I have my Linksys WiFi router on the top floor of my house. My room is in the basement and I have a laptop there. When I’m near the the router or on the same floor I get a nice speed but when I’m in the basement the speed drops by half. What should I do ? Should I install the D-Link Wireless RangeBooster N Router (DIR-625) will that help? What can you suggest?
The basement is a very unfriendly place for a wireless signal. There are cables running through there and all sorts of
things that can mess it up. Now what you have is called a G router. G was the standard for a while until the smart guys in Silicon Valley came up with some called the N router.
Basically it’s a faster stronger version.
The N would give you more range down into the basement but keep in mind that your going to want to buy an N adapter card for your laptop. You can use an N router with the WiFi in your laptop now but it’s not gonna give you the full power of N.
If you don’t want to shell out that much money there is a slightly simpler router. Right now your laptop has it’s WiFi adapter hidden inside it’s body which will weaken the signal. You could buy an external antenna (such as a USB key or PCMCIA card) and that should boost it a little bit.
Something else I would recommend is buying a stronger antenna for your router. Many companies make these but I’ve heard that a small site called RadioLabs makes some pretty good ones. You can check them out here.
The Fake Geek