My wireless internet service cuts in and out unpredictably.

[sabrinamari]

Sometimes I can't get the signal in my room at all.

How can I fix this problem?

Can I boost the signal?

How do those of you with wireless handle this problem?

Comments

[cernunnos1956.livejournal.com]

The only thing I can think of is to try to be near a window? Wireless signals don't seem to go thru walls very well sometimes. Who is your carrier? Verizon seems to be the best and most reliable one that I have found so far.
BTW, I sent you an e-mail earlier.

*Hugs*

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

Is it always poor, or sometimes good and sometime nonexistent?

If it's always poor, try moving your wireless hub to a better location -- higher, closer, or a better approximation of line-of-sight to your bedroom.

If it's sometimes good and sometimes nonexistent, the answer is probably interference. Some modern-ish cordless phones (the ones in the 2.4 GHz band) can severely interfere with wireless. If you or one of your neighbors has one, that could be the culprit. If it's you, there are options for helping with it. If it's your neighbor, that could be a real challenge.

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

It's "sometimes good and sometimes nonexistent".

Often it happens when no one is on the phone in my house. What do you suggest?

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

Thank you. You are wonderful.

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

When you say "nonexistent," do you mean "boy, this totally sucks," or "I look at my little wireless strength indicator at the upper right of my screen, and it shows that I have none"?

The wireless strength indicator is a series of little arcs, small at the bottom, and big at the top, and the number of black ones shows how much signal you have. When you click on it, it should say "Airport: On" and other things like that.

If you don't have a wireless indicator there, let me know, and I'll walk you through fixing that.

If the answer is "the indicator tells me I have no signal," I first suggest looking around your house and asking yourself if anything else could be causing the interference. TV, microwave? Microwaves often cause a problem. If you look really hard and you can't find anything that causes the problem within your own house, it could be your next door neighbor...in which case, it becomes a social problem of trying to negotiate those things with them.

If you think it's a neighbor using a cordless phone or a microwave or something, you could try moving your laptop closer to the wireless hub, and seeing if that helps (if it does, consider rearranging your setup). If being really close doesn't help, and you can't negotiate with your neighbors, you may be out of luck.

Good luck!

[lindalee.livejournal.com]

Oh, you should also confirm that when you're in your bedroom, you're really using your own wireless, and not someone else's. Do this by clicking on the aforementioned wireless indicator and seeing which network is checked off.

It could theoretically be possible that your neighbor has an open network, and your own network has never worked in your bedroom, and sometimes the neighbor turns theirs off. Unlikely, but possible.

Something else you should check

[dkrikava.livejournal.com]

Speaking of using someone elses wireless connection, make sure no one else is using yours and taking up all of your bandwidth.

Wireless routers come with a security setting called WEP, which means Wireless Encryption Protocol. This is basically a code that you use to access your specific router. If you have not set this up on your router, then ANYONE within range of that router (anywhere from 10-200 feet) can access your internet connection via your router. Happens more than you would think.

Being in the business myself, I have talked to IT folks who have signal detectors that they can turn on and drive down any street and find unprotected wireless connections. Not only can they access the internet through your router, but they will be able to access your computer, and depending on how your sharing is set up, they may even have access to files in your system. Scary huh?

If you don't know if your are set up or not, chances are WEP was never configured on your system. Since each router is set up differently, I can't provide a generic process for setting it. All I can say is that setting up WEP is a pain but necessary.

Another reason for getting lousy signal could be pipes in the walls, cordless phones, microwaves etc. etc. Does it seem to happen more at certain times of the day or is it random? You may want to make a journal for a week to see if you can track when it happens.

Hope this is usefull info...

Re: Something else you should check

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

This is very useful---thank you. I have gotten a friend to protect my system, and asked him to come over and change the channel on it for me to a lower-use achannel. I'll alaso start tracking when I can't get the signal, or can't get it easily. Thanks!