Low Signal Strength

Ok so Friday I finaly got a laptop, picked up a Sony Vaio VGN-N320e. Got it home and got it on my wireless with no issues. However my signal strength from my D-Link DGL-4300 is only fair from 10 feet away. Is there a way to bring up the signal strength. Not all that hip on wireless but I thought at that range the strength should be higher.

What were your prior experiences with wifi and your router?


Where is the AP located in relation to the lappy?


Any one talking on a cordless phone at the time you are running the laptop?


Have you tried changing channels?


Lastly, FWIW a long time ago I had a D-Link 802.11B AP and it was horrid. An external Orinoco card (which are awesome in terms of wifi) had a really hard time picking it up. I'd get half signal strength everywhere. Tried different cards and no luck. Ordered an internal card for my Toshiba and it was an Orinoco chipset too, but had the advantage of the laptop antennas built in and it was still bad. Changed routers to a Linksys WRT54G and I had no problem getting full signal. Some products have weak-sauce radios in them and therefore are partially deaf or partially mute (thats the easiest explanation I can give you) so wifi appliances can have a hard time picking them up.


Try going to a coffee shop or another known wifi hotspot that is operating normally and see what it is like there.

Are there 300 other access points in your building or on your street?

AMD Phreak said:

What were your prior experiences with wifi and your router?

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None only reason I got this wireless router was for RedHotMachine when he came over.

Where is the AP located in relation to the lappy?

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In the next room, I can see the router when sitting on the couch.

Any one talking on a cordless phone at the time you are running the laptop?

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Nope

Have you tried changing channels?

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Yea I went from channel 6 to channel 11.

Try going to a coffee shop or another known wifi hotspot that is operating normally and see what it is like there.

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Went to a friends house the other night and all bars were lit up, same when I went to the corner bar.

Wicked Klown said:

Went to a friends house the other night and all bars were lit up, same when I went to the corner bar.

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If you get full bars, then it is most likely not your laptop. It sounds like your router....

We had one that did exactly that, sitting 5-10 feet away, you would get 2 bars and in most of the house, you would lose connection alot...ditched it and got a better wireless router...

What have ya got set up security wise as far as wifi is concerned?

LutaWicasa said:

What have ya got set up security wise as far as wifi is concerned?

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Yea I set it up as WPA. In my router is says 100% signal strength and the icon in my tray has only 2 bars of the 5 full.

It shouldn't effect it one way or the other...but, for the halibut, why not try WEP and/or none at all.

Stripping off encryption should speed up the connection, but I am going to say the radio in your router is trash.

The newest D-Link 54G routers are way better. I have one in the office that I turn on for visiting vendors that gets steller strength all over in a building with a lot of radio interference to begin with.

Try a different router and you should be fine.