Bright Box Range

Hi,

I just switched from eclipse internet service provider (Belkin router), to EE (Bright Box).
I have never had problems before regarding strength of connection anywhere around the house. However since my 'upgrade', I only have 1 of 4 bars at the far side of the house.
Does anyone know what the issue could be? It was advertised as having a range of 250 metres!

Thanks.

Edited by deleted (Mon 17-Dec-12 00:45:29)

Try switching channels.

But is it a problem? Do you connect nevertheless?

Is the Bright Box in "exactly the same position" as the Belkin?

Have you tried substituting the Belkin at least temporarily, to confirm?

You could connect the Belkin to the Bright Box, as an additional WAP, with the necessary changes such DHCP.

If you do the latter, you could reserve your Bright Box for your own "private" connections, whilst anyone else who already has access to the Belkin would be unaware of the change. I have done this with my original Live Box.

Or do it the other way round, so giving yourself the apparent original range and strength of the Belkin, whilst restricting any guests by changing their connections to the Bright Box.

Have you tried the Bright Box router wireless connection with different wireless modes? There are lots to work with.

11n only
11b+11g
11b+11g+11n

Channel Auto or 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Bandwith 20MHz or 20/40MHz

Use this function to connect to the best available wireless channel � [intelligent wireless]

Hi guys, thanks for all your replies.

The issue was my son had connected a Vodaphone Sure Signal, which appeared to reduce the performance of the router considerably.

Does anyone know why?

Thanks.

Never heard of the Vodafone Sure Signal device before. I didn�t know there was such a device.

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phone...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vodafone-Sure-Signal-3G-Boos...

This is the one we have. It works great for boosting signal but it seems to sap the life out of the router.

Does the BrightBox wireless signal get stronger when you unplug that Vodaphone Sure Signal from it? I presume they are connected by cable.

It is creating a 3G signal which should not interfere with the wireless performance.
If you unplug the ethernet cable from the sure signal and leave the sure signal running do things improve?

Yes if I unplug the sure box (which is connected via ethernet cable to the router) the signal strength goes up to 4/4 bars. As soon as it is connected signal strength is reduced to 1 or 2 /4 bars.

I'm not very tech savvy so I have no idea what is causing this.

Unplug, as in the ethernet cable or the power?

http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Vodafone-Sure-Signal/...
http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Vodafone-Sure-Signal/...

You aren't the only one. I have the older model so might not affect me. Solution seems to be to ensure the Sure Signal is a few metres from the wifi router, at a guess the wifi antennas are picking up the signal and getting swamped, even though the frequencies should be being ignored by the wireless router

In theory a device using 2.1GHz should not be messing up with a 2.4GHz service

Then the Vodaphone Sure Signal box is the culprit and must be dragging power from the BrightBox

That explains it then.
I moved it as far away as the wire will allow, and now signal fluctuates between 3 or 4 /4 bars (stays mostly on 3 bars). Definitely still some interference but it is an improvement.

I'm guessing there is no simple work around for this issue? To be honest it has significantly improved so it's not as much of a problem as it was before.

Thanks.

I just unplugged the Sure Signal again and the full 4 bars hasn't been restored. It appears the Sure Signal does incapacitate the router to some extent, but the router still isn't providing full strength signal.
The Bright Box is located 2 rooms away on the same floor (not near walls or other electronic devices). How can a router that claims to have a distance of 250 metres not provide full signal to a room not very far away?

Thanks

Edited by deleted (Tue 18-Dec-12 01:11:44)

In reply to a post by soziblewuup:

The Bright Box is located 2 rooms away on the same floor (not near walls or other electronic devices). How can a router that claims to have a distance of 250 metres not provide full signal to a room not very far away?

250m is based on an open field with no interference from neighbours and no buildings or walls. It's line of sight in the open.

2 rooms away suggests at-least 2 walls. Walls are not good for wireless range. Generally 4 / 5 walls is the limit for wireless range.
You can be 2m away from the router but if there's a really thick concrete wall in-between there will likely be no signal.

Conversely you can be 100m away. With no walls it would be fine.

Add ontop of this wireless interference. The Belkin router may have used a channel that your next door neighbour is not using.

The brightbox might now be using a channel that the next door neighbours using.

With the brightbox there's now that extra level of interference to combat.

Add ontop of this the fact that cordless landlines, microwaves, baby monitors, cordless doorbells, cordless burgular alarms, wireless TV senders and many more also generally use 2.4Ghz.

Even more interference.

Now add ontop of that bluetooth interference from wireless keyboards, mouses, iPhones, mobiles, laptops, macbooks, iPads. Also on 2.4ghz.

It's very easy to see how this 250m very easily diminishes into nowhere near that level.

I would say. In the same room expect full signal.
1 wall I would still expect full signal. Perhaps 1 bar less if the walls thick.
2 walls I would expect between half and full signal.
3 / 4 walls I would expect to see a significant drop in performance. Anywhere between lowest and medium signal. I would also start seeing Youtube HD etc to start struggling. Mobile devices would probably start dropping out / not finding the signal.
5 walls I would expect almost terrible connection. Perhaps no streaming possible. Regular drop outs on all devices.

This is my general experience.

Floors are easier to penetrate than walls generally.
The reason for wifi troubles is generally down to interference from so many other devices. You're not just contending with other routers but also nearly every other cordless device.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 18-Dec-12 02:35:30)

Morning all

I looked at the comments on the Amazon page for the Vodaphone device. The following in the first comment seems to be typical-

"I went from little or no signal anywhere in the house, to full 5 bars 3G signal everywhere in the house and garden."

This raises the question of what is the output power of the device, if it can have such a dramatic effect on the phone side?

Pretty low, as you can get full bars at a fairly low power if close to the device. Range of my SureSignal is around the same as a wireless router believe it is 20mW

This Vodaphone Sure Signal is a hardware solution to the problem of no or weak signal from the mobile network, with the consequence of interference with other hardware like the router.

Were you on the Orange mobile network, it seems they have a software solution, Orange's "Signal Boost" app on the phone, that wouldn't have these issues (but might have others): http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/general/f/4189844-i...

There is a new version of the Sure Signal. I wonder if it still causes the same problem?
http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/mobile-accessories/s...

More expensive? The two frequencies shouldn't theoretically interfere. Perhaps it's just an issue with this router / wireless card installed & not something that's across the board.

Certainly when I used it I had no issues.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 24-Dec-12 06:17:40)