s0ssos

I had a few experiences where I was outside the hotel and wifi was still connected. Near the Park Inn Prague, at least 200 meters away, wifi still working.
In Radisson Blu Nydalen the same thing.
In the US wifi has a pretty short reach, what is different in Europe? Air is clearer? Different technology? But my phone is the same.

nux

Probably less active networks on the same channel. Nothing specific to Europe.

PAX_fips

Heavily depends on frequency, location, usage and humidity.

lhrsfo

It must be the pixie dust in the air.

murtaza12

Directional Antennas
Frequency (2.4GHz usually has a higher range, compared to 5GHz)
Number of users on the channel
Power of the router/AP itself
TX Power
Location of the router/AP

Many more reasons why WiFi can be more powerful in some places and less powerful elsewhere.

LAXlocal

Are there simple things you can do to extend the range and signal power on your own home WiFi ?

how do you know what the router power is ?

thanks

s0ssos

So because air is cleaner? Really?

If directional antenna why would they point it outward?

PAX_fips

cleaner is pointed to water.. esp. on 2.4GHz networks.

stimpy

For 2.4Ghz Europe is way, way, way, weaker than the US. For 5Ghz it is mostly the same, but it depends which bands you use. So unless the owner of the AP is cheating and has set the power illegally high, there is probably another explanation.

murtaza12

For signal power? You mean link speed?
Use a channel on 2.4GHz (if that's what you use), that isn't occupied by conflicting APs such as your neighbours. Then set the Channel Width to 40 MHz to get 300 Mbps N Wi-Fi.

Budget routers or low-end dual band routers usually aren't high powered.
You can tinker with the TX Power if you have a custom firmware and a really high-end router.

If that's all too complicated, just use Extenders. They will definitely boost signal coverage, but will take a dump on your link speed/signal quality.

murtaza12

I've never heard this one before. I actually didn't know humidity affected WiFi.

If directional antenna why would they point it outward?[/QUOTE]

Dunno. Depends who did the networking in the hotel.

gfunkdave

This is terrible advice. 40MHz channels are not designed for 2.4GHz. They are designed to be used with the much less crowded 5.8GHz band. Using 40MHz on 2.4GHz means you will take up 9 of the 11 wifi channels and make everyone else's wifi performance suffer. As it is, 2.4GHz has only 3 real channels - 1, 6, and 11 - that do not interfere with each other when using a 20MHz channel width.

Using 40MHz on the 2.4GHz band makes you part of the problem, not part of the solution. If there aren't any relatively clear 2.4GHz channels then you should move to 5.8GHz.

stimpy

Actually those cheap routers can do high power. What people don't realize is that WiFi, even high powered Wifi, is very, very weak compared to most all other wireless transmissions. Your mobile phone is far more powerful. Europe limits 2.4Ghz to only 100mw on the AP. That is infinitesimal compared to a phone or a police walkie-talkie or a taxi radio or of course a 50,000 watt radio station transmitter.

But if you change the country code setting on that cheap AP to the US or another high powered country, it can go well over 1 watt and combined with a good antenna go to 4 watts of EIRP.

weekilter

I've been to lots of places around me that have WiFi a good distance from buildings but that's leakage that you can get anywhere that has good WiFi. Usually bigger places such as libraries have re-broadcast of their WiFi. I consider myself a WiFi moocher and try to get on non-secured networks and I find lots of networks available at times that are wide open and unsecured. I would not do banking transactions but for quick and dirty access to the net it's there and you do what you have to since I'm too cheap to buy data for my phone.

WorldLux

The question however remains why one would need to do that. I have a router that creates a 2.4 GHz Network that spans vertically over 4 floors and thru very thick ceilings (that blocks any high-speed network on mobile phones, despite there being excellent infrastructure).

On the other hand, the multiple 5 GHz networks are strictly limited to a specific floor. They have a sufficient horizontal range (40 to 80 meters). That is more than sufficient for most flats and houses.