Wireless router range?!?!

[paulwhat]

hello im new but have read here LOTS!~ just got a new htc desire ...first smart phone

my dlink router is about 6-7 years old (hahaha) and works great except wireless isnt very strong.

i cant use wifi on my phone literally 20feet away out on my back porch and sometimes other spots in the house.. even just in the other room 10feet away

so obviously if i get a new router the range wil be alot better and i can use wi fi all over the house?

sorry for wrong section and thank you very much for ANY help!!

 

[Martimus]

Welcome to the Android Forums!

Wireless range is going to be dependent on the specific wireless device... and the antenna(s) being used. It's also dependent on the walls, impediments to the wireless signal, and sources of interference between the router and the location where you are trying to access the wireless network.

If you want stronger wireless, try to use a wireless router with external antennas. They will typically get better range than wireless routers with internal antennas. Another thing that can be done with a wireless router with external antennas is to possibly replace the external antennas with higher gain antennas. A third thing that you can do is to install a wireless network extender which is basically a bridge that connects to the existing wireless router and then re-generates and re-broadcasts the signal.

What model D-Link router do you currently use?

 

[andruoid]

I can highly recommend the TP-Link WR1043ND router, if its available in your area. many features to customize and the firmware is updated regularly (meaning more features and any security issues that come along are fixed). It has 3 detachable antennas. I purchased three TP-Link TL-ANT2408C which are 8dBi each as compared to the 3dBi that came with the router.

With a little tweaking and positioning i can connect up to 400ft away with my Android. A very weak signal but, it does give you the idea of the range. Throughout my house and most of my yard, I connect at 85% or higher.

A word of advice, unless you have 5GHz N or A rated devices, don't look at dual-band routers, they just cost more than they are worth. 5GHz routers offer more channels so technically they offer less interference with other devices in your neighbourhood. The router I mentioned above is single-band 2.4GHz. There are more than 10 other routers in reach and they don't cause any issues what-so-ever with my signal, probably because mine is kicking their signal due to it's strength ;-)

 

[mikedt]

I think a most of the time it depends on what your walls and floors are made of. My last place, I'm sure the walls where made from cardboard, and so where practically transparent to 2.4GHz WiFi. Current place, the walls and floors are steel reinforced concrete, WiFi just bounces off these, totally opaque. Can't even get a sniff of a signal in the apartment directly below mine, maybe 5 metres. If it wasn't for the windows the place would be an excellent Faraday Cage, even the front door is steel.

Metal foil lined plasterboard walls, commonly found in many modern places can be a major blocker of WiFi as well.

 

[Isthmus]

a Word on using an extender. they will re-transmit the original router wifi signal, but only at half the strength of whatever they are receiving. so for example, if you set up your repeater at a distance where you are getting half the original signal strength, you will retransmit only half of that, or a quarter of the original signal strength. you will get better coverage, but not necessarily a usable signal.

I second the advice on external antennas. Also the number of antennas will affect the range. IIRC the higher end models these days tend to come with about 6 antennas, though I've only ever seen that many with internal antennas.