Internet Signal

[draven9]

My computer is part of our home network, and I get the signal with my laptop wirelessly. Running Win 7 Ultimate btw. I get a perfect signal all the time, 5 bars, with my laptop, but when I was using my desktop I only got 3/5 bars most of the time. I'm just curious as to what the difference is that is making my desktop only get 3 bars.

 

[Jantech]

Wireless is not a perfect link like hardwired Ethernet. Some of the things that could be affecting it are:

Distance from router
Type of wireless card
Wireless card placement
Obstacles

These are just a few

 

[draven9]

My desktop has a wireless card with one of those directional antenna things, and my laptop has an internal card. As for obstacles, well there is a wall in between the router and where I am. I'm thinking of reverting my desktop back to XP, so that I can try this other adapter (its not compatible with Win 7) and see what kind of signal I get with it.

 

[hang-the-9]

Put the laptop in the same spot as the PC, check the signal on both then.

 

[steimy]

There are just too many factors to know off the top of my head.

But if you have a secure wireless network, then all of the security settings would be what i checked first:
SSID name, type of encryption (WEP, WPA), TKIP or AES, and the security key.

As far as drivers for the card they could be found by going to control panel->system->device manager->network adapters.

Left click to select it, then right click and the option to update drivers will be there (Windows 7). I think in XP you had to go into the network adapter and then there were tabs and one of them you could update the drivers.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/help/wired-and-wireless-network-connection-problems-in-windows