Finally figured out my wireless problems.

Although I'm a little redfaced over the following, I thought I'd share the experience since it can easily happen.

1) I've had a Netgear WGR614 router/ap for about 2 years. (downstairs)
2) I added 2 wireless PC's (upstairs) a year ago.
3) Over the last 5-6 months, the connection gets dropped occasionally from the PC's (not from a laptop I use downstairs)
4) Lately, the upstairs PC's have had poor reception, more recent drops etc.
5) So I bought a Belkin pre-n and pc cards to upgrade the network.
6) I had tons of problems accessing the Belkin admin screens, and also hated not having logging (like the Netgear), so I returned the Belkin equipment.
7) Today, My sons PC kept loosing connections so we started REALLY trying to get a better signal (built a small parabolic reflector, didn't help), moved his PC - didn't help, moved the router - didn't help.
8 Finally my son (14 yrs old) had an epiphany (maybe we are picking up a different network on the same channel)!!!!
9) My SSID wasn't showing up (I racked it up to lame software, since I was getting a network connection).
10) To test the theory, we unplugged the router, and his throughput IMPROVED !
11) Changed the channel on our Router and now all the PC's have very good or Excellent signal strength. The Parabolic reflector, (made with foam, aluminum foil and scotch tape) really makes my sons PC have a strong signal (only 30ft from router with 2 walls in the way).

Anyway, I thought I would share. The neighbors network is named 'default', so it didn't raise any suspicions seeing that show up with the correct channel etc. I use MAC address security, so the client security settings are the same. We weren't seeing 2 networks, since they both had the same settings (not sure why our SSID wasn't showing up instead of the 'default' one, since we have the strongest signal???)

But I think the issue is resolved and it didn't cost me any $$'s for hardware!

Just thought I'd share.

Later, and Merry Christmas,
AJ

Linksys wrt54g one is good..

I'd recommend any current linksys product, even for wireless though some people complain the range isn't as far as others out there.