I think the wireless range of the 2wire is good enough for most
HDB flats.
Buying a range expander will only increase the range, and may
not increase download speed(as the signal needs to be pass from
your pc to the expander, and then to the router), unless your
current signal is really very poor.
Before everything, there are some stuff which i need to
clarify:
1. Is your wireless adaptor very old? I remember old adaptors are
capped at certain speeds.
2. When you say both PC download at different speeds, do you
download them from the same website? Try testing the wireless
connection speed at www.speedtest.net and select the singapore server,
if the speed is 8mbps, the problem maybe the website you are
downloading from.
3. How strong are the signals?
If the speed is still slow, try this:
Method one:
1.Open up internet explorer and type in "gateway.2wire.net"
without the quotes into the address bar.
2. Select Wireless setting from the menu on the left.
3. scroll down to the bottom where it says " Additional Settings
(defaults recommended)"
4. Make sure that the "maximum connection rate" is set to
54mbps(maximum for wireless G), and the power setting set to max
for maximum wireless signal
5. Click save. Try not to change other settings.
6. Try measuring your connection speed at speedtest.net
Method 2(if it is not a hassle)
1. Take the wireless adaptor from your 2nd PC and install it on
your first PC.
2. Temporary unplug the wire that connects the your first pc to
the internet
3. Try measuring your bandwidth from speedtest.net again
If all else fails, wait for more replies, or call singnet about
it. Sometimes they will send a technician down to check your
connection for free.
Thank you guys so much for your helpful replies.
I've checked my settings in gateway.2wire.com and found that the
connection rate is already set at 54 Mbps and power setting at
highest. My download rate (wireless PC) at speedtest.net is
measured at 8Mbps, correct to my subscription. The current adaptor
model is 2701HGV-E (http://www.2wire.com/?p=106), not sure if it's too
old though.
I tried downloading videos from youtube with both PCs and the
wired one receives at >1Mbps while the WiFi PC usually goes at
100-200 kbps.
To understand what my frustration is, please see this picture.
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/4469647940/)
As you can see, the signal is poor, usually at one bar of
connection, sometimes 2 bars. When I was still in school years ago,
my laptop wireless connection is usually full. Maybe campus routers
are more powerful?
Kenneth, both my PCs are usually accessing the internet at the
same time. So does the wired PC get priority over the WiFi PC in
terms of download rate? I downloaded the Turbo software that you
recommended but Windows 7 is not supported.
Regarding Torrenting, I've given up on it using my WiFi PC
because the download rates are 3 - 4 kbps, even with more
than a thousand seeders.
I tried playing Modern Warfare 2 on Multiplayer and the PC hangs
for a while whenever I encounter firefights. When the PC recovers,
my character is already dead. Please note I can run the game
smoothly at the highest settings in Single Player mode. So I've
pretty much given up online gaming using the WiFi connection.
So guys, any good ideas on how to improve the WiFi signal? Or
is the poor signal expected?