Wireless network

[Observer]

My sons complain that wireless network signal for the PS3 in basement room (router is in the study on ground floor) keeps dropping off. They say it's my gateway/router, which admittedly is quite old. But I don't want to replace it until I'm sure it will improve matters.

Alternative I'm considering is a pair of powerline adapters.

Any advice on which of the above is more likely to fix the problem?

And - in order for the powerline adapters to work, do they have to be on the same circuit (my basement is on a different ring circuit to the study)

 

[holmslaw]

This might not be a wireless problem.

Recently had a similar problem, speed would be ok for a week or so and then dramatically drop off. My isp advised me to get a new router and that cured the problem. Apparently old routers are designed to constantly try to improve the broadband speed and this conflicts with the BT equipment that is trying to do the same thing, its a quirk in the way uk broadband works.

If you go to broadbandchoices you can download a speedhecker that can be set to check your speed every hour. This will determine whether its a wireless or wired problem.

I bought a netgear DG834Gv4 about £40, its the v4 bit that makes the difference.

 

[cjard]

orienting the router aerials so that they properly serve the basement would be a good start. Putting a wired link (CAT5 ethernet cable) down there would solve the problem entirely

 

[Donkmeister]

Have you tried changing the channel on the wireless router? The 2.4GHz spectrum is very congested with cordless phones, AV repeaters, wireless networks etc. Chances are your neighbours have routers on the same or nearby channels.

Go into the router config and change the wireless channel to 1 or 13 (i.e. at the ends of the available spectrum) and you may find less drop-outs. There may also be an option to increase the transmission power.

If that doesn't work, does the PS3 have an external (i.e. removable) antenna? If so, you could upgrade that and the router antenna to higher gain varieties.

In my experience; a friend's broadband dropped out completely, and it turned out to be down to a neighbour (on the other side of her living room wall) buying a new AV sender that was completely overwhelming her wireless signal!!! Fortunately this sender could be retuned down to channel 1, and she retuned her router to channel 13, then it worked just fine.

 

[kjacko]

powerline adaptors are quite good, they are not guaranteed to work across ring mains.
They are also a lot more expensive than a new wireless router.

You could get a wireless extender/access point. i just bought 2 belkin ones for £35 each. They can act as either an access point that plugs into your wired network, or as a wireless extender that synchs with your wirless router and extends the signal from wherever it is plugged into the mains.

 

[mattylad]

If your able to run a CAT5 cable from the router to the PS3 that will make a whole world of difference, especially for consol gaming.