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I meant to ask this earlier, but have only just remembered.
My brother has trouble getting a strong wifi signal from the area of his house furthest away from the wireless router and wants to know how to strengthen the signal.
I suggested he buys bigger antennae for the box (may not work) or splashes out on a powerline adapter (which will).
I have no need for such a device so have no experience using them, but I am sure the intelligentsia can offer a few suggestions as to which one to recommend to him.
Are they simple to use and install? (He will be doing that, I shall be elsewhere) and are they safe should there be a power surge?
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I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
CCC Link[ ^]
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Have him try a WiFi Repeater[^].
Bob Dole The internet is a great way to get on the net.
 2.0.82.7292 SP6a
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I believe his router is from sky and I am pretty sure it doesn't have a WPS button.
Remember, this is a muggle doing it without my help.
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I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
CCC Link[ ^]
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Sounds like that is the way to go then.
I shall send him up to his local PC World forthwith (If not sooner).
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I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
CCC Link[ ^]
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I should know better!
But good response 
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I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
CCC Link[ ^]
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Or an even better receiver[^]
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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Or he can go small and low-tech, building one of these reflectors. 30 minutes might be worth the effort.
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/Ez-10/[^]
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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He should get a smaller house.
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Probably not an option
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I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
CCC Link[ ^]
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I use a powerline adapter and it works fine between a PC and a PS3 where wifi was pathetic. It is dead simple to set up, even with my almost non existent networking knowledge.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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He should first check if he is able to boost the signal strength by going into the settings for the router. Mine gives me a drop-down list with values from 25 mW to 400 mW. It was set to the highest by default, so if that is the norm, then that will not do much good.
Here is an example where the power level setting is simply numbered from 1 to 10. http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20013383-Increase-the-WiFi-power-of-your-2Wire-2700HGB[^]
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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Altering the length of the antenna will not necessarily work. The antenna used on both sending and receiving devices is "tuned" to the frequency of the carrier signal (details: it should be either one quarter wavelength or 3/4 wavelength at the speed of light).
My recommendation is to somehow move the devices closer together or buy a repeater or second hot spot. I am about to do this myself and haven't figured out why there is a vast range of price for similar boxes. I am looking for one that has several cat 5 ports at 10/100/1000 and firewall and hot spot. The price range is $39 through $200+ for similar functionality as described on the packaging.
--
Harvey
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A number of inexpensive wireless routers can be configured for repeater duty. I'd recommend that course first, as few devices these days offer an external antenna connector. While you might not be able to be there with him, I'm sure you can download a pdf of the manual and walk him through the configuration over the phone.
Will Rogers never met me.
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If he's looking for a cheap solution, he could always try this[^]
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Like others have suggested the antenna should work, but also check the location of the router. It should be away from cordless phone / microwave oven. also try changing the wifi channel on the router, sometimes it has interference from neighbours wifi / your own cordless phone. Also it should be higher from the floor and away from the wall. 
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Though people have said this in other posts:
Normally, antennae are tuned to the frequency of the signal they produce, fitting a different sized one is likely to drop the signal strength. If you have a spare or cheap wireless router you can turn it into a repeater. The router might support this out the box, if it doesn't you can upgrade the firmware. This article[^] gives an overview of doing this (with one of the WRT variants in the article, you could also consider Tomato[^])
The other thing I have heard (but don't know if it is true) is that the firmware on the router restricts the output power. There may be an option to boost the power, or possibly your could replace the firmware with the above. If you do decide to flash a router, make sure you check the compatibility list for the firmware you are using. Also flashing like this will invalidate the warranty, in case your friend worries about such things.
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Thanks.
It is a very old router so I think out of warranty, but the easiest method seems to be the Repeater as suggested above.
It is only because his router is in the hallway at the front of the house and he has very little signal in the diametrically opposite side of his house (wherein his daughter has her bedroom).
For the sake of a few quid he has an easy and simple to install solution.
But thanks for the information, I like learning new things and that taught me a load of stuff I never even knew that I didn't know about!
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I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
CCC Link[ ^]
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