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What causes a good wifi signal? Speed or Antenna?

My girlfriend has a DSL modem/router combo in the basement of her house and she cant receive a signal upstairs. The speed of her DSL is only 5MB/sec. The reason it is downstairs is that is where the original owner put some special DSL jack in the wall. I have tried a range extender and it still didn't work well at all. I was wondering if I spend the money to replace her modem and router with a higher end model would it help?

3 Answers

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  • 8 years ago
    Favourite answer

    Distance.

    Other electronic devices can also distort the quality of a signal.

    I think.

  • GTB
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    Wireless signals, like everything else, weaken with distance. Further if they are expected to penetrate through denser building materials the weakening gets even worse. For example, can you shine a flashight beam from basement to the second floor?

    Sometimes you need to run a cable to the router and connect a second wireless access point on the first or second floor. I suspect you need to do that here.

  • pmc123
    Lv 6
    8 years ago

    Wireless signals are a function of distance and line of sight - the more stuff is in the way, the weaker the signal. Installing a router with a higher gain will do you no good - the router may offer a better signal, but the NIC in the device will still be unable to respond. A range extender (ethernet over household power lines) is your best option.

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