question wireless internet connection

[tremmor]

My parents have one wireless laptop. I was in NC and visiting and i suggested a wireless router. it was a linksys but don't know which model. they have others with cat5. the problem is one day they can get a good connection and shows high. next day it will be low wireless connection. then again there is other parts of the house they can not reach with the wireless. Why? i suspect is because the house is so big. its a ranch, no basement and no upstairs. the house is 5000 sq ft. the router is (linksys) about a 120 dollars.
i don't get there often enough, im about 600 mi away. but would you have any ideas or something that might be able to suggest and do different.

On the other hand if needed is there some kind of booster or something similar i might be able to get. i suspected it was maybe because of humidity. im not sure. i do know it is sweat hot always. On the otherhand the house is so big.

i know this is part of the problem mostly. the router is located all the way at one end of the house.
getting some kind of booster would work. any thoughts please.

 

[PohTayToez]

A lot of wireless routers and wireless access points can be set up to be "repeaters". A repeater simply takes a signal and sends it back out. If you set up repeaters on the edge of the range of your router, you will effectively extend the range of the entire network.

Rather than a single $120 router (which doesn't seem to be doing that great of a job), it would be better to have several reliable $30 routers than can be set up as repeaters to cover a larger property.

 

[tremmor]

i heard what ya said but a little confused about the repeater part. are you say buy more wireless routers? actually i have a 3com office and have logged in several times but do not see anything in there about a repeater.
Im guessing this is something that is dedicated.
sorry, could you explain a little more.

 

[PohTayToez]

i heard what ya said but a little confused about the repeater part. are you say buy more wireless routers? actually i have a 3com office and have logged in several times but do not see anything in there about a repeater.
Im guessing this is something that is dedicated.
sorry, could you explain a little more.

Well not all routers have the function built in. There are dedicated wireless repeaters you can buy, often called "wireless extenders", but they start at around $60 or $70.

 

[bomberboysk]

Well not all routers have the function built in. There are dedicated wireless repeaters you can buy, often called "wireless extenders", but they start at around $60 or $70.

If i remember correctly,if you toss dd-wrt on a WRT54G it can be effectively setup as a repeater, wrt54g's(you need the older ones, v4.0 or before because v5.0 and above dont have enough flash rom) can be had for relatively cheap on ebay and are very reliable(ive had my v1.1 since '03 and its been great)

 

[tremmor]

i decided and contacted other members of the family. they will install a wireless card on the other computer. i said to mount the router in the middle of the house with wireless and set up wep for the other. this will be the cheap way out. (maybe). love the quick response here. I thank you.