Improving Indoors Wi-Fi Reception?

VirtualUK asks: "I was given a WiFi base station and PCMCIA card for my laptop as a Christmas present so that I could read slashdot...urm I mean work, in any room in the house. When I read the manual it stated lofty figures of being able to work up to hundreds of feet inside office environments, so I felt that it would be more than capable of being able to allow me to stay connected in my tiny house. It seems however that the WiFi gods are against me as I tap this posting in the next room to the WiFi base station, a mere 20-30 feet away, just regular so-thin-I-can-hear-an-ant-fart walls, no kryptonite, no lead cladding and yet still I struggle to get a constant connection. I've found that shifting the laptop to face different directions sometimes helps, but as should it be this hard at such short range? Is there anything I can do to make my WiFi work better in a house environment?"

Comments

Suboptimal PCMCIA card design?

[Nathan Ramella]

If you notice the orientation of your pcmcia card, your radio signals are radiating out at a 90 degree angle from what would be optimal for talking to your AP.

Could be part of the problem.. Try turning your laptop 90 degress onto it's side. :)

Filing Cabinets?

[jayrtfm]

I had the same problem at a friend's house. Turned out it was a few filing cabinets that would block the signal when the ethernet adaptor (SMC2670W) was placed on the floor.

Depending on the

[Y Ddraig Goch]

age of your house you may have metal studs in the walls. This could cause problems. All of the other sugestions are great too. You may just have to play around with the position of the WAP and it's antenae.