Why does my wifi stop durring downloads of movies?

Question

I have a D-link modem, router, and usb wireless adapter hooked up to a cable modem. My computer is on the second floor and the router is in the basement. i get about a 50% signal strength and 100% signal quality. When downloading form limewire or bittorent, even when i limit the bandwidth used for downloading, my signal strenth will disappear, but the quailty stays at 100%, but the internet is not accessable. I have to restar the whole computer. Will installing a higher gain antenna on the router work? or should i install a PCI card with a higher gain antenna instead? I am the only computer using this wireless network.

Answer 1

This can be caused by many different items. Before anything else I would try to improve the signal. A good test would be to move closer to the router and see it the situation still exists. (It can be a pain but is worth the time to find out.)

If that works then adding a high gain antenna to the router might work. You really need better than 50%. The QOS indication is not always that accurate. You can verify with ping.
Just click start --- run --- command --- ping 192.168.1.1 /t (or whatever your router IP is and see) If you drop any packets you have a signal problem! Get 100 or so responses for checking.

Other issues that can affect this are the channel you are using.
Try another one, If you are using channel 6 log into the router and try channel 1 or 11. You may just be getting some interferance from some other device (like a cordless phone, a microwave oven, or even a noisy flourescent lamp!)