dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
5201
deivegru1
join:2013-06-26

deivegru1

Member

Increasing Reach of Router Question - Asus Black Knight (RT-N66U)

A while back I posted about some slow speeds I was getting from my Internet connection, and one of the things I learned was that I had a really outdated router and needed to upgrade. After some research, I ended up with the Asus RT-N66U. It's worked great for the past few months, however I'm finding recently that I'm losing reception in some rooms of the house (2600sq ft). While I am connected to the router (and henceforth my internet connection), I sometimes need to "turn off and on" my wifi on a device (iPad 2) to get it to connect and allow me to browse.

I've also got a home media PC that streams to iPads, Apple TV's, etc throughout the house. SD connect streams perfectly, HD content will sometimes work, and sometimes stutter. The PC is connected to the router directly with an ethernet cable, all other devices are wifi (however HD works pefectly on the AppleTV / iPad when I stream from youtube/Itunes trailers/etc.

Is there anything I can do on the router side of the equation to help with the performance issues? Upgrading my 2 year old media PC is out of the question (from a budget perspective it's tight right now as the wife is on mat leave with a little one at home so this isn't a top priority for her) but it's never been an issue on performance in the past.

All suggestions are welcome -- I'm hoping this is the right forum, candidly it's the only forum I go to on the site so if I'm in the wrong place let me know where to post this!

Thanks!
balur
join:2010-04-28

balur

Member

Hi deivegru,

From a purely software perspective not really make sure your firmware update (i'd use the merlin builds »www.lostrealm.ca/tower/node/79)

If you have the money to spare you can try to put on better antennas, buy a repeater. You could also try to relocate the router to a more central location (if its an option)
grafix9
join:2006-03-11
Montreal, QC

2 edits

grafix9 to deivegru1

Member

to deivegru1
Hi,

If you haven't done so already begin by installing a tool like wifi analyzer -- however after researching a little on my own wifi analyzer tools are no longer available for the iPad -- so if you have an android device you might consider installing wifi analyzer. gives you a decent picture of what's happening in your wifi neighbourhood. its a free app adware supported and very unobtrusive adware imho.

As for cheap signal boosting theres the beer box booster That gave me a 5db boost in my 800sqft apartment. here's a link to a tekzilla episode featuring the beer box booster, but it's as simple as halving a 12 bottle beer box vertically on the diagonal, wrapping the interior with aluminum foil and placing your wifi router within the resulting foil walls.

here's a link to the tekzilla video showing the beer box booster: »revision3.com/tekzilla/h ··· ng-guide

You can do the same thing with a giant can, like a restaurant size can of tomatoes, cutting the can in half vertically, but that's a bit more of a chore to do a clean job.

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz to deivegru1

MVM

to deivegru1
You can buy an additional identical router, place the two routers at a good distance from each other (not in the same room, as in opposite sides of the house or something), connect them via ethernet, pick one of them as the "master" (that performs DHCP and actual routing), configure the second as an access-point only, but use the same SSID and identical security settings, except on a different frequency. Devices will then consider the different access points to be gateways to the same underlying network, and will roam between them depending on which access point has a stronger signal.

Fraoch
join:2003-08-01
Cambridge, ON
SmartRG SR808ac
TP-Link EAP225
Grandstream HT502

Fraoch to deivegru1

Member

to deivegru1
said by deivegru1:

It's worked great for the past few months, however I'm finding recently that I'm losing reception in some rooms of the house (2600sq ft).

Did you do a firmware update? ASUS recently lowered the transmit power by about 10 dB in light of a lawsuit from Netgear that alleges their production units exceed the power output of the unit sent to the FCC for conformance testing.

So either keep the .27x firmware or use Merlin's experimental firmware with the SDK5 wireless driver.

»forums.smallnetbuilder.c ··· ?t=13461