router booster

[tbum@mindspring.com]

I have a Netgear WGR614 54 Mbps wireless router for our home network.
This is the "new" Rangemax with an advertised "much greater signal
strength." Anyway, it works fine with laptops, but for a desktop PC w/
XP and for an IMAC OS-X 10.5 the signal fades and internet
connectivity is dropped repeatedly. I moved on desktop to within sight
of the router, about 30 feet away, and the signal strength was good
enough to maintain constant connectivity.

So, I'm hoping there's a booster out there that can increase signal
strength. Would it be an antenna? Would it use the ethernet port?

Thanks much.
Dave

[Mark McIntyre]

tbum@mindspring.com wrote:
> I have a Netgear WGR614 54 Mbps wireless router for our home network.
> This is the "new" Rangemax with an advertised "much greater signal
> strength." Anyway, it works fine with laptops, but for a desktop PC w/
> XP and for an IMAC OS-X 10.5 the signal fades and internet
> connectivity is dropped repeatedly. I moved on desktop to within sight
> of the router, about 30 feet away, and the signal strength was good
> enough to maintain constant connectivity.
>
> So, I'm hoping there's a booster out there that can increase signal
> strength. Would it be an antenna? Would it use the ethernet port?

Presumably the imac and XP machine have PCI wireless cards somewhere
inside their cases. This is probably the problem - the PC one is likely
to be at the back of the box, shielded by lots of metal...

You could see if you can get external aerial for either card, or swap to
using a USB adapter with a nice long lead. Personally however, I'd give
up on wireless for fixed computers, much easier just to lay some cable.