Making WiFi Stronger?

[Notgower]

I really need help making my WiFi stronger. I usually am sitting at about 4 bars of connection, sometimes 3 which isn't always good enough since I live stream on twitch a lot. I also would like to get both of my download and upload speeds higher. At the time of this post I have 29.40 download MBps and 6.39 upload MBps. Unfortunately we don't have a computer hooked up by cable to test the speeds on that (if that would even show a difference), but I know it can go higher because often when it gets low I call my ISP and demand them to give us what we pay for and they do. I often feel like they try to limit us to save their own resources.

 

I currently have a two-in-one modem and router provided by my ISP and was told that I have to use that. They actually replaced our D-Link router with this about 2 years ago. This new one doesn't even have an antenna or anything. Just a black box. I would get a lot better connection if I could use ethernet, but the thing is our house only has one cable outlet for it to plug into and I don't feel like running a more than 50 foot cord all the way into my bedroom.

Does have any suggestions on what I can do to improve my connection and permanently raise my download and upload speeds? If you need more information just ask for it. 

Let me know,

Thanks,

Notgower

[ImBleu]

Have you considered switching from the 2.1 band to the 5Ghz Band?

[iamdarkyoshi]

if you want to make a wireless network bridge, you can use an old router and custom firmware. If you want good signal strength, get a couple used aironet 1100 series off of amazon. only 7 bucks used, and one of them can cover my entire house and they support POE

[Nexxus]

theres not a whole lot you can do, ive seen some home solutions where people use like cutup aluminum cans to force the signal in a particular direction, if the router is old/very cheap might be worth replacing. other then that your only solution really is hardwire devices.

[Notgower]

Have you considered switching from the 2.1 band to the 5Ghz Band?

 

I have seen Linus' video on that but haven't looked into it myself and not sure how to do it. I'll try to figure it out though.

 

if you want to make a wireless network bridge, you can use an old router and custom firmware. If you want good signal strength, get a couple used aironet 1100 series off of amazon. only 7 bucks used, and one of them can cover my entire house and they support POE

 

Could you elaborate on this in any way? I don't know much at all about networking so most of that was gibberish to me Like a "wireless network bridge" and "custom firmware" has me confused. Thanks for the reply though.

 

theres not a whole lot you can do, ive seen some home solutions where people use like cutup aluminum cans to force the signal in a particular direction, if the router is old/very cheap might be worth replacing. other then that your only solution really is hardwire devices.

 

Like I said in the post, according to my ISP I cannot replace it I hate it lol. It's a piece of junk.

[Nexxus]

I have seen Linus' video on that but haven't looked into it myself and not sure how to do it. I'll try to figure it out though.

 

 

Could you elaborate on this in any way? I don't know much at all about networking so most of that was gibberish to me Like a "wireless network bridge" and "custom firmware" has me confused. Thanks for the reply though.

 

 

Like I said in the post, according to my ISP I cannot replace it I hate it lol. It's a piece of junk.

a network bridge serves as a relay point..it basically serves to expend your signal (iirc, im not a networking nut either) it "bridges" the gap between the router and your system. The firmware is the software on the device, you need custom firmware cause routers are not designed to do this (at least most) out of the box.

[Castdeath97]

 

 

 

I have seen Linus' video on that but haven't looked into it myself and not sure how to do it. I'll try to figure it out though.

 

 

Could you elaborate on this in any way? I don't know much at all about networking so most of that was gibberish to me Like a "wireless network bridge" and "custom firmware" has me confused. Thanks for the reply though.

 

 

Like I said in the post, according to my ISP I cannot replace it I hate it lol. It's a piece of junk.

Then look for a better ISP

[Notgower]

 

 

Then look for a better ISP

 

 

Well that's a little more than difficult to do since I live with my parents and my dad pays the internet bill. He doesn't have a problem with it at all since all he does is play solitaire and log onto Facebook.

But Google Fiber has plans to come to my city (hopefully within the next year) and so I'm definitely going to make that change happen when they do. Have you heard about their services yet? I'm more than stoked.

[Castdeath97]

Well that's a little more than difficult to do since I live with my parents and my dad pays the internet bill. He doesn't have a problem with it at all since all he does is play solitaire and log onto Facebook.

But Google Fiber has plans to come to my city (hopefully within the next year) and so I'm definitely going to make that change happen when they do. Have you heard about their services yet? I'm more than stoked.

Try asking them if they have other routers.