wireless signal question

hi. i have a question about my wireless connection. the signal strength of my wireless connection on my laptop is the same (60%) when im far away or near the router. is this normal? I use my laptop in my room, which is on the second floor of our house. my router is on the first level. i thought that if i will position my laptop in front of the router, the signal will be much higher. i tried it once but nothing has changed. it just stayed at 60%. just want to know what you guys think.

 

What wireless card do you have? If its an intel, then they have a driver fix for it and it will read 99% if you have a good signal!

 

Oh and here is the Link to the thread about the new driver--I installed the new driver and everything was fine. Mine ewas doing the same thing as yours and 100's of others.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=114335

 

Yes I woud do what iholla suggested update the drivers for card & router.

 

ok.. downloaded it and now im having full bar signal with 99%. sometimes it changes to 80 and then to 60% tho. maybe it's just because im not very close to the router. is there anything i should change in the advanced tab on the router properties? the channel should be the same on the router and card right?

 

Download something like netstumbler and check to see if the channel you're using is heavly populated sometime switching to a less used channel can help with signal strength, plus other devices on the 2.4GHz spectrum can interfer also.

 

downloaded netstumbler. when i open it.. there is a message on the bottom of the screen that says "access denied". my os is vista home premium.. maybe netstumbler doesnt support vista yet. or is it something else.

 

i figured it out.. i ran it as an administrator and the access denied message was gone. however, im receiving a message that says no APs active..

 

I would like to hear more about Netstumbler??? who all uses it?

Right from there forum it states:

"Microsoft's latest Operating System, Vista, is NOT one of the OSs that NetStumbler works under. The supported OSs are Windows 2000 and Windows XP".

 

I found Passmarks WirelessMon v2.0 very good and informative. Unlike other programs it has a radius around where you are and gives details of your position in relation to your router. I do believe it can also give accurate reasons why GPS sat nav has signal problems. There is a 30 day trial from passmark website and i also believe it requires administrator right to activate the NDIS drivers. As i was just peering over the shoulder of a colleague i cant specifie its full functions (sorry) but i think its definatly worth a look. Good luck on better signals

 

I found Passmarks WirelessMon v2.0 very good and informative. Unlike other programs it has a radius around where you are and gives details of your position in relation to your router. I do believe it can also give accurate reasons why GPS sat nav has signal problems. There is a 30 day trial from passmark website and i also believe it requires administrator right to activate the NDIS drivers. As i was just peering over the shoulder of a colleague i cant specifie its full functions (sorry) but i think its definatly worth a look. Good luck on better signals

 

Sometimes you need to use Windows connection repair. This clears all the DNS cache, etc, and usually benefits your signal strength.