Boost wi-fi just a teeny little bit?


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Has anyone here ever found any wifi boosting tips that actually work?

 

I'm running a fairly nice router, a WNDR3700v2, with Gargoyle/OpenWRT and the transmission power set to max.  It's in the second floor of my house.  I smoke in the shed outside a lot, and I like to bring my phone and watch TV shows while I do.  With my old Motorola Atrix, this was no problem, I could stream videos from my wired desktop's SAMBA share through the router, wirelessly to the shed, even though the signal was about -75dB.  

 

But now I have a new Samsung Galaxy S3, and for whatever reason, it just can't quite do it as well as the Atrix can.  Depending on the bitrate of the video being streamed, it stutters (a 1-5 second pause) every 30-60s of video playback for a high bitrate 720p mkv, and it can even stutter every few minutes for low bitrate SD movies.  The Atrix did not have this problem.  According to the Galaxy S3, it is getting a signal of about -80 to -85dB, so I have a feeling it is the different wireless technology in the new phone causing the issue.  I don't know why my newer phone is getting a slightly weaker signal, but it is unable to maintain smooth video playback because of it.

 

In the meantime, I just pre-load the video I want to watch onto the phone before I go out.  But if anyone has any ideas on how I can solve this problem, I'd love to hear em!

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case removed from S3?

Using 2.4GHz not a 5.8GHz signal? range is vasty reduced with 5.8GHz.

cantenna/parabolic reflectors if you have external antennas, should give you 3-6dB gain, but it'll be focused.

Wifi repeater (replace WNDR with another router, then use the WNDR with openwrt as repeater if need be) or one the apple/dlink/??? sells. You need power in your shed though, and it gotta be OK repeating a -75 to -85dB signal which may be too low for it.

 

You can also buy WIfi signal boosters & directional antennas, found them to be hit and miss, especially if ordered from eBay/china

 

If none of that works you can run a CAT5e line out there, doe PoE which runs power on the same CAT5e as your network traffic and get any other router and setup as a 2nd wifi hotspot. Same SSID and Pass should seamlessly switch to the better signal.

 

Hope this helps. Theres no real straight forward solution.

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But if anyone has any ideas on how I can solve this problem, I'd love to hear em!

 

Stop smoking?  :rofl: however on a serious note maybe get an access point and put it on the window ledge, or move your current router close to the window if possible (presuming your shed is at the bottom of the garden).

 

I have a few TL-WR703N's which i got for ?12 each, flashed Open-WRT on them and they make great little access points.

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case removed from S3?

Using 2.4GHz not a 5.8GHz signal? range is vasty reduced with 5.8GHz.

cantenna/parabolic reflectors if you have external antennas, should give you 3-6dB gain, but it'll be focused.

Wifi repeater (replace WNDR with another router, then use the WNDR with openwrt as repeater if need be) or one the apple/dlink/??? sells. You need power in your shed though, and it gotta be OK repeating a -75 to -85dB signal which may be too low for it.

 

You can also buy WIfi signal boosters & directional antennas, found them to be hit and miss, especially if ordered from eBay/china

 

If none of that works you can run a CAT5e line out there, doe PoE which runs power on the same CAT5e as your network traffic and get any other router and setup as a 2nd wifi hotspot. Same SSID and Pass should seamlessly switch to the better signal.

 

Hope this helps. Theres no real straight forward solution.

 

The plastic case makes no difference on the S3.  I did, however, once stupidly buy a cool looking metal case, thinking it was aluminum or something.  Nope, just ferrous steel, blocking every signal that tried to get near my phone.  But that case is long gone.

 

I don't have external antennae, and this particular router is one of the newer designs where the copper antenna pads on the PCB are of a very specific shape and surface area so as to be a fraction of the wavelength, or something, so adding external antennae is out of the question :(

 

 

Stop smoking?  :rofl: however on a serious note maybe get an access point and put it on the window ledge, or move your current router close to the window if possible (presuming your shed is at the bottom of the garden).

 

I have a few TL-WR703N's which i got for ?12 each, flashed Open-WRT on them and they make great little access points.

 

I might have a spare wifi router kicking around (the type that has no ethernet ports, only wifi, is that called an access point? i don't know), I can just flash OpenWRT and make it a repeater?  The shed DOES have power, so if a proper AP can receive the signal better, I might be able to put that on the near end of the shed, and it can boost it to the far end of the shed where I sit.

 

Thanks!

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There is no such thing as a wifi router without an ethernet port -- and no can not be an AP either, maybe a "repeater -- but how are you suppose to configure the thing?  What is the model number of this device that is wifi something without even 1 ethernet port?

 

As suggested I would get something to use an AP, and wire it to your current router and put it closer to your shed.  Or if shed has power then you could fire up an old wifi router in repeater mode sure - but that just /2 your wireless bandwidth and would prob not correct your issue if on stuttering video to be honest.  If a repeater can get a good connection then /2 might not be such an issue.  But if it doesn't get a very good connection and then you /2 it just going to make for less bandwidth even if your phone now shows full bars connected to the repeater..

 

Anyway to run a wire out to the shed - or you mention power out there, so would powerline network adapters could be an option?  Then connect your AP out there and you would be rocking with Full wireless in the shed and wired connectivity back to your main router over the powerline adapters.

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There is no such thing as a wifi router without an ethernet port -- and no can not be an AP either, maybe a "repeater -- but how are you suppose to configure the thing?  What is the model number of this device that is wifi something without even 1 ethernet port?

 

As suggested I would get something to use an AP, and wire it to your current router and put it closer to your shed.  Or if shed has power then you could fire up an old wifi router in repeater mode sure - but that just /2 your wireless bandwidth and would prob not correct your issue if on stuttering video to be honest.  If a repeater can get a good connection then /2 might not be such an issue.  But if it doesn't get a very good connection and then you /2 it just going to make for less bandwidth even if your phone now shows full bars connected to the repeater..

 

Anyway to run a wire out to the shed - or you mention power out there, so would powerline network adapters could be an option?  Then connect your AP out there and you would be rocking with Full wireless in the shed and wired connectivity back to your main router over the powerline adapters.

 

When I said "no ethernet ports", i meant except the client port.  there are no ethernet host ports.  I mistakenly said I'd put it in the shed, there's no ethernet there.  Maybe putting it on the 1st floor would be closer?  I would think it would be weaker though, they say to keep your wireless high up.

 

I really don't feel like wiring ethernet all the way out there, I can't imagine anywhere I could hide the cable other than burying it underground, which would be messy and a lot of work.

 

I don't think Ethernet-over-Power would work.  A) Because we are already using that to connect a solar panel data collector (which has to be sitting right next to the fuse box, where there is no ethernet) to the router, and I don't think you can use two EoP's at once, and B) because it would be a huge distance of wire to travel, from my 2nd storey to the fuse box then out to the shed.

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1: 

 

 

and the transmission power set to max

 

This is not necessarily going to help. It might even make it worse

 

2: Wi-Fi is 2 way, so just because your router can reach the shed, doesn't mean the adapter on the other end has enough power to send back to the router....

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^ very true..  Also some models max is hard coded, and trying update it in software doesn't do anything.  As to more than 1 powerline adapter - who says you can not run more than 1 set?

 

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/20233/~/product-faqs-%3A-powerline-adapters.

How many Powerline adapters can I add to my network?

Depending on your Powerline model, you can connect from 15 to 64 nodes. 

Can I have multiple Powerline networks on the same electrical wiring?

Yes, using passcodes, it's possible to have multiple networks in the same building. However, the overall throughput is shared by the multiple networks.

 

As to distance - I can not find any documented limit, are you talking miles or a couple hundred feet?

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