Spring RTS Engine

I give you the following problem Im facing:

I access the net over a wifi network. I've put the network into 802.11b mode to make it as reliable as I can. There are no vacant wifi channels, every non-overlapping channel has interference from at least one network, giving shitty net on all 3 of them. None of my equipment supports the 5Ghz band, and running an ethernet cable is not an option.

I will have to stress that last part again, a cable is not possible, if I put one in, assuming I had the 30-40m of cable to run up the 2 flights of stairs it would be promptly taken down by other people complaining about it. I cant drill through the floor either as my computer isnt directly above or across from the router and again it would mean Id get into a lot of trouble for it. Cables are not an option unless they can be concealed (under the carpet is not an option, its nailed into the floor, and there is a long way for it to go, I couldnt do it without being noticed.

I dont have the money to buy stuff like LAN power sockets.

So how do I reduce or counter act the interference?

g/n mode is not necessarily less reliable - the connection speed will be reduced if interference is an issue. Buy a crappy directional antenna for the pc...try an overlapping wifi channel; I get much better reception on channel 8 than 6 or 11, and there are 5-6 networks in my building on those two.

Can you run a cable?

Cantenna is a good solution.

Have you tried channels 3-4 and 8-9? It really can make a difference to have weak interference even if it's from more networks. Can you convince your hardware to use channel 14? n will probably have better reception than b.

My routers a shitty ISP provided router, since the linksys router I had refused to accept a blank field as the username/password as required, and its not a model you can flash with custom firmware, so its channels 1-13

Some body suggested I take a cardboard cut out parabolic card thing with foil, and that seems to have stabilised things once placed over the antennae.

I switched from b/g to b because it made my connection more reliable, as in it would stay connected rather than dropping completely and needing me to open up network properties, scan and then reconnect.

you can disable dhcp on the linksys router and run a network cable from a port on the isp's router to a switch port on the linksys router (not the uplink/internet port)

use network over power line, works great here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_line_communication

a set with three adapters costs about 100 - 130 Euros here.

I dont have 130-140 euros fullstop, nm that much spare for network over power line else I'd have bought that already or a premade cantenna

Well you can make a cantenna pretty easily. All you need is a pringles can, a coat hangar that you can destroy, and *optional* a rubber band and 3 pencils (for making a tripod for it to sit on).

Forboding Angel wrote:Well you can make a cantenna pretty easily. All you need is a pringles can, a coat hangar that you can destroy, and *optional* a rubber band and 3 pencils (for making a tripod for it to sit on).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WokFi looks cool.

That wok-fi looks even simpler than a cantenna, I really like it.
These antennas not only have the advantage of boosting your directed signal by 12-15 dB, but they also attentuate signals outside of the focus point. So they are extremely useful in a crowded wifi area.

My current solution:

Anything less than WPA2+AES can be cracked in a matter of minutes, just steal someone else's and BAM you've got some extra cash every month.