What does the signal strength REALLY mean?

So I take a lot of calls on network issues, specifically about laptops connecting to wireless networks.

The common misconception is that signal strength equals speed. While signal strength is, indeed, a factor, it’s not the only factor nor even a major one. Signal strength is an indicator of one items – strength from your laptop/mobile device/PC/macbook to your wireless router. That’s it. Not to the internet, not to your work website, not to Google, not to ticketmaster.com, nothing.

You see, when you connect to the Internet, you’re not connecting directly to the website. You connect to your router, which connect to your modem, which connects to a backbone line, which connects to another (very high powered) router, which connects to another one, and another one, and then maybe your intended site/server. Each “hop” of this transmission takes time to jump from each step to the next, and then any information coming back takes a similar path to come back

Huh?

That means your computer sends a request to a website or other server, then that server sends back the information you requested (web page, file download, video feed, etc.). So each connection is a two-way street, encompassing at least five different sub-connections, all taking their sweet time.

So what does this have to do with signal strength, JR?

Not much, and that’s the point.

As I said above, signal strength is what people use as an argument for “my internet connection should be blazing fast”. They think that since they have four or five bars, they should have instant connection to anywhere in the world, and that’s simply not true.

It only means you have a strong (not necessarily fast) connection to your router. After that, the signal strength means nothing.

So what does it means if I have very LOW signal strength?

As I mentioned, signal strength CAN impact your speed, but not in the way you want. If you have a poor connection, indicated by a low signal strength, you can get a very low speed, as the network and your laptop have to compensate for data packets missing, etc.

Okay, so signal strength is important, to a degree. How do I improve strength if I have a low signal?

Well, understand that wi-fi, or wireless networking, is still a radio signal. Have you ever driven your car into a long roadway tunnel, and your radio started getting fuzzy, or just outright not playing at all? That’s called EMI, or “Electromagnetic Interference”. In layman’s terms: stuff that gets in the way of your radio signal.

The same thing happens to wi-fi signals. But because the broadcast strength is MUCH lower than a radio station’s, it’s easier to disrupt wi-fi. That means the metal in your walls, the wires running through them, the concrete foundation, nearby electrical appliances (TV, anyone?) can all have an impact on your router’s wireless transmissions.

So keep your wireless router away from appliances, and out of the basement. If you need wireless on more than one floor, there are ways to use TWO wireless routers or access points (APs) to cover more area.

So, what can I do if I have great signal strength, but have very slow internet?

First off, determine if it’s ALL sites that are slow, or just one or two. If the latter, it’s probably something to do with an internet backbone router, or the website’s server. In all of these cases, there’s precious little you can do about it. The items you need to troubleshoot are not in your control, and may not be in the control of the website’s owner. You can call them to see if they have issues, but if they find nothing problematic on their end, chances are you’ll have to wait until the Internet fixes itself (which it does have this ability to do).

If it’s ALL websites that are problematic, then call your ISP (Internet Service Provider). They can check for signal to your building, see if an outage is going on, etc. They can guide you through some troubleshooting, or send a tech out if it’s necessary.

Conclusion

There’s a lot that is affected by wireless signal strength, but it’s not the end-all-be-all of network speed. I’ll cover troubleshooting connection speeds in another post, so stay tuned!

Wednesday’s Windows Tips–CCleaner

We’ll start the Wednesday cycle with one of my favorite tools ever: CCleaner.

You see, I’m a maintenance junkie.  I try to keep my system as clean as possible, to avoid unwanted slowdowns and junk files.  So last year I was on a hunt that would do the job effectively, mostly quiet, and hopefully free.  I found CCleaner based off a recommendation of a colleague of mine, and haven’t looked back.

In short, it will clear your computer of junk files that may be slowing it down, erase most tracks of your activity on the computer, and even rid your registry of unused entries (more on registry repair tools in another post).

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When you head over to Piriform’s site, you will soon find there are several versions of CCleaner available: Free, Pro, Business, Network and Network Professional.  Dig deep enough, and you’ll also find Technician version.  Since this blog is focused on end users, not enterprise administrators or techs who visit users’ homes, let’s talk about the first two.

The free version will suffice for almost every person out there.  It’s the one I use on my PCs, and I’ve helped a few clients to install it, as well.  However, it comes with no support from Piriform (i.e., you’re on your own), does not update automatically (you have to download and manually install the updates yourself, though it does tell you if a new version is available).

The Pro version will do automatic updates and comes with a support account, so you can get help from Piriform, if needed.  While it’s not free, it only costs a one-time fee of about $25, which is not bad at all.

And yes!  They have a Mac version as well!

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After you’ve downloaded, installed and ran it, you’ll notice a clean but somewhat complex interface:

1. Cleaner – this clears off unwanted file from your Windows systems and applications. You can uncheck any item(s) you like, thus leaving that part of your system alone.  For example, I unchecked recent documents, because that’s how I get to projects I’m working on.  If I left that checked, I’d have to open the documents by navigating to the folder in which they’re stored.

1a. You’ll notice that in the Cleaner section, there are two tabs: Windows and Applications.  Be sure to check both out.

2.  Registry – here’s where you want to be careful.  Not because of anything the program might do, but because you should ALWAYS back up your registry when many any changes to it.  Good News: CCleaner gives you a way to do just that with part of this process.

By default, everything is checked, and this is the way I keep it.  Now, there will ALWAYS be something that CCleaner finds to clean off.  No Windows system will ever remain free of registry “errors”.  The trick is to not let them build up for too long.

A few items are nothing to worry about.  For example, I just now did this scan, and found nine items. My last scan and clean was yesterday:

I click on “Fix Selected Issues”, and I’m presented with the aforementioned option to backup my registry:

Again I’ll re-iterate: The answer should ALWAYS BE “YES”!  It will ask you to save a file somewhere (I put it in “My Documents”), and then it will begin the cleaning.

If something goes wrong and your system suddenly stops working after the registry cleaning, simply double-click the file you saved, answer yes to any prompts, and your registry will be fully restored!

For the record: I’ve never had to restore my registry as a result of CCleaner’s actions.

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For those, like me, who do work on other computers, there’s a portable version on Piriform’s Build Page.  You can run the program from a USB stick, and it has full functionality of the regular program, and doesn’t need to be fully “installed” on the host computer.

But try it out and poke around.  I’ve barely scratched the surface of what it can do, and that’s just with the FREE version!!

del.icio.us Tags: Windows,Security,Privacy,Maintenance,Mac

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Questions?  Comments?  Feedback?  Leave a comment in the section below, or email me at jackrockblc+blog@gmail.com.