# General Business Category > Technology Forum > [Question] Wireless issue

## Fredster

Good day. We have 4 wireless devices in our office. Problem is that when you move around, it does not seamlessly keep the connection. It disconnects when out of range and then you have to manually re-connect to the next available wireless device. Is there a way to set it so it connects seamlessly?  :Frown:

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## HR Solutions

I am presuming that you are talking about normal Wi-Fi adsl.  If you are then I would suggest you get a bigger Wi-Fi router.  I had the exact same problem and ended up buying the big Netgear Wi-Fi router for around R2750.00.  Never looked back and all is perfect.

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## Fredster

Thanks. Problem is that we need more than 1 wireless device and we need seamless connectivity between the lot

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## CLIVE-TRIANGLE

If you access the wifi network properties, select auto connect, as in the image

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## adrianh

You know, I think that there is a more elegant solution that you can apply. You can actually do all the troubleshooting yourself. I did this and it works like a charm. Lets begin with some theory. You could have one of two problems:

1. Your signal may be weak and doesn't reach as far as you need.
2. WiFi has a number of radio channels available and most of the time the router is able to select a free channel, sometimes, the router is simply a bit doff. So lets say you are sitting on channel 5 and the guy next door turns his router on and he is also on channel 5, the two routers then talk over each other and both router signals get messed up.

Ok, so how do you solve the problems: I hope you have a Android tablet or phone. You go to the Playstore and download Wifi Analyzer (free). When you run it you will see parabolic graphs that shows the signal strength and the selected channel of each WiFi transmitter. You will easily be able to see if your router and another router are on the same channel. 

Ok, lets say your router is on the same channe as another, you can then download a plugin for the software (free) which allows you to set the router transmitter channel. Otherwise you simple log on to the router via IP and change the channel via its admin screen. Reboot the router and check its performance again.

Now, whether you did the channel thing or not, use you phone or tablet with the analyser running and walk around your office, you will see where the signals starts to drop off, I found that my router didn't reach the last bedroom. If you find that the signal drops out then what you do is you purchase a WiFi Repeater (sometimes called a booster) Mine is a Trendnet TEW736RE. Place the device somewhere between the router and the deadspot (remember, the repeater must be able to speak to the router so make sure that you have a signal using the analyser. Once the device is on you press one button on it that makes it listen for set up information, you then go to your router and you press a button that transmits the information (seems all the routers have such a button, mine does) you then go back to the repeater and you watch what happens using the analyser. If all is ok you will now see two signals on top of one another with your network name. Now walk around with the analyser and you will see that the repeater signal reaches areas that your router can't.

This is all possible by using an Android tablet or phone and a very clever bit of free software.

Sometimes when my WiFi network starts slowing down I quickly look at the graph to see if somebody has added a router on my channel, if so I simply change it and reboot the router and then reset the repeater and Bob is your Auntee....

BTW: The repeater cost about R 700 from Game.

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## Fredster

Thanks Guys, much appreciated...App downloaded and checking it out. Also trying Clive's solution

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## HR Solutions

> This is all possible by using an Android tablet or phone and a very clever bit of free software


I got Apple  :Innocent:

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## adrianh

Apple, ag shame man, not only is Apple vrot but the 5S & 5C are said to be ultra vrot, and expensive to boot!

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## Dave A

> We have 4 wireless devices in our office.


What devices exactly and how do you have them configured?

I tossed out my wireless base stations years ago as I didn't need them anymore, so I can't go checking the exact configuration on something to hand, but I do recall one station was set up as a master and the rest were set up as "slave stations" (or some terminology along those lines).

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## HR Solutions

> Apple, ag shame man, not only is Apple vrot but the 5S & 5C are said to be ultra vrot, and expensive to boot!


Nah - love my Apple products  :Smile:

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## adrianh

I've always been anti Apple. I don't like the way that they lock people in. I much prefer open environments.

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## Justloadit

On open environments you get spamed daily.

My Apple , never get a single spam message from any of the stores that I have shopped at.

On my Samsung, I get between 5 and 10 spams a day because I have some free app on my phone. 
F..ing annoying I tell you. Rather pay a $ and be spam free. At least 20% of my band width on my Samsung is spam, it's always some new upgrade on the free app, which then down loads more advertising popups, or some spam saying that I have a virus on my phone. You can not disable this, as it is part of the terms and condition of the FREE app!

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## AndyD

Comparing freewareapps on a Samsung with paid apps on an apple isn't really a fair comparison. If you bought paid apps for your Samsung you'd also be able to opt out of receiving advertising.

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## adrianh

I agree with Andy. You could simply pay for the Android apps.

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## Justloadit

Yes true, the apps that I have downloaded comes from the Samsung store, and the OP was about open source, and as far as I know open source means free ware.
I am also under the impression, that if it is under the Samsung store that it has been approved by Samsung, or am I misunderstanding this?

I have also downloaded a free app from the iPhone store and was not spammed after running it.

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## Justloadit

Just as a matter of interest the free apps I downloaded were sample games, where you can test if you like it or not, then you can purchase it. So why the spam then, if you are simply sampling the product?

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## adrianh

You must make a point of reading the comments. There are many people out there who tell it like it is and make it quite clear that a particular download comes loaded with crap.

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## Justloadit

True, Adrian, however, all the Apps I downloaded have the same message, wheter you wish it or not. So to sample the app, you have to accept the T&Cs, else you spend the bucks and if you don't like it, well tough you can't get your bucks back.

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## adrianh

I download a lot of apps for the tablet and I've never really had a problem with spam. Many apps have little ads that just sit there, change now and again and flash now and again. Anything that's pushy or in my face get uninstalled asap. I must admit, I never download games primarily because I simply don't like playing games. I suppose games may be a lot more pushy when it comes to advertising.

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## Peter Johns781

I think you should simply change.

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## irneb

> ...and the OP was about open source, and as far as I know open source means free ware...


Not strictly true. Opn Source means that the source code of the program (or app) is available for everyone to see. Thus if the programmer added some cr@p-ware features to it on the sly, other programmers could easily spot the criminal behaviour.

FreeWare (OTOH) is 99.99999999% of the time NOT open source. Especially those try-and-test games you mention (these are actually closer to ShareWare). They're there to give you a test for the real thing to entice you to buy it. And then since most people simply keep on playing the 1 or 2 "free" levels, the programmer tries to make money from something else (like adding adverts - ala google idea).

Actually there's not that many true Open Source apps on either Apple or Android (nor BB). One I know of is Waze. But I can't think of another just now. All the other "free" stuff are cr@p-ware riddled.

As a sample, I've got only the stuff I buy or the OS Waze app on my Galaxy Note 2. Even uninstalled the cr@p-ware Samsung put onto it out the box. Now my only "spam" is SMS's and the odd telemarketer, oh and of course those infamous emails. But I've noticed those only start up after I have to give my cell no. / email for things like banking / purchases / etc. That get's sorted through the built-in block this number feature in the call-log and message manager. The guy sitting next to me at work is getting a telesales call every 5 minutes on his 5S, and he still can't get the "blocking" app addon to work properly. It's rare that I get one a week now after "training" the number blocking.

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## irneb

> Good day. We have 4 wireless devices in our office.


To get back to the OP. These "devices" I assume are wireless access points (WAP) to your LAN. I know the usual setup is like this, and I've always thought it to be a bit stupid. It's as if you have 4 different access points, i.e. separate wireless networks.

You can set your laptop/notebook to connect to any one of the 4 automatically. But still, it will only connect to the stronger if the other one is totally unavailable. And the precedence order is not that automatic either, so it tries to connect to the one it "thinks" is your preference - whether it be the weaker link or the stronger makes no difference. Only once it notices that the "preferred" WAP is unavailable does it try the next one down the preference order. Similar goes for phone / tablets.

IMO the idea about repeaters is a much more advisable approach to this physical roaming through a wireless fog. Get yourself a fast and powerful WAP and then augment that with needed repeaters. Only issue might be that total wireless speed could go down since a repeater is connecting wirelessly to the main WAP and then passing data to-and-fro - causing a bit of extra lag and using up one extra wireless slot. Don't know if a repeater could be connected through a cable to the WAP - that would make these concerns a moot point - can't think why it's physically impossible to do so.

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## Dave A

> Don't know if a repeater could be connected through a cable to the WAP


That was the way I had it set up. And if you think about it, it's the best way to do it as the need for repeaters is driven by wireless signal strength in the first place  :Wink:

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## irneb

> FreeWare (OTOH) is 99.99999999% of the time NOT open source.


Actually here's a list of OS apps for Android: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...d_applications

Note their license agreements: Stuff like GNU, Apache, BSD means that they *have to* make their source code available for all to see. And some of those means anyone can re-use their source (even modified for other purposes). That's the main reasoning behind OS, i.e. rather than have each programmer re-invent the wheel each time they want to do something, use a tried and tested piece of code. It's not about making the program free, it's about enabling better programs by reusing more efficient, robust and effective code in less time and effort, and also to allow for a great many programmers (and user testers) to contribute to the code to make it even better.

Theoretically OS means the program is a lot better than a commercial closed source app because of all these reasons (reuse of other OS programs, orders of magnitude more programmers "can" work on it than even a company like MS could even hope to employ, code is constantly checked and re-checked for bugs and efficiency, etc.). Practically it's not as simple as that: programmers generally don't get paid for these, changes need to be agreed on, more people in a non-autocratic "organization" means more disagreements, etc. In most instances OS relies on donations, or some charge for support. Lots of OS projects have "forked" due to disagreements about the course of the program (e.g. Open Office and LibreOffice). As a sample of something which is true open source and used throughout the world, look to Mozilla's Firefox internet browser - it's one of the top 3 browsers available (Chrome and IE being the other two - if you take usage into account).

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## HR Solutions

So over the last few weeks/months Telksom adsl has DIED !!!! and now gatvol of Telkom with all there excuses that I am too far from their exchange .......... Can anyone please tell me where I can get a plug in 3G wifi router ?? (reasonably priced)

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## IanF

Try Afrihost Mobile
I bought the 2 sim phone from them and get 1gb data a month on my phone. It runs on the MTN network.

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## Houses4Rent

I have a Telkom Premium Combo router, old, but it works. Now I suspect its not that well working anymore.

After load shedding I have to restart it a few times as it suddenly disconnects. Now more and more often I have to reboot it even after running it for hours.

Additionally it keeps forgetting its WifI setting and switches the Wifi off by itself. I have to keep switching in back on.

And now I even cannot get into it anymore via http://10.0.0.2/ while the internet still works. 

How can that be? I know little about such things, but I thought http://10.0.0.2/ is a direct connection between my PC and the router and should always work with or without internet connections.

Can anybody shed some light in this please?

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## CLIVE-TRIANGLE

From the command prompt, run IPCONFIG and just make sure that 10.0.0.2 is the Gateway. If not then just point the browser that IP.

If that doesn't work then I have no clue.

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## Houses4Rent

10.0.0.2 is definitely correct, now it works again for a change. I complained to my ISP this morning and they did something (reset?). So far so good. If that fails they say I must call again and they kick Telkom to stabilise the line.

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## Sparks

See if you can update the router software.

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## Houses4Rent

I went to Incredible Corruption and traded my old banger in and bought a Netgear router which seem to have resolved the problem. They say they are not only sensitive to switching on spikes (which I can control a bit), but also when power suddenly drops. Does not make much sense as what difference is it if I switch it off or if council switches it off via load shedding?

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## Justloadit

The difference is when you physically push the switch off, there is an instant stop to the flow of current.
When the council switches their switch gear off, there is a huge amount of inductive loads on the system, like motors, fluorescent lights and so forth, which means that although the supply is off, the decaying magnetic fields in all these inductive loads still want to supply the grid, but because of the impedance, it decays at a slower rate. Small equipment can get the power supplies and microprocessors in a tiz and do not quite shut down in an orderly manner, which in many cases means that the saving of data in to non volatile memories is int erupted and may get corrupted, and hence the problem when the power comes back on.

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## Houses4Rent

In plain English: Are you saying that when council switches off some stuff is still floating for a while around messing up gear?

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## Justloadit

Yes. Inductive loads cause a back EMF

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## Houses4Rent

Thanks, I do not understand it as electrics is not my forte, but trust you on that.

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## Sparks

When explaining electricity to a child I often compare it to water, always goes down to earth for example. Pressure and flow rate depends on thickness of the hose and how many/type of sprinklers on it. When you close the tap, there is still a little water that comes out the end. Water from sprinklers on higher ground makes it's way out of the sprinklers on lower ground, even though the tap is closed.

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