I've recently moved into a new house and we've got 60mbs virgin broadband (I know they have a bad rep, but its the best in the area). I'm the furthest from the router and have an Edimax wireless card (http://www.scan.co.uk/products/edim...32bit-pci-adapter-with-twin-antenna-high-gain) but its only giving me 2 bars of signal, gives me speeds varying from 2 - 35 mbs and and keeps cutting out on me. As you can imagine, this is pissing me off no end, and its not the router as everyone else (although closer) is getting a constant 30mbs minimum, so I can only assume I need a new wireless card. If anyone has any suggestions i'd love to hear them
Can you spare a pci-e 1.0 slot If so buy D link DWA 556 £50 on amazon best wireless card out there for less than £100 Netgear WNDA 4100 best USB one £62
i've got 2 1.0's, but one is about 2mm above my graphics card and one is about 2mm below (damn chunky cards ) so it may be a tight fit. I'd prefer a 32 bit PCI as i've got about 3 of them spare (of I take out the old wireless card) but USB could work as well I suppose, although I don't have alot of room behind my PC so it would have to be short.
what about a home plug instead of wireless http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/networking/2012/05/25/zyxel-pla4201-powerline-adaptor-review/2
It's not the router, but neither the network card. It is a signal issue. Best option would be put some cheap n router or repeater in middle acting as a repeater, because your issue comes from the fact, that you probably got few more walls between your computer and router than others, or that someone near you has their own router which kills your performance. For example until i mapped my appartment i wouldn't have found out that the room with weakest signal (50db+ in the room with my router, 40db+ everywhere else, 30db- in that room) there were routers bellow and above that room. Unfortunately for you, a better network card will unlikely solve this problem for you, you need to boost the signal and that is done by repeaters. Or as others suggested, powerline adapters.
Another way to get better signal is a good aerial. You can get some strong +9db ones quite cheap on ebay. >£15.
Also make sure your wireless channel is not clashing with others about, if your neighbours have virgin and you can see other peoples wireless devices when scanning then you need to make sure your on a different channel from everyone else, also are you using wireless N? It would be recommended as there are so many different channels to be on
I've already done channels, it didn't really help. I think i'll just go for a Homeplug, its the easiest and will be useful when I go home as well, so is probably the best for me Does anyone know of a homeplug that I can buy for me but my flatmates can join onto if they want to buy one as well, so I'll get the input and output, and they can buy additional outputs to go into the loop (I don't really know that much about homeplugs, so any advice would be greatly appreciated)
Homeplugs are one of the best things I bought for getting a decent solid internet connection. I have been running them for just under a year now. And I game a lot online. Battlefield 3 more than anything. With 60meg Virgin I get a decent connection and even greater download speed from Steam etc
If you dont get on with home plugs then I can recommend the edimax 7728 (scan dont sell it anymore, they used to) Combined with the mars http://www.edimax.com/en/produce_detail.php?pd_id=130&pl1_id=1&pl2_id=8. I have always used wired but haven't had a chance to wire my new house up yet, the homeplugs I were given by BT are OK for internet/gaming, but transferring files across them is slow, so at the moment im using the above combination.
