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View Full Version : Wifi antenna advice..comments...suggestion.



Chessmaster
May 24th, 2008, 03:58 AM
Hey all,

My signal strength from my wireless router isn't so strong when I am in another room. So I was wondering is changing the antenna would make much difference. I see you can get them pretty cheaply. Thinking about moving from the 2.5 dBi antenna I have now to a 5.0 dBi one as it is less than about $10.

Has anyone done this an did they notice much difference in signal strength?


Any advice would be great.

Cheers

Flying caveman
May 26th, 2008, 02:55 AM
spend the $10 and prepare to be disappointed. Finally get around to fishing Cat5 through the walls, attic, floor.

Chessmaster
June 28th, 2008, 06:59 AM
Well, I spent the money (contrary to the above post) and....there does seem to be some improvement in the signal strength as I can now get a better connection from the other room - which is what I wanted better signal strength for.

So, even though the signal strength is not super-duper strong, it is slightly stronger and enough for what I wanted it for.

As for your suggestion of fishing Cat 5 through the walls etc, kind of defeats the point in having wireless doesn't it?

mips
June 28th, 2008, 07:55 AM
Check is you can see what the transmitter power levels on the NIC & AP are and try to bump them up to 100mW if you can.


http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/wireless/access_point/1200/vxworks/configuration/guide/bkscgaxa.html
http://www.ir3ip.net/iw3grx/wifi/

Kevbert
June 28th, 2008, 08:03 AM
I have this setup, desktop in one room, wireless in the other. With no extended aerial I used to get 60% signal strength and connection was intermittant. I now get >73% and connection is fine. The signal has a wall to go through and the PC case acts as a partial shield to the signal (due to sitting in a custom built computer desk).
Try moving the aerial and router around the rooms. Don't forget anything that works at 2.4GHz will cause interference (e.g. cordless DECT phone, not mobile phone). You could also try setting your router to a different channel (especially if you can see many other wireless networks).
Good luck.

barbedsaber
June 28th, 2008, 09:01 AM
WARNING, WARRANTEE VOIDING ADVICE AHEAD

you could install aseperate firmware onto your router (I recomend tomato) and use th menu's from within that, to increase the output power of your router. Search for it on digg, i'm sorry I can't do that now, I'm going to the movies.

FranMichaels
June 28th, 2008, 09:13 AM
WARNING, WARRANTEE VOIDING ADVICE AHEAD

you could install aseperate firmware onto your router (I recomend tomato) and use th menu's from within that, to increase the output power of your router. Search for it on digg, i'm sorry I can't do that now, I'm going to the movies.

This article mentions it too.

I'm going to post it because it is darn cool :guitar:

Build a Wi-Fi antenna using household materials (http://www.heise-online.co.uk/networks/Build-a-Wi-Fi-radio-relay-using-household-materials--/features/110278)

More seriously though
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato_Firmware

phen
June 28th, 2008, 01:01 PM
yeah bump up power to micro-wave yourself even more!