Vostro WIFI range, need more.

Hello all,

I love my vostro 1500. I have a wireless router and the signal is great in the house.

When I go to the garage (40 more feet away) the signal drops down. I need more signal.

I have an ISP's "Speedtouch 585" that I installed an antenna "boost" ,but I would like a bit more.

link to antenna mod:http://www.metacafe.com/watch/837885/wifi_antenna_hack/

this worked for me, I was 2 bars red and went to 3 bars yellow in the toolbar next to the clock.

Is there any way to better the vostros antenna?

 

There are a lot of antennas on ebay that you could mod in I suppose. Something like could work but wouldn't be as mobile.

I think the problem you are having is going through walls. Does your house or garage have aluminum siding?

 

Here are some general instructions you can follow that might increase the power sent to the WiFi card.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1691443

They are a little outdated, but you'll definitely get the idea by reading it.

 

Miller, No Alum. siding, vinyl on both house and garage. The antenna picture you show, where would I plug it into?

Greg, I will look at your link.

I want something to "upgrade" the lappy antenna (power in, out)

 

The antenna I showed wouldn't plug in. It would require some work to get it to work and it would be permantly external antenna.

Although if you wanted to and were creative, you could do some wire rigging and have a disconnect rigged up.

 

Greg, in Device Manager, I have listed a "Dell wireless 1390 WLAN mini card". The properties/advanced tab has choices reading:
(their are more entires But I think these are relevant)

Property(set value)
Afterburner(dis)
AP Compatibility Mode(Higher performance)
Min Power Consumption(dis)
Power Save Mode(dis)
Roam Decision(Optimize Distance)


anyone know what the afterburner is for?



.

 

I'm not sure what that is to be honest....

Yeah, the directions were made for Intel cards, and I didn't know you had a Dell card.

Go ahead and list the complete list of entries. I'll read up tomorrow and see if there is anything that sounds right.

 

Upgrade to the Intel Draft-N card. Gets better range even on G networks.

 

Second that, I used to use an Airlink101 USB wireless G adapter with their really rugged (and bad) utility that would list even the SLIGHTEST signal from an AP. My previous laptop's Intel 2915 wifi could only sometimes detect the APs the USB adapter found through refreshing, and that made all the difference in that my USB adapter was able to hold a stable connection with very weak signals while the 2915 card couldn't.
Now with this Intel draft-N card, the tables have definitely turned. So far it has proven to always detect 5+ more APs from the same location as the USB adapter.

 

Third That. Draft-N really is the best way to go with longer range, better reception... backwards compatible with a/b/g... yeah, its definitely the way to go.