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Wireless G/Wireless N/and ATA/wired ethernet

Is there a way to attenuate a Neighbor's wireless signal strength so that I can get between strength in my own home?

Which leads me to a possible solution by having a wired gigabit router (not 10/100, but 10/100/1000) at the house entry point (and where all my cable are located). And providing a wireless ap somewhere near the center of the home on the second floor. However, I cannot seem to find a wired gigabit router for sale? How come vendors no longer make them? As more and more homes deploy these wireless routers there is more and more interference so it seems like having a wired router is a good solution.

I know I can (in some cases) turn off the wireless portion of the router. But I think I might be asking for problems, especially since the I want the wired router to be the DHCP server for the home network.

Any smart thoughts out there?

Just to clarify to everyone. My Neighbors are on channels 1 and 11. I'm on channel 8. I can have no problem connecting to my router. Just that the signal strength is lower than my neighbors. My problem is two fold (1) performance specifically---- throughput and (2) I have a wired home that I would like to use more effectively.

Outside that, I'm completely astonished that vendors do not sell wired only routers to the general public. Seems like a waste.

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Would a large Faraday cage be too much work? – Dave M Dec 31 '09 at 16:38
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Ya, just wrap your house in tinfoil :) – mothis Dec 31 '09 at 16:43
Tinfoil. Perfect. Much easier than the Farady cage and easy to get the supplies. – Dave M Dec 31 '09 at 16:47
Believe me, I would love to tinfold the side of their house. – Playing With Dec 31 '09 at 17:01
Instead of posting a new question you should have updated the original, and please don't spend half the question on a rant. This is a Q&A site, not a discussion forum. – Diago Dec 31 '09 at 18:32
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closed as exact duplicate by ChrisF, Diago Dec 31 '09 at 18:31

This question covers exactly the same ground as earlier questions on this topic; its answers may be merged with another identical question. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.

8 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

Don't 'roam'. Instead of seeking out the router with the highest signal strength, instruct you computer to connect specifically to your ESSID. You may want to change the router to a different channel.

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I'm not having a problem connecting to my router. I don't roam. Its a physical location problem that I am dealing with. If I move my wireless router to the most acceptable place in the house (where all my cable are consolidated) so I can use the wire side of the router, then my wireless performance sucks. The signal strength seems to be over run by my neigbor's router. – Playing With Dec 31 '09 at 16:58
If your channel setting is set distinctly enough from your neighbor, then his signal strength should not be relevant - there is some possible interference from an adjacent channel, but not much. My guess is there is some other source of interference. Is it possible the 'best place' has crowded cables, lots of AC power running around? Do you have extra cable looped in piles nearby? Might the walls be thick or have metal studs? All are possible sources of interference. – DaveParillo Jan 1 '10 at 3:08
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up vote 3 down vote

The simplest solution is to just use a different channel than your neighbor. Specifics on how to do this vary from router to router, but it's generally pretty simple.

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I am using a different channel than my neighbors. They use channel 1, I use 8 and the neighbor on the otherside uses 11. The rest of the neighbors vary with 6 being the most used. – Playing With Dec 31 '09 at 16:59
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up vote 2 down vote

If you're getting too much interference from a neighbour's connection, then perhaps you should try changing the channel your wireless uses. Give NetStumbler a try, which will give you an idea of who's on which channel around you.

It's very hard to buy a pure wired router at the SOHO level, most of the ones you get area higher end (Draytek, Cisco, etc). I've not come across any issues with just disabling wireless and using the gigabit ports on a router, and DHCP works fine here. There's no harm having the wireless there and disabled, and it may come in useful down the line.

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I just took a look at the Draytek Broadband routers they are all 10/100 say vigor2110. The only gigabit router listed is a switch 2130. Money aside, I would have thought that this switch would be behind a router. But the router speed would be limited to only 10/100 seems like a waste if your trying to get gigabit speed. wouldn't the router limit the speed of the switched network? I haven't looked at the cisco site yet. – Playing With Dec 31 '09 at 17:22
The 2310 has one gigabit WAN and four gigabit LAN - I'm not quite sure where you're getting the 10/100 from. Any communication between the machines on the gigabit ports would be gigabit, even if your WAN uplink speed was well below that. – Dentrasi Dec 31 '09 at 18:42
I thought the 2310 was a switch not router and that the 2110 is a 10/100 based router. I need a router for my internet access. I did notice that draytek seems to be using the router and switch interchangeably. – Playing With Dec 31 '09 at 18:55
Most (lower end) routers have multiple LAN ports on them - this is a small integrated switch, just as they also have a built in firewall, wireless, etc. Draytek don't word is very clearly on their site, but it's standard across most of the SOHO market. – Dentrasi Dec 31 '09 at 19:23
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up vote 1 down vote

I'm not sure your problem is really the neighbour's router. It could just be the structure of your house. Remember that some forms of concrete and most of all, water, can disturb a signal massively.

I would suggest talking to the neighbour, and asking them to switch theirs off for a while while you try out whether it gets better. If it does, you may be able to work something out. If it doesn't, you may need a repeater, or as you said a cable based solution (I find those preferable anyway, especially when using telephony or video).

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up vote 1 down vote

http://www.moonblinkwifi.com/2point4freq.cfm
Channel 8 still conflicts with channel 11. Change to channel 6, or go with an AP in the 5GHz range (802.11A, some 802.11N AP's).

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up vote 0 down vote

I believe there were several answers to this question when you asked it previously. As stated, there Gbit wired/wireless routers (Linksys for example) and you can check what channel the neighbors router is using and pick a different one. May take some testing but it won't take long

Your earlier question and answers.

Question 89518

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up vote 0 down vote

I have used both Netgear and D-Link GigE wireless routers with the WiFi disabled - DHCP works fine.

I do a lot of media work so I prefer reliability and performance of wired Gigabit Ethernet when transferring a TB or more over the network, and DHCP in home routers is very convenient for small networks.

I do not believe you will run into any problems if you disable the Wireless on the router. If your router does not have enough ports the DHCP should work fine with an inexpensive GigE switch with additional machines on it.

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Thanks I will do exactly this, if I cannot find a wired gigabit router. – Playing With Dec 31 '09 at 17:30
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up vote 0 down vote

It seems like you just need a wireless routing nearer where your wireless computer is sitting. In that case it's pretty simple use a wireless router as an access point. I've done this myself.

On that wireless router turn off DHCP and assign it an a static IP address in the range of your other router. Then don't use the wireless router's WAN port at all, plug on of it's switches into your existing network. The router portion won't be used, it'll just be bridge between wireless and your existing LAN.

There are server different guides for doing this:

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/11233

http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html

http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1080 (Has a nice diagram)

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Thanks. I have done this as well in the past and it worked okay signal strength aside. What I thought would be a simpler approach (wired only gigabit router) seems to be outside the current market...which just confuses me. – Playing With Dec 31 '09 at 17:32
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