I want to change my computer layout, need your advice...

Cordless phones in the 2.4 GHz band and other wireless networks near by can cause interference. Here is a cool little app that might help. inSSIDer Wi-Fi Scanner | MetaGeek Run this on your laptop to see how many other wifi networks are close by. Once you have it running you may see a channel that is less occupied by other networks. Then you just manually set your router to that channel. You can also play around with adjusting your antenna(s) on the router to get the best signal. This app will also show you if you are correctly setup for full N speeds. Once you find your SSID in the list check the max rate column to see if you are listed as 300(N).If your wireless N is capable of using the 5 GHz band that may also help. It's probably less occupied, at least for now. The only thing you don't want to do over wireless is update the firmware on the router.

mlevy said:

TVeblen, while having a gigabit switch is nice, if it's only for one PC (as the OP has) it's not necessary. Home internet will come nowhere NEAR saturating even a 100 Mbit router connection. Heck, I have 2 PCs and streaming media from one to the other is FINE even on a WRT54GL (100 Mbit wired connections).

So essentially you're saying that I should have no issue with my wireless connection then eh ? Windows says the speed is 130 Mbps

thanks for all your input guys ! alphanumeric I'll look into that little app you mentioned !

alphanumeric said:

Cordless phones in the 2.4 GHz band and other wireless networks near by can cause interference. Here is a cool little app that might help. inSSIDer Wi-Fi Scanner | MetaGeek Run this on your laptop to see how many other wifi networks are close by. Once you have it running you may see a channel that is less occupied by other networks. Then you just manually set your router to that channel. You can also play around with adjusting your antenna(s) on the router to get the best signal. This app will also show you if you are correctly setup for full N speeds. Once you find your SSID in the list check the max rate column to see if you are listed as 300(N).If your wireless N is capable of using the 5 GHz band that may also help. It's probably less occupied, at least for now. The only thing you don't want to do over wireless is update the firmware on the router.

Hey this is what it gave me. Should I be concerned about anything ?

-40db is a good strong signal, I'm getting about -50db on my PC upstairs, my routers in my basement. Your router's using 2 channels which is normal for full N. Not sure why it says 270(N) though as mine says 300(N). My router and wifi card are both D-Link, DIR-655 and a DWA-552 with a ANT24-0230 added. As you can see a lot of the channels overlap so it can get pretty cluttered. The only channels that don't overlap with each other are 1, 6 and 11, so they get used a lot. Only time will tell. The other wifi networks signals are a lot lower than yours so that should reduce interference.

TVeblen said:

mlevy said:

TVeblen, while having a gigabit switch is nice, if it's only for one PC (as the OP has) it's not necessary. Home internet will come nowhere NEAR saturating even a 100 Mbit router connection. Heck, I have 2 PCs and streaming media from one to the other is FINE even on a WRT54GL (100 Mbit wired connections).

I never mentioned a switch.

"Gigabit router" implies a router with a built-in gigabit switch. I stand by what I said...