Unfortunately, every manufacturer's utility is free to decide for itself
what a "bar" means at any given moment....

  The first and easiest thing to try is to insert a USB cable between the
adapter and the computer.  This will make it easy to experiment with
different orientations and locations of the adapter.  (My Netgear WG111v2
came with such a cable, and velcro to secure the adapter in a good position
once found....)

  Possible sources of interference between you and the hotspot include:

- 2.4 GHz cordless phones and microwave ovens

- other nearby wireless hotpots, possibly not so public

- people and objects in/near the line of sight between your antenna and the
hotspot's

- reflected/refracted fragments of the signal

  You *may* be able to remove the native antenna and attach a separate "high
gain" antenna instead.  These usually manage to increase signal strength by
restricting it to a specific direction or zone, so you will likely need to
know what direction the hotspot antenna is in.  This may manage to overcome
whatever interference is causing your current problems.

David Gillett


On 12 Oct 2005 at 15:01, Michael Eisenstadt wrote:

> I live near a public wifi hotspot which my older Linksys
> WUSB11 one eared antenna detects. I get up to 4 bars
> of signal strength in the Win XP Pro utility, but the
> connection randomly fails, sometimes when I click on
> a link and sometimes when I download something and
> sometimes not. Sometimes the connection is stable for
> hours, other times it fails every few seconds.
>
> I am writing to ask for your suggestions about
> possibly replacing the hardware and/or somehow
> tweaking the signal strength with some (homebuilt?)
> device.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help.
>
> Michael Eisenstadt

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