Linksys (WRT54GC) Wireless Router questions

Here is my setup:

Left-wing room = PC with lan card (wired)

Middle room = no computer set up

Righ-wing room = iMac (wireless)

My wifi internet cable (from the roof) leads to the PC room. With the said setup, I was planning to place this either the PC room or the Middle room. PC room because the cable from the roof leads there, all fixed with u-nails so there's no way I'm gonna detach them from the walls. But if I place it in the PC room, I'm afraid that my iMac will get signal loss. Second option is the Middle room which is empty. Only cons are: (1) the PC room's lancard cable will travel from one room to another, which is an eye-sore. (2) the iMac room might get signal loss.

Are the walls gonna be an interference? How much signal strength it might reduce to my iMac?

I can set it up sitting next to my iMac to boost the signal strength, but my only cons are both the lancard cable from the PC and the wifi net connection from the roof THAT TRAVELS FROM THE PC ROOM FIRST, then to the floor in the right-wing room where the iMac resides.

I'm asking this because one of the reviews I've read said he is using this 1 floor (2 floors at some time) below the floor the router was set up; 4 out of 5 bars (48mbps) when it's one floor below and 2 out of 5 bars (11mbps) when it's 2 floors below.

Please shed some light. Thanks!

#442641

There is no formula to work out how much signal strength you might lose, its completely trial an error.

However, the obvious points are...

The further away the weaker the signal..

Thickness of walls, is there any metal plating in the walls, are they brick, concrete or drywall. Obviously the more the signal has to bounce or penetrate the less your gonna get.

Is there any other electrical equipment in between the line of signal like Microwaves, Av Senders, Satellites receivers or cordless phones (these may disrupt the signal)

The other thing is what do you use your network for?

If its gaming I wouldn't recommend wireless really andif you have no choice then the stronger the signal the less chance you will have of drop out.

If its just net surfing and a bit of downloading you probably wont notice any difference even if its running at 11mbps unless you have an Internet connection of above 11mbps how could you.

However if your using it to transfer large files across a network then you will want the stronger signal to maintain those transfer speeds.

My house is made of concrete and I have never had any real problems in any rooms on my laptop as far as wireless goes, nor as far as signal weakening.

Somethings for you to think about there

#442661

Mainly for internet sharing only.

Now I have a problem, I'm able to use this internet on the iMac, but I can't configure the PC on the other room yet. It's frustrating. Maybe because it's using a wired connection so I can't configure it right. Do I need to remove all the previous configs the lancard made and start the wizard where the router is already connected?

#442664