wifi woes

[dakegra]

O GRATE LJ HIVEMIND! I have a Question!

Right. I've got a router, see? It's downstairs, in the dining room. Location is pretty non-negotiable as it's near the phone point and it's up on top of the dresser out of the way.

I've also got a laptop upstairs. The connection is *very* flaky, and I often end up with speeds of 1Mbps betwixt router and laptop. Warcrack dropped connection half a dozen times last night.

The laptop has built-in wifi, and if you shuffle it round on the desk, you *sometimes* get a better signal. Trouble is, line-of-sight between router and laptop involves internal supporting walls and a kind of pillar thing which I suspect has metal in it.

What can I do?

Laptop location is also fairly non-negotiable - there's only room for the desk where it is, and the desk contains laptop + external monitor + other bits, so it only really fits where it is.

I'm wondering if a USB dongle wifi thing would help, as I could fit it to a USB extension cable and kind of lob it out towards the doorway when using the laptop.

Thoughts/comments/queries/abuse/cakes/coffee to the usual adress, please.

Comments

[dilerium.livejournal.com]

I found that a USB dongle (in my PC) is much more flakey than the internal wifi in my Macbook. I can quite happily go round the house with the mac but needed almost line of sight (armchair in the way), to get any sensible connection with the PC.

I know a friend almost resorted to drilling a hole in the wall to get a cable between his router and PC (one wall, 5 ft between dongle and router), but his laptop will work anywhere in the house. He solved the problem by getting a new router.