Router Issues

[MJM]

Looking for some help guys....

Recently purchased and moved into a new house. I need to have the modem and direct wire for my internet downstairs. Problem is, my home office is upstairs. Now I went ot future shop and bought a Linksys Wireless-N Broadband Router. The guy at Future Shop told me it should do the trick because there are only two connections (there was a better version of the router for $150 - Mine was $100). So I take it home and set it up, and the connection upstairs absolutely sucks!. It's very low and near impossible to stream anything. If I go back and purchase the Dual Wireless-N Broadband Router, will it make a difference on signal strenght or am I wasting my time? Any other suggestions?

Thanks. Your help is greatly appreciated.

[temple5]

Is your wireless card an N variant? Unless its brand new its likely G only.

The router wont upconvert the speed you get to your card. Its a max card based on N variant hardware.

G gets you roughly 40mbps max real world. If you have an N router and a G NIC then you get G speeds. You can stream (non HD) with G speeds but you need to modify your router with specialized packet prioritization. If you had a Linksys G router I would suggest a few open source firmware. But I would get an N variant NIC if I were you.

[MJM]

Originally Posted by temple5

Is your wireless card an N variant? Unless its brand new its likely G only.

The router wont upconvert the speed you get to your card. Its a max card based on N variant hardware.

G gets you roughly 40mbps max real world. If you have an N router and a G NIC then you get G speeds. You can stream (non HD) with G speeds but you need to modify your router with specialized packet prioritization. If you had a Linksys G router I would suggest a few open source firmware. But I would get an N variant NIC if I were you.

I have an N router and an N network adapter.

[Rathji]

Is your NIC dual band as well? If it does, my experience has shown that on a congested network it will help slightly increase speeds. It could do the same thing with the interference you are experiencing, however it is really just a guess.

A better alternative would be hard wiring your connection to the upstairs and using your router there. Most new houses, and even some of those built up to 10 years ago use Cat5 (5e/6) twisted pair for phone lines. If yours doesn't you could examine doing a pull of Cat 5 yourself.

[sclitheroe]

N is actually shorter range overall than G, particularly if its operating in the 5ghz band, which penetrates walls less effectively.

So for starters, see if you can lock the router down to 2.4 ghz, if its operating on 5ghz