Makes no sense. Computer expert couldnt help!

[Brunel07]

Hi,

This is the story. We changed our internet to Sky recently. They sent through a new router and we were set up on a new connection. Wired connection works perfectly. We then brought two "dongles" to pick up the signal wirelessly. The router is on the first floor and one dongle is used on the second floor, one is used on the ground floor. The dongle works fine on the second floor but on the ground floor it connects and then disconnects. Sometimes im able to get up to 5mbps but other times it tells me there is no singal / connection. I tried on my iphone downstairs and its the same stroy, although it works fine when im close to the router.

If you read through all of that - maybe you can help! Is this is a signal issue - as I dont see how we can still get perfect singal on the second floor. Am i able to buy a more powerful router and use this to replace the sky router to hopefully fix the signal issue? I tried one of my spare routers at home but for some reason it didnt work, even on a wired connection!

Im pretty stuck with this, can anyone help me out?

[jediobi1]

its def a signal issue, as i have the same problem, sort of, im able to connect on the second floor but you are very lucky to browse the internet, like now i have my laptop setup in a way to where the bars are yellow so i can kinda browse, but the reason is happening is because it has to go through some walls and floors so that one thing causing it and another thing is, wireless hardwired phones, if they are 2.4ghz it can cause problems

[Neuromancer]

Cordless phones operate on the same freq as wireless etherenet. If your phone is older it may not have frequency hoping or DSS to avoid conflicts.

There are lots of other things that could produce EMI.

Since you said your phone does not work either.. I would assume that it is an EMI problem, however, just to make sure, have you tried swapping dongles?

[Brunel07]

I have yes. Ill look at sources of interference when I get back. For the time the other options I see is to:

1. Get a more powerful router
2. Install a booster on the ground floor.

Is there any reason why a store brought generic router wouldnt work with a Sky broadboand connection? I tried used a BT router and that didnt work, but maybe a belkin or something?

[SuperMiguel]

if you get really close to the router like next to it with the same dongle does it disconect? also try the one that u have in the second floor and try it on the machine that is the 1st floor

[ppe1700]

does the sky router have an aerial? if it does, try turning it round so that its parralel with the floor. the aerials make a doughnut pattern, so turning it 90 degrees will give more signal above and below.

what seperates the floors? there may be insulation between the floors with metallic foil but that might not exist between floors 1 and 2.
there are lots of things to consider if your wireless is crap. but this looks 100% like a signal issue. especially if the equipment works fine when they are close together.

[Brunel07]

It does seem to be a signal issue. Am i able to buy a new router and use that with my exisiting sky package, or will it not work? I assumed it would work but the router that came with my bt package didnt work with that connection.

[Neuromancer]

If you have a gateway from Sky, than you will have to do a little cable work to attach a second router.

If it is just a modem and a router setup, than you can dump the cheap router and just replace it with one of your design. I do not think that will work 100% though..if the cheap one is not working a good one, might only improve signal not work properly.

[Brunel07]

It is just a router setup. I tried to replace the sky one with the one we had when we were with bt (which worked better). However even with a wired connection I wasn't able to get the Internet working. Do you know why this might be?

[ppe1700]

It is just a router setup. I tried to replace the sky one with the one we had when we were with bt (which worked better). However even with a wired connection I wasn't able to get the Internet working. Do you know why this might be?

sky broadband is through the telephone line. this is ADSL2 (may be ADSL2+ im not sure)
with ADSL, you need a username and password configured on the router so that the router can authenticate to the ISP. this is why DSL routers are simply not plug and play and also why your BT router (2-Wire?) did not work.

you have two options here,
1. either completely replace the sky router for another ADSL router
2. buy a access point or another router with an integrated wireless access point and connect the switch part of the access point to the switch of your sky router.

point 1 will require you phone up sky and get the username and password from them. explain that you do not wish to use their supplied equipment because its faulty and you are buying one better. they may at this point send you another router.
once you have these details (if they supply them) then you can program your new router with the credentials and then internet will work.
point 2 just requires that you plug in an access point to "extend" your current network.

does your BT router have wireless? if so, then you dont need to buy any equipment. this is how you can connect your other wireless router to your current sky router: from the PC you are on which is using the sky router use windows to find out your ip address information. you can use command prompt and type "ipconfig /all". you need your default gateway ip, subnet mask and thats it. once you have that info, follow these steps -

connect yourself to the BT router only, and get onto its web config page.
find dhcp and turn that off
now this is done, you need to make sure that the BT routers ip address does not match that of the sky router. eg if BT's router address is 192.168.0.254 and so is the sky router change it to 192.168.0.253 so that its different.
if the routers have different addresses like 192.168.1.254 and 192.168.0.254 then you dont need to do anything, but i advise you change the address so their ip's are in the same range. this is so you will be able to access the BT router for management, like changing wireless SSID / password etc.

once thats done, you can just connect the BT router to the sky router with an ethernet cable, and you will have wireless internet.

That said, there still may be problems getting wireless downstairs. this could be due to interference from other wireless access points using the same channel, or physical structures.
if you still have problems i suggest doing a mini wireless survey. this just comprises of running a program on your wireless windows xp machine like net stumbler and noting what each AP in the area is using for their channel, and picking a unique channel as possible.

hope i have helped somewhat.