Originally Posted by Samson
i don't see any reason to buy an antenna for my current router.. because theres gotta be something wrong with it. For the first couple years.. it worked great anywhere in the house. Now, you walk 10 feet away from it, and the connection drops completely.
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I do have a question though.. i want to upgrade to Verizon FIOS as soon as its available here (its available 5 miles from me already...).. what kind of router would i need for this?
2 things.
Yes, an antenna would help out. Your wireless signal is probably being overrun by other wireless signals near by. You just said your neighbors is stronger than yours and you are in the same room. You can get an antenna for less than $15 that will give you a 5db or higher gain. Every 3db is like doubling your power.
2nd, no special router is needed. For basic internet stuff, even if it's FIOS, a router is a router is a router. You won't be able to tell the diffrence between your several year old one and a brand new $200 one. Why? Because the max limits on the old one and new one are well above what your internet connection is.
Now if you go with the super FIOS, the 15mb and higher services, then you might need to at least upgrade from 802.11b to something like 802.11g. But you won't see a huge diffrence unless you do a lot of big downloads.