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Wireless router problem - very limited range - HELP!

Submitted by vetlady on January 16, 2006 - 3:01am. Hardware Hacks | Other Technology

Greetings to all,

I need some help from you wireless experts out there! Just installed my first wireless router, a Netgear Rangemax WPN824. Unfortunately, the range "maxes out" at about ten feet! I am obviously doing something wrong, or I am missing some piece of equipment.

I'm running a 1.2ghz iBook with Airport, and my Internet isp is Direcway if that makes a difference. Any ideas as to why my range would be so terribly limited with this supposedly high powered router? I've already covered all the basic stuff like having it located away from interference, metaql, etc. It's on my wooden desk right above my computer, and if I walk 10 feet out of the room the connectin is gone. My son's Dell PC receives signal upstairs several rooms away, but the signal is weak there too.

Please give me some help... I can't stand the thought of talking to their technical support group again!

Vetlady

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gobabushka's picture

what do you have it near?

Submitted by gobabushka on January 16, 2006 - 3:02am.

what do you have it near?

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Diego_Knyte's picture

Channel problem?

Submitted by Diego_Knyte on January 16, 2006 - 3:46am.

I was talking with out DSL tech about 2 weeks ago. Not the main topic but I told him about low signal strength from our DSL modem (includes wireless). He said that most wireless routers will default to channel 9. For some reason, switching the config to channel 1 or 11 would increase the signal strength. I didn't catch, or it didn't come up, if it's just our brand or if it's with all routers.

Give it a shot, who knows.

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simon_C's picture

correction, they default to c

Submitted by simon_C on January 19, 2006 - 12:18am.

correction, they default to channel 6

there could be a load of different things. i suggest swapping the channel to 9.... or any other channel than 6 make sure the antennas are all connected correctly (even inside the router, take it apart iif you need to. my old rouer had a shoddy signal... turned out to be a disconnected internal antenna wire)

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Whosawhatsis's picture

May be an obvious question, b

Submitted by Whosawhatsis on January 23, 2006 - 5:23am.

May be an obvious question, but have you tried turning on interference robustness? I was trying to use a linksys earlier today that would only give a very weak signal that never lasted long enough to connect from two meters away until I turned on interference robustness. Ideally, you don't want to have to use it all the time, but at the very least it can help you diagnose the problem.

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