Wireless Network Issues

Ever since I moved my cable modem an router to the basement I've been having inconsistent internet service with my laptop that I use mostly upstairs. Prior to moving the modem and router, I rarely if ever had any problems. We used to have them in the living room and we'd use the laptop in the kitchen/dining room which was about 10-15' away. The modem and router are only about twice that far away but now they're downstairs.

Here's some info on my equipment:

PC: Gateway laptop running Windows 7
Cable modem: RCA DHG535-2
Router: Netgear Wireless N router WNR1000v2
ISP: Comcast

Some things that I've tried:

1.) Unplugging the power to the router and then the modem, plug the modem in and let it fully cycle on, plug in the router and let it fully cycle on, try to connect to the internet.

2.) Directly connect the laptop to the router via cable.

I called Comcast and they said that they no longer support the Netgear router (which I got from them) because the manufacturer doesn't support it any more. The lady suggested keeping the computer connected to the router for a couple of days or buying a new wireless router (she suggested a Motorolla surfboard that has docsys 2 or docsys 3).

Today I tried running a speed test (speedtest.net) and got mediocre numbers wireless, good numbers when I connected wired, and then ok numbers wireless. This is kind of the ongoing issue that we've been having. Because I keep the Xbox wired (always have) I haven't noticed any issues with it (yet).

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be much appreciative of some help. I'm one of those people that knows just enough to be kinda useful when it comes to computers and networking.

If you have the wireless turtle beach headphones and the base unit is on and its by the router , then turn it off the tb unit, they cause all kinds of probs

In my experience the higher (physically) the wifi signal the better. Why not move it back to the second floor?

Here are the facts I've gathered from your post:

Most relevant:
+Router is now downstairs
+Modem is plugged in to a different jack
+Router is twice the distance from computers as it was before (15' before 30' now)

Less relevant, still useful:
-Router is no longer supported by ISP
-Numbers are better when wired in to router

The problem...
The most obvious problem I'm seeing here is the distance. As routers age they become less effective. So doubling the distance it is being used at PLUS going through a ceiling... that alone will add a lot of signal loss. When I'm installing wireless Access Points I consider corners or walls very heavily. Wireless does not do well through walls.

Now, if the signal difference you got when testing wired vs wireless is fairly normal. Wired technology is faster. I personally won't game on wireless because I notice too much fo a difference.

How to troubleshoot it?
First off, plug it back in where it used to be. If you stop having problems you know it is the location you moved it to.
If it's still having issues then:
-The router or modem happened to start having issues when you moved it. Probably bad luck. Replace one or both.

If you do replace them and still have issues I can go over how to test your line stats.

Don't know if this may help but there is a free program out that will allow you to turn your computer into a hotspot or repeater. I have used this program for the last four months and it works great have been able to use my computers wifi to play on xbox live with zero lag.

This is the fix for those who travel and stay in hotels where you find it hard to connect your xbox to their internet service.

I have the paid version just because I can get updates and stuff but I know several people who are still using the free one it would be worth a try.

http://www.connectify.me/

Also here are a few videos that I found on you tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPgrAOuiWuk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFEkcRXkf_g

@Droopy - my TB wireless stand is in the same spot (relative to the router and modem) as it was upstairs. The TB stand is on the left side of the tv stand and the router is on the right. This didn't cause any problems when they were upstairs, but I'll try moving this around.

@SG - The only reason I moved the router and modem downstairs is so that I could keep the Xbox hard wired into the router. I don't want to spend the money on the wireless adapter and I don't want to deal with connectivity and speed issues when using the Xbox

As for the other ideas, I will try playing around with those and see changes they make.

Something else that I forgot to mention is that before I moved everything around the icon for the wireless connection in the notification box was the rising bars. Now it has changed to like a little computer with a cable (according to MS this is still for the network) but it is X'd out. Supposedly this means that the connection is disabled or not connected. However, when I check all the settings it appears as though the computer is connected wirelessly and that everything is working fine. I've confirmed this by signing into the router and it says that the PC is connected to the network wirelessly. Not sure what's going on here. It was when this icon changed (same time I moved everything) that the problems started.

So I've been playing around with this a little bit now that I have some free time and I've started with the simplest solution - turning off the base to my TB's and it seems to be working. Thank you, Droopy, for the suggestion. I figured it wouldn't be an issue since they were the same distance from the router upstairs but taking into account the router is now in a basement and twice as far away from the computer I'm guessing the interference was more noticeable.



I've run a couple tests and this seems to be where I'm settling in right now, which was closer to where I used to be. I'll be good with this.

Thanks again to everyone that offered their advice and expert opinions. Hopefully this will solve the problem. I usually just kept the base on out of convenience but I can deal with turning it on when I grab the headset off the base. Since I'm not usually using my headset when the computer is in use, it shouldn't be a problem.

Cool, I went threw 2 different routers exchanges/return and a laptop exchange/return before I figured the problem !

I'm pretty sure that the base for the TB's was the problem. We've been having no problems (knock on wood) since I've started doing that. Nice to know that at least one minor annoyance I have at the house was able to be fixed for free.