Improve Your Wireless Network

With the introduction of APH's Braille+ Mobile Manager, people have been asking about wireless networks for their homes. They've also been asking how to get the most from their network. Here's some tips to insure that you get the best speed and the strongest connection from your network.

1. First, keeping the wireless router in a central place is a good idea. If you had four computers in two different rooms, placing the router somewhere in the middle ensures equal flow to both sides. This also insures good coverage as you walk around with your Braille+.
   
   
2. Contrary to popular belief, a wireless signal is not just sent from the router to the computer or notetaker. It is also sent back from the computer or notetaker to the router. So, even if the computer or notetaker is able to receive the signal easily, it, at times, is not able to send them back as smoothly. That is mainly because of walls or other wireless electronics that may be in the path of you and your router. This can also be caused by the incompetence of the wireless network adapter inside some PCs. Replacing the internal wireless adapter with a USB version (which has an external antenna) can improve this to a great extent.
   
   
3. Sometimes, the area that needs the wireless access is too vast for the wireless router to cover effectively. Hence, the signal strength problem arises again. To combat this, you can use wireless repeaters. Wireless repeaters extend your wireless network further, without you having to install another router. The repeater simply intercepts the signal from the wireless router and extends it further, thus increasing the range of your signal.
   
   
4. Wireless routers can operate on different channels, much like radio stations. Now, by radio, I don't mean Internet radio, but the regular good ol' radio. Sometimes, you can hear one radio station clearer than another. Similar is the case with the wireless routers. The channels they operate on in the U.S. are channels 1, 6 and 11. At times, one channel is clearer than the other, so in case of problems, it's a good idea to change the channels every once in awhile in the wireless router settings.
   
   
5. Wireless routers use the 2.4 GHz frequencies, which means that if you have other wireless electronics in your home that use the same frequency, there's going to be a clash. Although the router will function normally, it might have to work harder to send/receive the signal. Hence, it's a good idea to buy wireless electronics that use other frequency ranges.
   
   
6. As with most applications, it's very important to constantly update the firmware for your router and the drivers for your wireless network adapter or portible device. This will usually improve the performance, as well as, the reliability.
   
   
7. Most of the wireless networks are type 802.11b, but what most people don't realize is that 802.11g is about five times faster. If you are using an 802.11b and in spite of following the above advice, your speed still doesn't improve, then as a last option, consider upgrading to an 802.11g. This essentially means upgrading the router and any network adapters to 802.11g equipment as well. That's certainly bound to show a considerable improvement in your network speed.