Six Things That Block Your Wi-Fi, and How to Fix Them

[Blacksmith1]

study by Epitiro, a UK-based broadband-analysis firm, shows that consumers lose an average of 30 percent of the data speed their broadband connection supplies when they use Wi-Fi connections in the home.
Why the slowdown?
More...

[James86]

number seven should be your neighbors stealing your WiFi for torrents

[peti1212]

hahaha... so true James... But I doubt my neighbor can find out my password. We have WPA2 security, or whatever it is called. It's possible but I doubt they will be that smart if they have WEP. :P

We recently had some problems where the connection would drop. Turns it it was just too many wireless networks in the surrounding. Ended up setting up two wireless networks both ends of the house connected with a LAN cable, providing high signal for both sides of the house. We just happened to have two wireless routers around. Plus the 2nd router was so close, I didn't bother with wireless, just hid a LAN cable under my carpet and around the corners of my room and now I'm connected with LAN. So much nicer. Laptop is still on Wi-Fi though.

[PP Mguire]

Even if people are running speeds of around 24Mb their net speed shouldn't be hampered unless they have a beefy pipe. If they do, they will probably have an N dual band router anyways.

[Blacksmith1]

yeah my roomate is always complaining about his conection on his laptop. I dont have that problem since the modem, and router are sitting here on my desk. I have noticed tho that if he's online doing something, and any of the kids are gaming(wireless card), it does take a second or so longer to open pages here.

[PP Mguire]

That is just because they are hogging the internet. The article was basically saying that your home wifi cuts the speed down on your internet which is 90% of the time entirely untrue. If you have a 5Mb connection and a 54Mb G wireless there is no way it will slow your internet down. The only time it will slow your internet down is if you have an internet connection faster than what your wireless is which generally wont ever be the case.

[MtDew]

hahaha... so true James... But I doubt my neighbor can find out my password. We have WPA2 security, or whatever it is called. It's possible but I doubt they will be that smart if they have WEP. :P

We recently had some problems where the connection would drop. Turns it it was just too many wireless networks in the surrounding. Ended up setting up two wireless networks both ends of the house connected with a LAN cable, providing high signal for both sides of the house. We just happened to have two wireless routers around. Plus the 2nd router was so close, I didn't bother with wireless, just hid a LAN cable under my carpet and around the corners of my room and now I'm connected with LAN. So much nicer. Laptop is still on Wi-Fi though.

I am running 3 B/G wireless routers and 1 DSL Modem with B/G wireless capability. With 5 laptops and 2 iphones, I felt we need that, though there is never more than 3 laptops on at one time. I have 1 dedicated to just the iphones (MAC Filtering and DHCP will only give 2 IP addresses). The other 3 are spread through my basement. I have the broadcast turned off, MAC Filtering and limit the number of IPs DHCP will give out.

I had to go this route because I can sit in my kitchen and pickup 12 broadcasting wireless networks other than my own. Most of them are locked down, as I have shown quite a few neighbors how to lock their wireless down. I did this because I have a neighbor who is a wanabe hacker. I've caught him trying to steal bandwith a couple of times from me. The bad thing is the guy works in IT as a security analysist, and bost about his skills.

[Blacksmith1]

sick homeland security on him " I think he might be engaging in terrorist activities..."

[PP Mguire]

I know you're joking, but I would do something like that honestly.