Boosting WIFI Signal

[Cyfu]

So my girlfriend has bad internet connection in her room. It's not so bad that we can't talk on skype or anything but sometimes her voice goes all blurry and the quality of our video conversations are pretty bad.

The problem is that her router is placed very poorly for her. It's a floor up and at the other side of her house.

My question is:
Is there a way for her to boost the signal?

She has a laptop so wireless is the most practical solution for her because she doesn't sit at a desk or anything. So a wire would kind of be impractical.

Thanks!

EDIT:
I've looked around a bit an found something called a repeater. But it seemed like there were a lot of problems with that(or at least the one I looked at).
If you know any that you know works well, Please tell.
Thanks

 

[dmase]

Best but most expensive solution is get a better router.

If your getting your internet through a coaxal cable you could buy a splitter that splits the signal run the wire some where closer to her room and then get another cheap router. Of course this is probably more expensive than option number one.

I'm looking at the repeater's your talking about and you could do some research and see if they'd work with her internet but the devices cost 60 bucks or more, might as well buy a new router. Just check the reviews to see if it will go the distance and through walls well.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

You could move the router closer I guess? That way you wouldn't have to connect a wire to the laptop, just extend the wire connecting the router to the wall. Not a perfect solution but a pretty low cost one. Otherwise maybe there is some kind of wireless switch you could buy that could act as a bridge for the wireless signal?

 

[RufusMcLaser]

You have several options and they depend on your technical competence and your budget.
You might be able to implement a "cantenna" (Google it) at the router or possibly at her laptop, for the price of a few small parts and some fiddly work. It's even possible to use half of an aluminum can as a parabolic reflector to direct the wifi signal towards her room.
Example. [https://plus.google.com/+LaurieDesAutels/posts/2twCwBwLTjk]

Going up in price options, you could buy a wifi repeater, also known as a wifi extender. You might be able to find a router which can be configured to act as a repeater and place either of these at a convenient halfway point.

You could run a piece of CAT5 from the house router to as close to her room as the house allows you to get, and set up a second wifi router at that point.

If you have even more money, there are adapters which allow you to run a LAN connection over the household electrical wiring. These cost about $40-$60 per adapter, and naturally you need two of them, but this would let you put a second router right in her room if you wanted.

Lastly, you might just reposition the cablemodem & house router with a coax splitter and some RG-59.