beartoothweb
@cutcom.net
| Expanding Reception Range
I have a Linksys WRT54GL router, with a DLink 7dbi antenna on one side that sits on my desk. In the house, wifi is awesome with it on the first floor, and I have a wired AP upstairs that clones the network. I'm fully covered.
I recently built a shop/garage about 100' from my office, and then have a home brew wok-based antenna with USB dongle that shoots directly to my office. It's about 10' off the ground, and the total distance between the antennas is probably 140'.
The house has steel siding, so that's making some trouble. I can only get 58-62%, and it's a little noisy, so the connection kind of sucks about 1/2 the time.
I have the hacked firmware on the router, and I think I'm running one notch higher signal. I live in the boonies, so I actually leave my network open since you'd have to be in my front yard to steal it. My computers are all locked down tight.
Rather than expanding the range on the router side, I'd like to do it from the shop side, and I want to do it on the cheap (rather than dropping $100 on something.)
Any ideas? Could I build a bigger Wok for better gain, or will that just make the noise worse.
I could add a repeater, but it would likely only shorten the distance by 30' or so. |
|
efflandt
join:2002-01-25
Elgin, IL
 ·AT&T Midwest
| You might consider a powerline wireless range expander instead, or powerline ethernet with another wireless AP in the garage. Basically one end is an ethernet module that simply plugs into an electrical outlet. The other end is either a wireless module, ethernet module, or 4 port ethernet module that simply plugs into an outlet where you need networking.
I used a Netgear powerline wireless range expander at my boss' home because he cannot hardly get a wireless signal between floors of his home (maybe heating/cooling ducts are blocking it). It was set in bridge mode with same SSID and security settings on a different channel (5 channels apart) to allow for effortless roaming without having to get a different DHCP IP or anything.
For example see »www.netgear.com/Products/Powerli···tworking |
|
beartoothweb
@cutcom.net
| reply to beartoothweb
Thanks! I bought a relatively cheap USB over Cat-5 device from monoprice. It should be here today. I wired the shop with a CAT 5 jack up near the front, and it's 30' closer to the house. With the extension, I should be able to get much better line-of-site with my homebrew usb antenna. We'll see how that works first, but good rec on the over electrical, I'll check that out. |
|
fox7
join:2001-02-12
Culver City, CA | reply to beartoothweb
Put a Wok antenna on both ends, at the house and the shop.
fox7 |
|
stevech0
join:2006-09-17
San Diego, CA
 ·RoadRunner Cable
 ·VoicePulse
| said by fox7  :Put a Wok antenna on both ends, at the house and the shop. fox7 Not Not. |
|
stevech0
join:2006-09-17
San Diego, CA | reply to beartoothweb
you can probably get 30 ft. with USB by using cables and one or two active extension cables. |
|
