wifi?

hi .. i have a dell from states with internal wifi, and i have broadband at home with a router... that i get my connection from, but the only place i can get acess in my bedroom, even in the living room i can get connected and its saying excellent but cant get it to work or open any applications...what am i doing wrong, the antenna is straight up... im not a tech person, so any help would be great thanks, amy

Has it just stopped working?  (Sorry for 20 million questions.)

Are you sure you're recieving the signal from your router at home and not a neighbor? 
      Have you named your home router / network?  You'll need to remember to look for just that connection when connecting to a network.
I know this is a stupid question, but are you also sure that your router is wireless?

Also, do you know what type of signal your router is sending out - is it able to be recieved by your laptop?     (Not all wireless cards can recieve all signals...)

hi thanks for the reply, yes its our home connection, everyone else has their locked, like my neighbours, and also i connect to our conntection.. cause of the name of our connnection;) and it works only in the bedroom, iguess iwill call virgin..the router is wireless:)  thanks again, amy

It's hard to make more than general suggestions without seeing what's going on.

Where is wireless router in relation to the bedroom and other locations?  Is it located where nearby objects might be affecting the signal adversely?  (By a radiator, for example.)

Try moving the router around to a different location, even if you just sit it on a table in the middle of the room as a trial to see if it improves the signal.   Do you have any other devices (TV etc.) running near the other locations where you're trying to use the wireless computer?    If so, try turning them off to see if it improves matters.

We had a similar problem when we first moved in. We have PC's all over the house and my husbands desktop in the backroom just wasnt picking up a signal. We had a Belkin wireless router which was a "G" if that makes any sense to anyone. We upgraded it to an "N" which has a wireless range of 300m and everythings just fine.

Rather than start a whole new thread, I'll ask here:

We have 1 PC and 2 Macs in the house.  We also have a BT wireless hub which we have never set up because we're not sure what exactly the Macs need (one is an iMac and the other has the separate hard drive) to run the wifi along with the PC.  Anyone know?

Hiya

Mspotts

Reading what you've typed, you say you 'can' get a 'connection' in the living room and bedroom but nothing seems to work in terms of applications.. meaning internet conectivity, sharing of printers, sharing of network drives etc etc ISNT working?

Or is it that you CAN get a connection AND get access to the internet and shared printers etc but ONLY from the bedroom?

that last bit indicates to me right off that although the signal quality is there, it may be 'unstable' - could be a number of things, signal interference on the same channel from other nearby routers (try changing the channel on your router and then on all PC's that need to access it) driver issues, and just the 'unluckiness' that various items in yoru house are causing signal variations. Do you have a fishtank by any chance? water is a great 'absorber' of wifi signals, do you have brick internal walls or the flimsier stud wall type? various metallic objects can cause signal fluctuations. Also, do you have a wireless DECT phone? if so, they have been known to interefere with wifi signals. On top of that, signal leakage from microwaves, mobile phones, tv signals can to a certain extent cause this type of problem.

Peedal

I think you need to equip the MAC's with a wireless wifi adaptor (as well as the PC) these are like 'aerials' to pickup the signal being sent out by the router. Easiest way is USB ones which just 'plug into' a spare usb port saving you from opening up the innards of a machine. From that point on, I don't think it matters if it's a PC or MAC thats connected. I think you might have to buy adaptors that ARE MAC certified, but im not 100% sure. Nip into an Apple store or on their website and see if they have wi'fi adaptors. Other than that, you should find it relatively straighforward to get them connected.
Disclaimer is - I've personally as yet not used MACs (thinking about checking them out to see what the fuss is all about!) so I'm not so upto speed on all their seemingly overpriced extra's as well. Theoretcially they shouldn't be any different from a PC wi-fi setup.

Wi-fi is very very popular indeed, and looks like I'm keeping my setup for now although I'm going to bolster it with Powerline networking - basically that is where you use the property's mains wiring to send networking signals for computers around the property. When you have the inevitable wi-fi dead spots this solution effectively and neatly sorts the problem. Should also be easily workable for these MAC thingy's too!!

Hope this helps yer both a bit!

Cheers! DtM! West London & Slough UK!

If worse comes to worse you can make a call into a BT call centre, where they'll offer some help.  I'm only aware of this because my lovely boyfriend works in one...

susan o,

I've got 'mixed' experiences with BT Broadband support - admittedly it was Business Broadband and they do have a 'bit more of a clue' - but I had to bypass some of the front liners to get to a supervisor who could then apologise and give me more correct information!

That said, I have noticed over the past 18 months or so, that the BT front liner's have improved on their knowledge - maybe some of the training budget is filtering down to them!

there was a period of about 3 weeks where I wanted to drive down to a BT call centre and slap them all silly !!!  but i didn't!

DtM! West London & Slough UK!

hi... thanks everyone for their replies and advices:) have a great evening, amy