High Powered Wireless Network for Audio



I have frustratingly low signal strength and erratic performance with the wireless network in my house.

The culprit may be a combination of 1) ordinary Verizon DSL service and 2)a wireless G router? and/or 3) brick chimneys and concrete block within the walls of the house?

To hopefully improve, I am switching to a faster cablem modem service from Cablevision which I will install by my desk for at least a robust connection there.

Could anyone please recommend a wireless router for maximum range and signal strength? Has anyone used any wireless boosting devices? In Stereophile, I have just noticed Gigabit Powerline HD - could this be a better solution?

What is the best way to ensure a robust connection and trouble free streaming on multiple devices?
cwlondon

Showing 2 responses by vett93

I'd like to offer a few recommendations. My employer makes one of the high end routers for home use. I manage the Engineering dept. and have tested WiFi performance in various configurations.

My house is about 3,300 sq-ft and I use my router to stream audio to 3 Squeezebox devices wirelessly with good results. The entire house has good reception with only 1 router.

Let me clarify some myth first. Your Squeezebox Touch is a 11B/G device. No 11N router with the same output power and setup can improve the performance.

These WiFi routers are FCC certified with certain antenna design. Getting a higher gain antenna may improve the performance. But it may exceed the allowed emission limits.

Even though my router is located at one corner of the house, it is desirable to put the router in the center of the house. The WiFi performance degrades as the distance increases and/or more walls to penetrate.

Now come to the most important part of tuning the WiFi performance. You need to figure out which of the 11 channels would give you the best performance. Some of the higher end routers can automatically select the best channel. However, most of them do not select the best channel for a number of reasons.

There are two types of interferences: WiFi interference (e.g., other routers) and Non-WiFi interference (e.g., cordless phone, microwave, etc.) If you can do an air scan, you can see what other WiFi routers are around and the channels they use. Pick one from 1, 6, or 11 that has the least amount of routers/APs. It is harder to detect non-WiFi interference. So you may have to trial and error.

If you don't want to do the above, try channel 11. Let me know how it works for you.
I'd like to clarify one more issue. Among the 11 WiFi channels, there are only 3 non-overlapping channels. They are CH 1, 6, and 11. In other words, if you see WiFi routers on CH 2, 3, 4, and/or 5, CH 1 and 6 will get interferences. Additionally, if you see WiFi routers on CH 7, 8, 9, and/or 10, CH 6 and 11 will get interferences too.

Each of these 11 channels is 5MHz wide. Also, the signal transmission is 20MHz wide. So it will impact two adjacent channels on each side of the spectrum. For example, if you set the WiFi router on CH6, you can see its signal in CH 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

This shows that it can be tricky to select the best channel for WiFi use.