers transmitted signal and will retransmit it, enhancing the wireless range.

6. Keep the router up to date. A firmware upgrade can do wonders, because many time producers resolve certain wireless bugs through firmware upgrades. It is free and very fast to do a firmware upgrade.

7. Try to make devices compatible. If your router is a Linksys, buy a Linksys access point, or a wireless adapter. Its best to have a matching and compatible network. By adding different products from different companies, you risk that they wont match 100%.

8. Upgrade from 802.11b to 802.11g, because the last one is 5 times faster than the older 802.11b standard wireless protocol.

With and these ideas you should be able to improve your overall has. It's really all about trial and error if you are having issues with the signal getting from your router to wireless card on your PC. Hopefully this article has been able to provide you and give you some tips to make sure that you can resolve the problem you're having.

Mark Dunne is a writer providing advice on how dose a wireless router work if you have time drop by his site for some tips and information.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 15th, 2009 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Networks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.