cantenna

[jer446]

As i stated in another post, my aunt just got a new intel imac. She is terribly frustrated with it because the internet is sooo slow.. Her wireless signal is slow, but for some reason most of the time airport seems to have a decent connection.. I need to help her out before she throws the computer out the window.. She ahs a linksys wireless b router.
My question is, if i build one of those directional cantenna things, would it improve her speed? Her router has two antennas on it, so if i take one off, and attatch the cantenna to it, and point it in the direction of the imac, will it work? Can these cantennas work both ways, receiving the signal, and sending it out? I would assume both right? Any info would be great, because shes trying to spend as little as possible, and knows absolutely nothing about computers. Im going to make this for her it hink..

 

[OutThere]

Well if the wireless link is good already, there's no point in building a cantenna for it....it only improves the range of the antennas, not the speed. As long as the connection isn't dropping in and out, she probably just has a slow internet connection. Try plugging another computer directly into the router and comparing speed test results.

Use http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest

 

[ChrisA]

First off when you say "slow" can you put a number on that? Wht reates
are you seeing?

Try this simple test: Disconnect the router and plug the computer directly into the DSL modem. Is the connection stil slow?

if it is then getting a better wireless connection can't help. Teach her to "multitask", do something else while waiting.

if the connetion is much faster when wired then un-wired then something is wrong A god wireless connection shoul be 50+ Mbps which is faster then any DSL line.

As i stated in another post, my aunt just got a new intel imac. She is terribly frustrated with it because the internet is sooo slow.. Her wireless signal is slow, but for some reason most of the time airport seems to have a decent connection.. I need to help her out before she throws the computer out the window.. She ahs a linksys wireless b router.
My question is, if i build one of those directional cantenna things, would it improve her speed? Her router has two antennas on it, so if i take one off, and attatch the cantenna to it, and point it in the direction of the imac, will it work? Can these cantennas work both ways, receiving the signal, and sending it out? I would assume both right? Any info would be great, because shes trying to spend as little as possible, and knows absolutely nothing about computers. Im going to make this for her it hink..

 

[jer446]

she has cable.. not dsl.. and yes, i know her speed is fine because on every one of her other computers it is perfect.. and she does have computers that are on the wireless.. sometimes it the speed is fine, and sometimes the speed sucks

 

[nsknike]

Just wondering if this is a good speed. I just did the test from speakeasy.

36274 download and 4719 upload

 

[redeye be]

If it's occasional, and only on wireless, my guess is it's interference.
You could try changing the wireless channel on the router.

 

[belvdr]

If you do build an antenna, make sure to disable diversity on the router. Otherwise, you can have worse problems than you thought.