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)