Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking Internet is slow in the next room

Try a utility like AirRadar, MacStumbler, or WiFi Scanner (free from App Store) to check your signal strength and signal to noise ratio in each of the rooms. Odds are you will find either the signal strength in the living room is significantly reduced or the signal to noise ration is greatly increased. You might even find there is significant interference in the living room from other networks in the area, fluorescent lights, cordless telephones, microwave ovens, etc.

WiFi signals can be greatly attenuated (reduced in strength) by the presence of furniture (overstuffed chairs and couches are notorious), wall structure (the thicker the wall the more the attenuation), even your own body. They are also effected by the location of the router both in the room and in relation to the furniture in the room.

There are things you can try to mitigate the problem:

1. If you are creating the network using the Airport in your iMac, get an Airport Extreme Base Station or an Airport Express and use it to create the network instead. Either will produce a much stronger signal than your iMac can.
2. Relocate the WiFi router
   1. Six or seven feet high on the wall is often considered optimum
   2. Putting the router on the wall closes to the living room would help
3. Relocate where you place the laptop in the living room.
4. Re-arrange the furniture to remove barriers to the signal between the location of the WiFi router and your laptop
5. If there is evidence of interference from other networks in the area, try choosing a WiFi band as far as possible from the band used by the other networks.
6. If all else fails, put a repeater in the living room to boost the signal from the router. — I generally use an Airport Express for this specific purpose.