Poor wifi signal

[ladybird69]

Hi I have virginmedia and the 'box' is in my lounge but when I'm upstairs in study the signal is awful, computer and iPhone picks up all my neighbours signals before mine! Is this a problem with virgin or my computer/phone? It's so frustrating TIA

Wifi signal issues are really hard to pin point sometimes.

You can try changing channel thar your router is on. Sometimes they can clash if yours and neighbours on same one,but might just be a thick wall, joist or something in your house coupled with a neighbour's router nearby.

I'd recommend a homeplug. They plug into your router, then another one in the other room to your computer. The phone is trickier.

I have a patch in this house I don't get wireless signal.

Thanks for your replies. It's strange the rooms aren't far away from each other and it's a newish house so no thick walls!!! I'll take a look at maplins website and see what they do. Hmmm phone is on EE and signal is very poor but thought wifi would work off router.
Thanks

I'm with Virgin and have the same problem. It has only been in the last few weeks that I have been losing the signal whilst mnetting in bed. I did upgrade my phone around this time so I wondered if that was the problem.

I haven't updated my phone yet cause I'd heard that. I just find it strange I get all my neighbours signals but not mine in my own 4 walls.

I would try:

Repositioning wifi

Changing wifi channel

There may be an App for your phone that can show you the different wireless signals and from that it may be easy to decide a channel which isn't in use, or a gap between two other 'strong' signals from neighbours.

From what I've seen, many routers automatically use channels 1 , 6 , or 11 (Sometimes a router generates several signals on the same channel, such as a BT router, one for the customer, and a public signal for other BT Internet users as part of the 'FON' wireless service.)

I took a snapshot from my mobile and have posted it. Normally there are signals from someone using BT, someone else using Sky on channel 1, and someone using TalkTalk on channel 6. I therefore set up my router (BWlan) on channel 4, as I didn't want it to be swamped by the other signals (I am upstairs at the back, while the router is downstairs, at the front of the house).

Being able to see (or get a list of channel numbers in use) may help you sort it out in 5 minutes. You'd need to get into the command menu for the rouer and change the wireless networking from 'automatic' to 'manual', and then decide the channel number based on which channels are being used.

For PCs (Win 7, Vista) there is Xirrus WiFi Inspector which will tell you about other local WiFi networks.

Not as pretty a channel graph alas but it may help to identify issues.

Watch the video tutorial on the Xirrus website.

Don't know about virgin media but wifi is generally a/b/g or n. N comes in n150, n300 and a few others numbers I think. I saw a huge improvement when I changed from an old a/b/g to an n300 router. The signal goes a lot further. Your computer etc must be n compatible or it will still run at a/b/g speed tho.

Thanks for all your advice. I'm such a technophobe I don't know if I'd trust myself to try and find diff channels on router. I can barely tune in tv channels! Thanks tho

If you want a better connection, you might have to "get technical" :)

I mentioned this to Virgin a couple of days ago when I rang them to change my package. I was told that it was because I was using an older box (can't think of the correct term) and they would send me a newer one for free. Although I haven't received it yet it might be worth a try op.

My box is only 12 months old so I doubt it's that. Just needs bit more umph

Yay I did it got a home plug as mumtee suggested and after a bit of a faff did it! I'm now wifi-d all over the house. Thanks for all your replies and recommending net gear home plug and maplins staff who explained it step by step.

Sorry and unleash suggested it to.

Haha here's hoping Unleash