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I have had a Netgear WGR614v10 router for some time now (probably a year) and it has been a good router up to now. However, lately I am having a problem with signal strength, even though I have not moved the router or any of the computers connected to it wirelessly.

On the Windows wifi monitor icon in the system tray, the signal strength will go from 2 to 5 to 2 to 4 to 1 to 5 bars back and forth every 30 seconds or so. This happens to every wifi device I have, so I doubt it's my computer. It used to stay at 5 bars constantly, rarely if ever dropping to 4.

Given that this has only started happening lately, should I buy a new router or is there something that I can do to the current one to get the signal strength to stop fluctuating and stay at 5 bars like it used to? I have already tried changing the channel but that didn't help at all.

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It is possible that a new environmental variable was introduced and is interfering, try changing the channel and see if there is any improvement. – MaQleod Aug 26 '11 at 19:21
@MaQleod I have tried that and it didn't help; sorry I forgot to mention that. – Seth Carnegie Aug 26 '11 at 19:22
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Odds are that an foreign radio signal is interfering with yours. You can get a high gain antenna to combat this problem.

Also, it couldnt hurt to make sure your router is at the latest firmware. Every so often patches do increase signal strength and reliability.

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If you read the manual for all wifi products, they basically say that they dont guarantee their product will work at all. There are to many factors that can affect their performance. In my old house I could sit on my couch with my laptop and get a full signal on the left cushion. If I were sit on the middle cushion, I had no signal at all. On the right cushion, 50% signal. That was frustrating. I bought the antenna I linked in the answer and now I never have signal strength issues. – Keltari Aug 26 '11 at 22:08
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