Networking advice

[Oktober]

Morning ladies and gents, how are well all?

I have a small problem with my iMac dropping its connection with our Linksys Cisco WAG160N which is in my bedroom upstairs and router downstairs mounted on the wall. I think the problem is that the signal is been lost between the two, due to, interference (we have wireless phones, microwaves etc) distance, think stone walls, etc. But my dad, in the room next door to mine has a usb dongle (came with router) has similar problems with his PC not connecting to the internet - dropouts.

As far fas I can tell the are both set-up correctly.

So I thought about running masses of cat5 ethernet cable from the WAG160N to my room - but how unsightly would that be and also costly. Then I heard about "PowerLine" and "Range Extenders" adapters from the Channel 5 program The Gadget Show - http://fwd.channel5.com/gadget-show/videos/feature/internet-around-the-home

So I want your advice on what you might recommend to perhaps solve the problem we are having.

Thanks

Darren

iMac running Snow Leopard 10.6.8
PC running Windows 7 home

 

[miles01110]

Depends on what you mean by expensive. Depending on how big your house is, I don't think running a few CAT5 cables up one floor would cost more than $100 plus an hour or two of your time, depending on how nice you want it to look.

 

[Macman45]

Buy a better quality wireless router....A gigabit model preferably capable of operating on both GHZ bands.

I use a Draytek personally, and a TC for the 5GHZ IOS devices. The bottom line is that not all routers are created equal.

The cable fix is ugly, but a tad cheaper.....I'd change my router.

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

Been here, done that......

Had the same problem in my multi-level home. My 54G Router & desktop are downstairs on the ground level, I could get a signal in the 2nd level living room most of the time, but not in the bedrooms or anywhere else, even with the router mounted up in the floor joists above the office.

So I got a N300extreme capable router & the problem is GONE...... I now get 5 bars out on the 3rd floor deck @the complete opposite end of the house. And this is in the center of a college town, with tons of students, dorms & businesses surrounding me..............

 

[MorphingDragon]

Linksys are horrible for random cutouts in my experience and have rather sub-par antennae. Cisco products themselves are fine though.

I use TP-Link equipment, gets nice range on their newer products.

 

[Oktober]

Thanks for your replies.

I have heard of Draytek routers before and have heard very good things about them. I think we just need a better/more powerful router rather than running ethernet cable around the house.