WiFi signal booster

suusja

Hello,

I have FiOS in my house. Router is in a basement but PC and WiFi TV are on the first floor. WiFi signal is OK for PC to browse internet and etc but when I try to stream movie from PC to TV it ofter buffer and pause. Tech support said it's likely due to week signal and recommended to use booster.

Could you please recommend me?

Thanks in advance

jmw1950

Wi-Fi unfortunately shares spectrum with a number of other uses, and while the issue could be signal strength more likely it is an interference problem. It doesn't take much to intefere with streaming video, and prospects for sucessful streaming video across a Wi-Fi connection being 100% reliable are not good. There are some things you can try however. While in theory 802.11g can provide 54mbps, the real world limit tends to be in the 10-20mbps range. To be honest you are likely to be a lot happier with a wired connection of some sort.

1). Change the channel WiFi is operating on. You can log into the router and go to the wireless settings and try another channel. the default is usually automatic, which ends up as channel 11. The non-overlaping channels are 1,6 and 11, so try 1 and 6 and see if it makes any difference (your PC will find the network regardless of the channel).

2). Buy a 802.11n wireless access point (if you PC supports 802.11n dual band). 802.11n supports much higher data rates than the 802.1b/g in most Verizon supplied routers. It also operates in two bands, one of which has both more spectrum, and fewer users, so you are more likely to get substantially better bandwidth (and better streamig video performance) with 802.11n than with standard 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.

3).Use a wired connection of some kind. If you can run Cat5 wiring from the router to your PC, that would be ideal, failing that you can use a device like a powerline ethernet adapter to obtain higher data rates that are not subject to interference from other services in the 2.4Ghz band. These devices utilize your household electric wiring to propogate the Ethernet signal.

4). If you have a Coax outlet for FiOS television nearby, you can use a MoCA adapter to provide a wired connection to the router. These devices convert MoCA ethernet to standard Cat5 style Ethernet.

The lowest cost of these is the Motorola NIM100, While no longer in production, they can often be found on ebay. A number of companies, including Actiontec make similar devices. This connects to your router via the Coaxial Cable. If you already have a device on the coax connection in the room, you will need a bi-directional splitter rated to at least 1Ghz to provide a 2nd coax connection. MoCA bandwidth is quite high, and Verizon delivers VOD via MoCA, so it clearly has the capacity to support streaming video.