I was at a neighbors house last night and we got to talking about his computer situation. He has a Netgear wireless router in the basement. His computer is a Dell tower on the second floor. He has a "low" signal strength. When I looked at it, I opened up the icon on the bottom right that listed all his wireless networks. 4-5 networks were listed, his netgear network was listed at the top and said it was connected. The other wireless networks seem to be other families in the neighborhood because they are named and we recognized the names. I wanted to delete the other networks to see if it would IMPROVE the signal strength of his netgear router but could not do it....I am not even sure if this would help.

Anyone have any ideas on how to trouble shoot this signal strength issue ?You can't delete other networks. That's like saying you want to "delete" channel 5 to see if you will get better reception on channel 4  It would cause less interference but that wouldn't help your situation too much and it can't be done.

He could get Wireless N or a high gain antenna for his computer and that would increase signal. He could also repostition the router around the basement to see where the signal would be best.

Is his speed affected by him not having "high" signal strength? Does his connection stop at times? If no, then it's nothing to worry about.You could possibly try to SWITCH the router to use a different frequency. I think 1, 6, and 11 are the three you should try. There are 11 channels I'm pretty sure but if your default channel is the same as every other in the neighborhood your signal will not be good.

Please correct me if I'm WRONG.The recommendation is to place the "wireless ACCESS point" high rather than low.  The basement, while convenient, is not the optimum location (or so I thought).  See Improving Wireless Range: Choosing the Best Locations. Quote from: SmittySr on December 27, 2009, 08:57:16 AM

You could possibly try to switch the router to use a different frequency. I think 1, 6, and 11 are the three you should try. There are 11 channels I'm pretty sure but if your default channel is the same as every other in the neighborhood your signal will not be good.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.