signal booster

[thewhistler]

Our lodger in our attic says her laptop connection is highly variable. I'm told I need a signal booster. Any one had experience and can tell me what I need and what to avoid?

I am an incompetent technophobe.

I've never had to resort to a signal booster, so I can't give you the benefit of first hand experience with that.

I would say that extra kit should be a last resort, not the first resort. A lot of wifi signal problems can be resolved by changing the channel on the base station. There is a program called InSSIDer, which can show which channels are busy and which have less activity and hence less interference. The details of how to actually change channel depend on which model of router you are using.

Failing that, would it be possible to relocate the base station? Moving it up a floor might well help, even just moving it to a different room might be beneficial.

Thanks for this. Helpful.

Another possibility is that, if the router is an old router with only 802.11b and 802.11g wireless capabilities and the lodger's laptop is 802.11n wireless capable laptop, then an upgrade to an 802.11n capable router should extend it's range.

The lodger's laptop is I think old and French.

An expert friend in the profession has already twiddled around with it and tried to improve things. But I will ask him that question.