Just installed a wireless router so I can acces the web from an old computer we have. It's a Linksys, with the same brand USB adapter on the old PC. It works OK, but it shows the signal as being about half of what it looks like it could be. It's one of those bar graph deals and only shows about half of the bars lit up. I've fiddled with the antennae and have gotten no better results.

Question:

Will a stronger signal mean faster internet on the old PC? Speed is acceptable, but not as fast as the hard wired one. I have DSL. Thanks!

PS Any suggestions for getting a stronger signal?

how far with the router from the PC? Any obstructions?

The DSL link is probably the slowest link even with a reduced signal.... so you may not get more speed over the internet with a better signal, but you would from pc to pc on the local network.

Try changing the channel by default most wireless routers ship set to channel 6. Change it up it might improve.

Also, make sure that you are using the latest drivers and firmware for the device, sometimes the CD that ships is WAY out of date.

one thing that's always worth a try is to go to the manufacturers website support / downloads / drivers section and see if you can get an updated driver for the usb wireless adapter.

When we did my wife's PC, it would not work very well until I got an updated driver. Is also a linksys.

how far with the router from the PC? Any obstructions?

The DSL link is probably the slowest link even with a reduced signal.... so you may not get more speed over the internet with a better signal, but you would from pc to pc on the local network.

As the crow flies, 20 ft. tops. The router is one floor above the old pc, so a floor and a wall or two is in the way.

Oh yeah - can I access the hard drives from one computer to other with thing, as long as both computers are turned on? I just assumed this was an internet link only. Forgive me, but am a computer idjit.

1. you might need to get a better antena for the adapter, especially to go through floors and walls.
2. you can access the hard drives be sharing them.

my wirelss starts to drop off at 20' too Al, the closer your PC is to the Linkys antenna the better. Mine shows half of the green bars in my office about 20' away, in my living room at 10' away its full strength. My antenna is in the basement so the signal is going thru the floor and walls and home wiring and duct work etc. it all interfers to a degree with the signal. sharing between computers is possible but its a headache if they are not all the same operating system. Win98 is touchy trying to read a WinXP system.

Thanks, guys.

I won't even try sharing the hard drives - one computer has XP and the other has ME, which is touchy just all by itself.

Thanks, guys.

I won't even try sharing the hard drives - one computer has XP and the other has ME, which is touchy just all by itself.

I upgraded my ME to XP along time ago. ME was a real PITA!

What model router are you using. Many flavors and speed these days.

What speed in Mb/s are you showing on the signal? Are the wireless card and the router both the same series, B,A,G, or the newer style 108 Mb/sec? I have a Linksys WRT54G router and a Belkin Nic, I get 30-54 Mb/sec anywhere in the house. I still get over 10 Mb/sec sitting in my van 400 feet down my driveway in a pouring rain. I can only guess that there is an issue with some of these routers or some other mismatch. I have installed many Linksys wireless routers and never had a signal drop like you mention but I have read about this problem before. 20 feet away in the same room should not show much/ any signal drop. At that rate the router would only be useful in 1 room.

At any rate 10 Mb/sec is still probably faster than your broadband connection which is usually 1.5-6.0 Mb/sec.

My wireless router is in the basement. I get a good signal anywhere in the basement, even through walls, but if I go upstairs it is marginal.

BPOS,
All of the above suggestions are great. On your computer, press "Ctrl-Alt-Del" to bring up the Task Manager. Then select the Networking tab. You should see a speed associated with your wireless network. If the number is greater than say 11Mbps, then your wireless link is functioning faster than your DSL connection.
There are alot of things that can happen when you fire up a wireless connection that would inhibit it from working at full speed...I would address them in the following order.
1. Firmware - This is akin to updating drivers.
- Goto linksys.com and download the latest firmware from the support page for your specific model which should be on the front or bottom of the router. Just because you bought it at the store, doesn't mean it has the latest firmware installed. Save the file to your desktop.
- Access your router at 192.168.1.1 and find the Admin page where you browse for and upload the firmware.
2. Is someone with low character (like Buck) using your wireless connection without your permission or knowledge?
- Access the router at http://192.168.1.1 For a linksys, the default username is "admin" and password is blank. (Change that.)
- Use the highest level of encryption supported by your router. WPA2, AES, or WEP if it is the only choice.
- Turn off "Broadcast SSID".
- Enable MAC address filtering and input the MAC address of your computer as the only computer allowed.
3. Are you experiencing interference that would affect the signal?
- Change the channel from the default of 6
- Common interference comes from cordless phones and microwaves. Try turning off your cordless phones to see if the signal is any better.

Accessing the hard drives from one to the other is not hard. Generally speaking it is best not to share the root drive (C:/), but if you wanted to share My Documents between computers, simply right click it, select Properties, and the "Sharing" tab. From there, you can select "Share this file on the Network". From the other computer you can then see that folder in the "My Network Places" location.

Hope this helps,
Scott

OK - heres the scoop.

My router is a Linksys Wireless-G with Speedbooster model WRT54GS

My adapter is Liksys Wireless-G USB model WUSB54GC

Ctr-Alt-Del doesn't bring up tak manager on Windows ME, but according to the Linksys icon at the bottom of the screen my transfer rate fluctuates between 48-54 mbps.

It does seem to work quite well - I was just wondering if a stronger signal would make it work faster.

When I initially set it up, I spent HOURS on the phone with Linksys tech support trying to get the router configured. They told me after about the first hour that my router was for a wired system, not wireless - boy was I pissed. As I said, I'm not very computer savvy. Neither were they!

Anyway - thanks for all the help and suggestions!

BPOS,
You are not going to get better than 54Mbps with .11g protocol ("SpeedBooster" is supposed to get 108 through channel pairing, but that is not typical and only works on channel 6 I believe)...plus 54 Mbps is faster than your DSL connection to the internet. Typical speeds of a .11g protocol are 24-36 Mbps, but yours seems to be doing very well at 48-54. I wouldn't worry about the bars if you are getting a good transfer rate.

Not sure how you have your antennaes are pointed, but if you could "see" the the transmission from the antennae, the lobes would look like a "donut" sort of with the antennae sitting in the middle. The weakest signal is directly above and below the antennae. Since you said the computers were on different floors, you could angle the antennae a little to perhaps strengthen the signal.

Something else I thought of was that the wireless device you have is a USB device. I'm not sure how old the computer is, but since it has Windows ME installed, the computer USB port may only be a USB 1.1 vs. the newer USB 2.0 protocol. I believe that the USB 1.1 speed is in the neighborhood of 11 Mbps and USB 2.0 is 400 MBps or something really fast.
Essentially, your connection/download speed is limited by the slowest piece of equipment you have in the circuit. It may be the USB port in this case, which is why you think it downloads pages slower than the computer that is directly connected to the router.

Of course, I'm an idjit too... take my nonsense for what it's worth. :)

Hope you get it working the way you want.

Please do the security steps I mentioned above if you haven't already. Even if they don't speed up the connection, they keep the savvy teenage neighbor from a.) accessing your bandwidth, b.) messing with/observing your data. If you live in an urban environment, I'm sure that if you looked at the "View Available Networks" page from your remote computer, you would see several of your neighbors' unsecured access points. Actually this would be a good test for your "not many bars" problem...If you look at other access points around, yours should be at least the strongest.



-Scott

Thanks for your help, Scott. I did set it up with WEP - whatever that is. I think it keeps the neighbors out, though.

PS Yes, the ME computer is old. 750 GHZ AMD Duron - again, whatever that means.

Please don't enable the security settings. I work in residential neighborhoods and enjoy being able to get on-line between jobs. :D