10 tips to help improve your wireless network

If the Windows OS ever notifies you about a weak Wi-Fi signal, it's means that your connection isn't as fast or as reliable as it could be. You might lose your connection entirely in some parts of your home. If you want to boost the signal for your WLAN, here is some tips for extending your wireless range and improving your wireless network speed and performance.

 If the Windows OS ever notifies you about a weak Wi-Fi signal, it's means that your connection isn't as fast or as reliable as it could be. You might lose your connection entirely in some parts of your home. If you want to boost the signal for your WLAN, here is some tips for extending your wireless range and improving your wireless network speed and performance.

1) Place your wireless router, Modem router or access                         point in a central location

Try to place your wireless router, wireless modem router or wireless access point (WAP) in a central location in your home. If your wireless router, modem router, or access point is against any outside wall of your home, the signal will be weak on the other side of your home. If your router is on the ground floor and your PC or laptop is on the next floor, place the router high on a shelf of the room where it is located. Don't worry if you can't move your wireless router, because there are many other ways to improve your connection.

2) Move the router from the floor and away from walls and metal objects (like metal file cabinets)

Metal objects, walls, and floors will cause interfere with your router's wireless signals. How closer your router is to these obstructions, the more severe will be the interference, and the weaker your connection will be.

3) Replace your router's antenna

The antennas supplied with the router are designed to be omnidirectional, meaning that they sent signals in all directions around the router. If your router is near an outside wall, half of the signals will be sent outside your home, and therefore much of your router's power will be wasted. Most router's don't allow you to increase the power output, but you can make better use of the power. If your router’s antenna is removable, you can upgrade it to a high-gain antenna that focuses the wireless signals in one direction. You can even aim the signals in the direction you need it most. Like Linksys high-gain antenna—they’re powerful and easy to install. Or you can shop for other high-gain antennas.

4) Replace your laptop's wireless PC card-based network adapter

Laptops with built-in wireless networking capability have excellent antennas and don't need to have their network adapters upgraded. These are for laptops that do not have built-in wireless networking.

                                  These signals must be sent both to and from your computer. Sometimes your router can broadcast strongly enough to reach your computer, but your computer can't send back signals to your router. To improve this, replace your laptop's PC card-based wireless network adapter to a USB wireless network adapter that uses an external antenna. 

5) Add a wireless repeater

Wireless repeaters help to extend your wireless network range without requiring you to add any wiring. Just place the wireless repeater half a way between your wireless router, modem router, or access point and your computer, and you will get an instant boost to your wireless signal strength. Check out the wireless-N repeaters from Linksys, Hawking Hi-Gain, ViewSonic, D-Link, and Buffalo Technology, or shop for a wireless-N repeater.

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6) Change your wireless channel

Wireless routers can broadcast on several different channels, similar to the way in radio stations use different channels. Just as you will sometimes hear interference on one radio station while another is perfectly clear, sometimes one wireless channel is more clearer than the others. By changing your wireless router's channel through your router's configuration page to see whether your signal strength improves. You don't need to change your computer's configuration, because it will automatically detect the new channel.
To find your router configuration page, use this quick reference table, which shows the default addresses for some common router manufacturers. If the address is not listed here, read the documentation that came with your router, or visit the manufacturer's webpage.

Router	Address
3Com	http://192.168.1.1
D-Link	http://192.168.0.1
Linksys	http://192.168.1.1
Microsoft Broadband	http://192.168.2.1
Netgear	http://192.168.0.1
Actiontec	http://192.168.0.1

7) Reduce the wireless interference

The most common wireless technology, 802.11g (wireless-G), operates at a frequency of 2.4 gigahertz (GHz). Many cordless phones, microwave ovens, baby monitors, garage door openers, and other wireless electronics also use this frequency. If you are using these wireless devices in your home, your computer might not be able to "hear" your router due to the noise coming from them.
If your network uses wireless-G, you can reduce the noise by avoiding wireless electronics that use the 2.4 GHz frequency. Instead, look for cordless phones and other devices that use the 5.8 GHz or 900 megahertz (MHz) frequencies. Because 802.11n (wireless-N) operates at both 2.4 GHz and the less frequently used 5.0 GHz frequency, you may experience less interference on your network if you use this technology.

8) Update your firmware or the network adapter driver

Router manufacturers regularly make some free improvements to their routers. Sometimes, these improvements will increase the performance. To get the latest firmware updates for your router, visit the router manufacturer's website.
Similarly, network adapter vendors usually update the software that Windows uses to communicate with your network adapter, known as the driver. These updates will typically improve performance and reliability. To get the driver updates, follow the instructions for your operating system:

• Windows 7
• Windows Vista

9) Use equipments from a single vendor

Although a Linksys router will works with a D-Link network adapter, you often get better performance if you use a router and network adapter from the same vendor. Some vendors usually offer a performance boost of up to twice the performance when you choose their hardware (like their USB wireless network adapters). Linksys has the SpeedBooster technology for it's wireless-G devices, and D-Link has the 108G enhancement for it's wireless-G devices. These enhancements will be helpful if you have wireless-G devices and you need to transmit over a large distance or you live in an older house (old walls use to block the signal more than newly built ones do).
If speeding up your connection is important to you, Read the next tip—upgrading your wireless technology.

10. Upgrade 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g devices to 802.11n

Although wireless-G (802.11g) is the one which is most common type of wireless network, wireless-N (802.11n) is having at least twice as fast and it has better range and stability. Wireless-N is backward-compatible with 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g, so you can still use any existing wireless equipment that you have—though you won’t see a much improvement in performance until you upgrade your computer or network adapter to a wireless-G, too.

If you're using wireless-B or wireless-G and you're unhappy with your current network’s speed and performance, consider replacing your router and network adapters with a wireless-N equipment. If you're buying new equipment, choose wireless-N.
Thanku............