Network Range Issue, Please Help A New Member!

Can someone please help me , i have bought a laptop a toshiba satellite netbook and my wifi signal keeps dissapearing unless i am in 10 -20 yards from router which is the standard one supplied by sky i thought it was maybe the router so convinced them to give me a new one but problem still remains ,what is making me more confused is that my iphone works perfecly well all around the house even outside in the garden and in my car in the drive .
If i stay around the door of my living room everything is fine as the router is in the front hall as thats were the main phone socket is but surely it should be better than that ????

Heres hoping you can help, Clarke

 

First, welcome to Computer Help Forums, clark!

Eventually this will need to be renamed and moved to the networking forum but for now let's just leave it until we are sure exactly where it belongs. First lets start with the the telephone issue. A mobile phone with wifi connectivity will always work on its own 3G or other network as part of your mobile phone service. I phones will work off the wifi until it is out of range and then connect to the mobile network.

If, you are noticing that it is still on wifi while out of range for the laptop the issue may be with the wireless card in the computer. Can you give us the make and model number of the modem/router supplied by sky? In addition, what is the model number of your Toshiba? It is possible that the computer may have a wireless G or b/g compatible card which has a smaller range that wireless N standard.

So perhaps a little more information would be a good idea.

EDIT: I did, in fact, rename and move this thread but have not changed a bit of the content.

 

Can you try connecting to a friends network - wirelessly ?

Although it will not have the same physical restraints ( walls etc ) it will give you some idea if the problem lies with the laptop.

Do you have wireless phones in the house?

 

we need more info really, what modes does the router support for one Wireless B & G & N are the 3 main standards from oldest to newest.

What you can find is that if you have wireless N on your router and your devices are only using G you get a reduced range.

As a rule the higher the mode (the more data it will allow to be utilised through the network but it does compromise the range and compatibility of older devices)

 

First off thanks for the quick reply ,i will include the model number of my laptop and router ,i should also mention i bought the laptop second hand so there is no warranty option to get it sorted .

laptop - toshiba satellite T110 -107
sky router - sagemcom there is two numbers on bottom of router i will give you both as neither says model number ,
serial number- NP1207901006656
mac-4C17EB9295A9
as Ken-b asked i do have wireless phones in the house and the main receiver is beside the router ,and my iphone is on wifi all round the house and never drops below 2 bars of wifi .I have also tried my mothers wifi at her house and its even worse ! you have to stand beside the router to get a good signal this is also a sky router but the old all black model (if that makes any any difference) so maybe there is a problem with the receiver in the laptop ? is this expensive/hard to fix???
thankyou for your help,Clarke

 

Given that you have tried at your mums and its the same, I would be looking at the adapter as Dragnet has suggested, if you have the slot a PCMCIA wireless card is better, I find with the USB ones that they tend to get bent at the USB side very easily.

Failing a new card are you using windows to control the settings to for the laptop to get onto the network or are you using the software distributed with the PC/Laptop?
I have always found software from the manufacturers shockingly bad and more complex than needed, so use the windows one if you arent already.