"Mathew Newton" wrote in message
...
On Apr 5, 10:44 am, Roderick Stewart

Otherwise as long as it all conforms to the same technical standards it
should be possible to configure anything to work with anything.

And therein lies the root of most of the problems.

So true. In particular, Wireless-N equipment seems to have compatibility
problems between one manufacturer and another - or even between Wireless-N
router and Wireless-G adaptor made by the same manufacturer.

I spent ages trying to get a Wireless-N Netgear router to work with a
Wireless-G Netgear adaptor that was bundled with the router: the connection
was intermittent, varied in signal strength or failed to connect at all when
the PC was first booted, requiring the device to be unplugged and replugged
a couple of times to kick it into action. The adaptor (I think Wireless-G)
built into a laptop seemed to work fine.

Changing the adaptor to a Netgear Wireless-N solved all the problems.

A reflector would have been very useful for one customer: her router was in
the house, where there was a phone line, but she needed internet access in a
wooden shed that was used as an office. The shed was on a different mains
phase so Ethernet-over-mains was a non-starter. Given that there was clear
line of sight and the distance was only about 20 yards, with the router on a
first floor looking through a window and with no obstructions, it is odd
that wireless coverage was rather indifferent. I wonder if the shed had any
foil lining on the inside of the plasterboard internal walls... Mind you,
the problem with a reflector is that it makes the signal *too* directional:
she also wanted wireless coverage inside the house which would probably be
severely attenuated by a directional aerial :-( She might have needed an
omni-directional aerial on the router to cover the house and then an access
point on a different channel, connected by Ethernet and fitted with a
reflector, to get the signal across to the shed.