I was thinking of changing the long phone line (around 10 m) from the jack to my modem with a router and then a direct network cable connection to the computer.

Do you think I would see any performance benefits? I don't usually have problems but now and then the line gets full of static for no apparent reason then clears up. The phoneline actually runs behind my tv and amplifiers so I'm not sure if there's any interference going on.

Had the phone company check the cables several times and they said nothing is wrong...

Also if I put in a wireless router, is the coverage in a sphere or a flat plane...As in, would it cover my upstairs rooms? The stairwell has a large cavity sort of hallway so I'm thinking the signal should be able to travel up as long as I keep my doors open and thus there isn't too much 'floor resistance'.

Sounds confusing...are you using dialup or high speed internet? Only need a router to share internet with more than one computer or to have a home network. If you have dialup then there's probably no point doing this since it will only slow things down with the 56k speed (as slow as it is already).

Depends. If the materials that make up the wall and floor does not have high density (heavy material like a lot of concrete), then it should be less intrusive. Other materials may affect the signal also. Best way is to test this out yourself if you already have a router on hand.

As for the sphere versus plane wireless question, theoretically it projects wireless coverage in a sphere. However, becuase of interference by objects, the sphere can be deformed, and in some areas, completely cut off. How far the sphere extends depends on the poweer of the transmitting antenna and the gian of the receiving antenna. Generally a room one floor above the router in a small to medium sized house should receive the signal nicely (unless, like my house, the house uses outdated aluminum wiring which almost immediately kills the signal, but most houses use copper wiring which is much less interference).

~Viz

So do you mean that by using a shorter phone cable from wall to the DSL router you get better quality connection? Essentially you'd be replacing 10m of twisted pair phone line with 10m of twisted pair ethernet.

Well it might help. That is if the problem is in the 10m of the phone cable. Either the cable is bad quality or like you speculated it's interference which actually comes back to the bad cable quality. If the particular cable length is not of bad quality then 10m makes really no difference.


The wireless thing then. Well the "coverage area" depends on the antenna. I'm sure you can find (or build!) antenna that radiates eaqually to every direction. Usually though the ones sold in stores and that come with the devices radiate circularly on a plane as usually the network devices are on a roughly same plane. You can notice the difference by turning your antenna to its side, pointing away from the other antenna: the signal quality gets reduced.