will "enhanced" 802.11g devices help interference?

8 Mar 2005 4:01 PM

WCH

I've got a 802.11g wireless network in my home (Linksys equipment almost
entirely) and, while it works pretty well, the range isn't as good as
I'd like and it is subject to interference from my 2.4Gig cordless
phones, microwave oven and other "usual suspects". I've just read up on
the latest group of enhanced wireless routers that supposedly increase
range, increase throughput and reduce interference from other sources
(Linksys Wireless-G with SRX, D-Link SuperG with MIMO and something
coming out from Netgear). The reviews I've read say they work at least
reasonably well. OK. I've got two basic questions.

#1 -- How do they affect the OTHER DEVICES? Like my cordless phones?
Will these more powerful routers just drown out the signal to my
cordless phones so I can't use them properly? ALL of our phones are
cordless, and we use Vonage for our long distance, so increasing
interference on our cordless phones would be a disaster.

#2 -- Will we see a significant improvement with one of these new
routers even if we kept our existing 802.11g "cards" (some Linksys pc
cards), one Linksys PCI card, one Linksys USB adapter, one 3Com pc
card)? I'm less interested in improving throughput than I am
eliminating dead spots, improving signal strength and reducing
interference. Would I have to buy new adapters TOO to realize those
benefits?

Thanks for any information.
WC

8 Mar 2005 4:52 PM

Peter Pan

WCH wrote:
Show quoteHide quote

> I've got a 802.11g wireless network in my home (Linksys equipment
> almost entirely) and, while it works pretty well, the range isn't as
> good as I'd like and it is subject to interference from my 2.4Gig
> cordless phones, microwave oven and other "usual suspects". I've
> just read up on the latest group of enhanced wireless routers that
> supposedly increase range, increase throughput and reduce
> interference from other sources (Linksys Wireless-G with SRX, D-Link
> SuperG with MIMO and something coming out from Netgear). The reviews
> I've read say they work at least reasonably well. OK. I've got two
> basic questions.
> #1 -- How do they affect the OTHER DEVICES? Like my cordless phones?
> Will these more powerful routers just drown out the signal to my
> cordless phones so I can't use them properly? ALL of our phones are
> cordless, and we use Vonage for our long distance, so increasing
> interference on our cordless phones would be a disaster.
>
> #2 -- Will we see a significant improvement with one of these new
> routers even if we kept our existing 802.11g "cards" (some Linksys pc
> cards), one Linksys PCI card, one Linksys USB adapter, one 3Com pc
> card)? I'm less interested in improving throughput than I am
> eliminating dead spots, improving signal strength and reducing
> interference. Would I have to buy new adapters TOO to realize those
> benefits?
>
> Thanks for any information.
> WC

Welcome to the world of advertising and making things sound better than they
really are. There is no change in the power output, just new software that
encodes signals different (only certain cards work with certain AP's). Most
of the older cards have new drivers that have the new compression/encoding
stuff.

As to your interference prob, have you tried changing channels? (the stuff
you have now, has 11 channels, and defaults to 6.. Try changing it to
channel 1 or 11.

Chances are, you will NOT eliminate any "dead spots".. Look into the myriad
of external antennas for the wap/routers that provide a degree of signal
increase and can be postioned in different ways.

11 Mar 2005 4:22 AM

JB

"WCH" <DELwhexeter***@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:jr2dnbKC86ZUVrDfRVn-2A@comcast.com...

>
> #1 -- How do they affect the OTHER DEVICES? Like my cordless phones? Will
> these more powerful routers just drown out the signal to my cordless
> phones so I can't use them properly? ALL of our phones are cordless, and
> we use Vonage for our long distance, so increasing interference on our
> cordless phones would be a disaster.

There's no extra interference. In fact, it rarely works that way. Other 2.4
gadgets slow the wireless signal (MIMO is much less susceptable), but I have
a few different routers and my 2.4 cordless is always crystal clear.

> interference. Would I have to buy new adapters TOO to realize those
> benefits?

Yup. If you go MIMO, which can give you as much as 1500 feet of coverage,
you will need MIMO cards. Otherwise, you will run at standard G at 300 feet.