Needing help to Set up Wireless coverage for top of house

[Wassup]

not mentioned already but you "could" try a Wireless Extender , essentially a repeater that will boost the signal from your sky box.

I use a Belkin WURE that works well, ie I can watch video with no skipping or jumping, and they are cheaper than the home plug system. [http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=255033]
They are a bit fiddly to setup, ie plug it directly into your pc first, put them on the same subnet, configure passwords, SSID, etc but once they're set up I have found it works really well.

prices vary - http://www.ciao.co.uk/Belkin_Wireles...Point__6472854

I also used them at my last job in a school where we had the wireless router on the first floor, and then added three of these extenders, one each on the floors above and below and an additional on the far side of the building to increase the range to include the garden area for studetn access, they all worked faultlessly and have increased the wireless reception for the students laptops into all the classrooms.
---no I'm not a Belkin salesperson by the way ... *grin*

[hbroomhall]

The problem with 'extenders' is either they sit on the same channel as the original - so the bandwidth reduces, or they aren't on the same channel - so the likelyhood of interference increases.

Most schools cover a sufficient area of ground so as to reduce the likely interference though.

Harry.

[Wassup]

Originally Posted by hbroomhall

The problem with 'extenders' is either they sit on the same channel as the original - so the bandwidth reduces, or they aren't on the same channel - so the likelyhood of interference increases.

Most schools cover a sufficient area of ground so as to reduce the likely interference though.

Harry.

Yup, I put them all on the same channel at school, I think it was 6 if I recall correctly.

However, at home, for a boost up a couple of floors, I just put one midway between the router and my laptop and there was a significant reception improvement, ie streaming video actually streamed rather than just piddled

[Ryan]

Originally Posted by hbroomhall

Take a typical hub, and a typical switch. Put them on a desk in front of a typical user. Ask them what the difference is.

Harry.

Am i right in thinking that a hub just connects network points together (permenant bridge)

and a switch only connects new network points if they are active (plugged in)
and is also configurable for link speed and sometimes vlan?

[hbroomhall]

Originally Posted by Ryan

Am i right in thinking that a hub just connects network points together (permenant bridge)

and a switch only connects new network points if they are active (plugged in)
and is also configurable for link speed and sometimes vlan?

Er - no. A hub copies all input packets to all other output ports.

A switch 'learns' the MAC addresses for each port, and only sends traffic for a given MAC address to the port it thinks it is plugged into.

High quality switches may be able to do more, but that is the basic difference.

Harry.

[Bluerinse]

Originally Posted by hbroomhall

Er - no. A hub copies all input packets to all other output ports.

A switch 'learns' the MAC addresses for each port, and only sends traffic for a given MAC address to the port it thinks it is plugged into.

High quality switches may be able to do more, but that is the basic difference.

Harry.

So, what Harry is saying is that a switch is an intellegent device, that on busy networks can manage the packets in such a way as to reduce traffic overall.

In a small 2 or three PC workgroup, you wont notice any real difference.