Cannot get signals in my bedroom.

[AshleyByrom]

Okay well my wireless router gives a perfect signal anywhere in my house, now and then when your upstairs the signal drops but its nothing to complain about.

Within the first few weeks of getting my macbook pro and setting up the wireless connection, in my bedroom the signal was amazing, the best it could be but now all of a sudden I cannot get a signal, anywhere in my bedroom! Infact people have said they cant even hear me when Im on the phone to them when im in my bedroom.

I havent changed my bedroom or anything, how can my signal go from being great to not working atall and I cant even have a conversation on my mobile because people cant hear me.

Help?!

if it matters... the router is downtairs, my bedroom is one floor up.

 

[Alvin.C]

Hello,

Probably some interference, either from a device in the room or nearby.

 

[Lexluethar]

Go downstairs and try out the macbook - download a WiFi scanning utility to measure your signal strength. Then slowly walk up to your room to see where it is dieing off.

There could be tons of reasons for this, like alvin said it could be interference like walls, copper wiring, someone using a microwave, someone using a wireless phone with the same frequency, etc. I know it seems weird that it would work one week then not the next, but that sometimes happens. Who knows maybe you accidentally connected to your neighbors WiFi while in your room and you didn't know it, thinking the signal was great.

 

[AshleyByrom]

Go downstairs and try out the macbook - download a WiFi scanning utility to measure your signal strength. Then slowly walk up to your room to see where it is dieing off.

There could be tons of reasons for this, like alvin said it could be interference like walls, copper wiring, someone using a microwave, someone using a wireless phone with the same frequency, etc. I know it seems weird that it would work one week then not the next, but that sometimes happens. Who knows maybe you accidentally connected to your neighbors WiFi while in your room and you didn't know it, thinking the signal was great.

I actually used to switch to my neighbours whenever my internet would play up id simply go to theirs, they never seemed to use it so there internet ran perfect, and thanks for the help ill look for one of them signal testers now! Im guessing there will be one for a mac? Ill try and have a look.

Wireless eh?

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

Haha, yeah, before I even had high speed Internet (parents never used it so they just had lame dial-up) I'd go walk around the neighborhood with my PDA...I had a pretty detailed mental map of where the good hotspots were, one time my friend and I just sat down on the sidewalk and played DS online because one of the nearby houses had a strong connection.

However, it could very well be interference. If your computer connects fine to other networks and connects to yours when you're downstairs, there's nothing wrong with your computer. Did anything else change (not necessarily in your bedroom, but below on the first floor? I had my router in the basement of our 1 story house, my bedroom right above the router. It worked fine until we started finishing the basement, put up walls and drywall and such, then the connection just fell off completely throughout much of the house, bought a new Linksys N router and I get 4-5 bars everywhere now). If you have an older router, you may want to consider upgrading. New routers use technology that extends the range by using multiple antennas. I have a Linksys WRT160N router that supports both MIMO (the range-extending technology I mentioned) and Wireless-N (allows faster connections than Wireless-G, which is the most common type).

Oh, as for the neighbor WiFi thing, I have had times where my computer connected to neighbor's WiFi without my knowledge. I tried to access a local network share on one of my other PC's and wondered why it wouldn't work. Just make sure you know what network you're connecting to!

 

[KurrentEweser]

If your router has 2 antennae, have one of them point horizontal. That will direct more of the signal upwards toward the bedroom. And if the router has a power setting, it wouldn't hurt to beef it up a little. Changing channels could also be helpful.

 

[AshleyByrom]

Thanks for the help everyone, Ive found the problem.

My computer table (with the router on) was moved a few meters... believe it or not them few meters nocked my bedroom out of range. Ive moved my router to a more central place in my house and bought a 10m ethernet lead to connect to my computer. Know i have excellent signal in my bedroom and for some reason my phone works fine now aswell..

Do you reckon the poor connection on my router could of disturbed my phone connection?

BTW: CalcProgrammer1 your story really made me laugh. haha

 

[Lexluethar]

Depends on what frequency they both work at. It should be written both on your phone and router. If they are both the same freq. then yes it will cause problems.