Signal Degradation

Stairsnpairs

New Member
Hi. I have a situation in which I require some advice, please.

Basically, I have a house. I have a router located on the 2nd floor, front of the house. Throughout the house, the signal is excellent, with the speeds at 150Mbps. However, I have a shed in the backyard with a computer in it, and it does not receive an acceptable signal.

I have a cable modem connected to a router. I'm receiving 8Mbps downstream, 2Mbps upstream by my ISP. Confirmed by all three computers in house, connected wirelessly. The router does not have external antennas, and is set in b/g/n mode @ 2.4GHz, 20/40MHz bandwidth. I would move the router to the center of the house, however, with my current setup, it isn't feasible.

The computer in the shed contains a wireless PCI card, with two standard external antennas. Signal strength is good. However, the speed jumps from 15 Mbps to 60 Mbps constantly, usually it's at 15Mbps. In the house, the computer was at 150Mbps. Surfing the internet is fine sometimes, but, it d/c sometimes, and anything requiring medium to heavy network traffic is out of the question on this computer. Speedtest.net stated that this computer is at less than 1 Mbps down, upload speed is normal, after repeated tests in the shed. If I move the computer into the house, where it was previously, speeds are back to normal, and everything is perfect, as it was before I moved it.

I searched heavily on the internet, and in this forum, for repeater advice and higher gain antennas.

This is a rough sketch of my house lol



With my current setup, do you think it wise to purchase a wireless repeater, and place it in the grey spot in the picture to relay the signal? Will a repeater keep the speed 150Mbps speed and relay it? Or would it be more practical to purchase better antennas for the PCI card?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.
 
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If it was possible I would run an ethernet cable from the router to the shed. You would have to get outdoor cable and run it through pvc conduit to the shed.
 
Your suggestion is definitely possible, sounds fun, and is fun. But, I'm not drilling holes in the walls or floors again. Did that at my other house because I was skeptical of wireless, and well, I'm loving wireless now lol.

From what I could tell, it's cheaper to just buy a repeater, anyways. Not that price is really an issue, but, a repeater should be quite a simple solution, correct? No need for more wires. (besides the power cord)

Would a router/ repeater such as this be effective, do you suppose? The reviews seem in positive favor.

I would just purchase the repeater now, or purchase a router with antennas and attach high gain antennas, however, I research everything before I buy, I'm not exactly pressed for time, and I really like the setup (router) I have currently.
 
Alright, I'm quite sure that I'm going to buy this wireless repeater soon. I will buy the repeater, I will not have any more wires run.

I still have a few questions, as there are many conflicting articles on the internet, and none of my questions have been answered here; even through the "search" function.

The most basic question that I keep finding conflicting views on are router compatibility. Will a Belkin N router function with the above router, if the above router is in "repeater" mode, with the given firmware, at all?

The repeater will need to have the SSID set the same as the router, correct?

Finally; latency will increase, and speed will decrease by half, from 150 mbps to a theoretical speed of 75mbps, correct?
 
I'm sure any repeater will work with any router. After all, if they didn't, all router companies would also have to make a repeater and they don't that I know of. I've never used a repeater, I have used two routers together to increase wireless coverage.
 
I am certain a repeater would help in this situation, it would be worth the investment. Never used one before, but my friends have and they all had good feedback. But honestly this would be about the only logical option at this point.
 
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