D-Link Forums
The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => Routers / COVR => DGL-4300 => Topic started by: vizionblind on April 30, 2011, 08:02:48 PM
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Any recommendations to boost a wireless signal in a house? I am trying to get decent wireless activity in a room that is 75 feet away from the router.
I am using the DGL 4300 router and I barely get internet connection in a room that is 75 feet away on the same floor as the router.
any suggestions?
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I would check out an extender or relay unit. This will hope get the range out to where you need:
http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=37843.0 (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=37843.0)
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You may want to make sure you're not colliding with other wireless channels. The auto-scan feature does not always work very well. Use this tool ( http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/ (http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/) ) to see your wireless signal data along with your neighbors. Very helpful in the first steps of debugging your wireless setup before jumping into purchasing more hardware.
FYI, I ended up ditching my DGL-4300 wireless for a Linksys WRT54GL and converted it to a WAP which connects to the DGL-4300. I found that the DGL-4300 had many problems when dealing with more than one wireless connection at a time.
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You may want to make sure you're not colliding with other wireless channels. The auto-scan feature does not always work very well. Use this tool ( http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/ (http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/) ) to see your wireless signal data along with your neighbors. Very helpful in the first steps of debugging your wireless setup before jumping into purchasing more hardware.
FYI, I ended up ditching my DGL-4300 wireless for a Linksys WRT54GL and converted it to a WAP which connects to the DGL-4300. I found that the DGL-4300 had many problems when dealing with more than one wireless connection at a time.
thanks! I have both routers. how would i go about connecting them like that? id like to try!
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I did the following from the DD-WRT Wiki:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Access_Point (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Access_Point)
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT54GL (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT54GL)
You will need to change the FW on the WRT54GL (read the links above). The WRT54GL will be a wired connection to the DGL-4300 and will act as a Wireless Access Point, so it will be transparent to all of your wired and wireless devices connecting to it. The DGL-4300 still provides DHCP and filtering and uplink access.
You should still make sure your wireless channels are not colliding. ;)
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I did the following from the DD-WRT Wiki:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Access_Point (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Wireless_Access_Point)
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT54GL (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT54GL)
You will need to change the FW on the WRT54GL (read the links above). The WRT54GL will be a wired connection to the DGL-4300 and will act as a Wireless Access Point, so it will be transparent to all of your wired and wireless devices connecting to it. The DGL-4300 still provides DHCP and filtering and uplink access.
You should still make sure your wireless channels are not colliding. ;)
I tried that program but it states no wifi interfaces found (im connected hardline) and im not sure how to use it. any tips?
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I'm confused... I use the DLG 4300 in my office. If the computer that is 75 feet away in another room how would hooking my wrt54g wired to the DGL4300 as you mentioned help boost the signal? sorry if im being dense :)
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I'm confused... I use the DLG 4300 in my office. If the computer that is 75 feet away in another room how would hooking my wrt54g wired to the DGL4300 as you mentioned help boost the signal? sorry if im being dense :)
That won't boost your signal, it will only allow your WRT54GL to act as a WAP (Wireless Access Point). I never implied it would boost your signal, only that I gave up on the DGL-4300 wireless capabilities and used the WRT54GL for my wireless needs.
Like I said, I would first start with debugging the wireless signal using the inSSID software before making hardware changes. What I did for my setup was converting a $50 router into a $200 WAP to 1) effectively extend my wireless range and 2) resolve the DGL-4300 wireless issues.
Hope this helps.
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This room 75 ft away, what is in between that room and the router? Walls, doors and such? Stuff like this can effect signal travel and quality. Can you place the router closer to this room. Centralized placement is recommended if possible. However if your at one end of a building and you have to get to the other, extenders or relay devices are probably better off or you can add a 2nd wireless router and make it an access point, however you'll have a different SSID. Extenders or relays have the ability to just tie into the main SSID broadcast so you still maintain the one and only SSID.
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yea I am trying to extend my signal, not boost it. Also I still cant figure out the software you recommended
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This room 75 ft away, what is in between that room and the router? Walls, doors and such? Stuff like this can effect signal travel and quality. Can you place the router closer to this room. Centralized placement is recommended if possible. However if your at one end of a building and you have to get to the other, extenders or relay devices are probably better off or you can add a 2nd wireless router and make it an access point, however you'll have a different SSID. Extenders or relays have the ability to just tie into the main SSID broadcast so you still maintain the one and only SSID.
yep, walls and such. i cant place the router closer as it is hardwired to my main pc. I do have a 2nd wireless router. would I hookup the 2nd wireless router to the pc in the room 75 feet away?
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yea I am trying to extend my signal, not boost it. Also I still cant figure out the software you recommended
The software is going to give you a graphical representation of all wireless signals it finds. It shows you the frequency (channel) and the amplitude (power) of each SSID it locates. If you run the software on a computer with a wireless connection, it will show you what you need on the "2.4Ghz Channels" tab. Each SSID is represented by a colored graph. The stronger the signal, the taller the graph. Pay attention to the channel numbers on the bottom. If multiple signals (SSIDs) are on the same channel, they will interfere. The channel number will be in the center of the graph. Just look for you SSID and see if there are any others on the same or nearby channel.
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I think if you were going to use 2 wireless routers, it might look like this:
ISP modem> 4300---->1st PC
---->2nd Router, Wired to back of 4300> wireless connection to PC in room thats 75 ft away.
The main issue is probably the LAN cable going from the 4300 to the 2nd router. This can be done how ever the cable would need to be hidden and such. If you can get the 2nd router to work as a bridge or RELAY device and if it can connect wirelessly to the main 4300 wifi broadcast, this would illuminate the LAN cable. However some routers don't have this ability natively. Reason why I mentioned extenders and relay units. If you can handle the LAN cable in the mix and still use the 2nd router, then you can work with this. I have this done in my living room.
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I think if you were going to use 2 wireless routers, it might look like this:
ISP modem> 4300---->1st PC
---->2nd Router, Wired to back of 4300> wireless connection to PC in room thats 75 ft away.
The main issue is probably the LAN cable going from the 4300 to the 2nd router. This can be done how ever the cable would need to be hidden and such. If you can get the 2nd router to work as a bridge or RELAY device and if it can connect wirelessly to the main 4300 wifi broadcast, this would illuminate the LAN cable. However some routers don't have this ability natively. Reason why I mentioned extenders and relay units. If you can handle the LAN cable in the mix and still use the 2nd router, then you can work with this. I have this done in my living room.
so having both routers in the same exact room extends the wireless signal? i thought i had to hook the 2nd wireless router to the pc in the room 75 feet away
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Here's a diagram of the DGL-4300/WRT54GL part (1st subnet) of my network. Any wireless devices connect to either (DGL-4300) SSID1 or (WRT54GL) SSID2 and are assigned IP by the DHCP Server (DGL-4300).
Hope this helps.
Internet Router
--------------------- Subnet 1 Router
|WAN | DHCP Server 1 WAP
------------------- ------------------- -------------------
|Sub1 Sub2 Sub3 Sub4| | DGL-4300 WIFI|o))-SSID1 | WRT54GL WIFI|o))-SSID2
| 0 1 2 3 | ----------------- -----------------
--------------------- | WAN 0 1 2 3 | | WAN 0 1 2 3 |
| | | | ------------------- -------------------
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
'---+----+----+------------' '--+--+--+--------------------' | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | X | | X X
| | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
| | | ---------- | | ---------- | |
| | | | SWITCH |--' | | SWITCH |----' |
| | | ---------- | ---------- |
| | | |||||||| | |||||||| |
| | | (Wired Hosts) | (Wired Hosts) |
| | | | |
| | | ---------- | |
| | | | SWITCH |-----' Wired Host|----'
| | | ----------
| | | ||||||||
| | | (Wired Hosts)
| | |
| | |
| | Sub4 Router
| |
| Sub3 Router
|
Sub2 Router
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thanks as always! Could you please explain one thing me though.. How does have 2 routers right next to each other actually extend the signal to a room 75 feet away, where a extender device you would buy at a store is away from the main router?
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You're not actually extending the range of the wireless signal. You are "effectively" extending the range by adding a WAP (Wireless Access Point). WAPs are wired devices, that allow wireless devices to connect. These WAPs are also transparent to the network, meaning that they do not act as a router, but instead forward all packets to and from the devices they are connected to. As you can see on my network, I have 2 SSIDs and wireless devices can connect to either one and still use the DGL-4300 as the gateway, they don't even know (other than the SSID name) that they are connected to different hardware.
Your DGL-4300 provides 2 functions. #1 is a NAT Router. #2 is a Wireless Access Point (WAP).
Now, think of your wireless network as a sprinkler system for a lawn. You currently have your router, which is connected to the internet (using an ethernet cable). The sprinkler head (WAP) is right on top of your router and it sprays water out in a 50ft radius. Now, the lawn at 75 ft away is not getting wet. You need to connect a new water line (ethernet cable) to the router and run it out another 75ft, then connect another sprinkler head (another WAP) to the line. Now you have "effectively" extended your range of watering the lawn. You have not increased the water pressure, but you've placed another device that performs the same function as the first.
I hope this analogy helps.
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so check this out.... I followed the guide at: http://lifehacker.com/?_escaped_fragment_=178132/hack-attack-turn-your-60-router-into-a-600-router#!178132/hack-attack-turn-your-60-router-into-a-600-router
and it all works now. thanks!
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So what did you do? You loaded up the 2nd router with WRT?
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So what did you do? You loaded up the 2nd router with WRT?
Thats correct
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Kewl and your still using the 4300 as the main ISP router?
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Kewl and your still using the 4300 as the main ISP router?
I am