highest gain indoor antennas

I'm looking to improve a friends indoor wireless signal. He has a
D-Link DI-514 with a PCMCIA card on his laptop. It has a 15dBm
antenna. I notice d-link sells a couple of antennas but it doesn't
seem to increase range even though it is advertised as doing so. The
one antenna is a omni-directional with a gain of 4dBi.

DI-514
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=226
Antenna
http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=325

However I see Linksys sells an antenna that I think is compatible (SMA
connector) with a 7dBi.
http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=38&prid=648
Would this work with the D-Link.

Is 7dBi the best gain that can be acheived with this type of antenna?

Would I see any improvement in gains by adding a 7dBi antenna?

"ax" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm looking to improve a friends indoor wireless signal. He has a
> D-Link DI-514 with a PCMCIA card on his laptop. It has a 15dBm
> antenna. I notice d-link sells a couple of antennas but it doesn't
> seem to increase range even though it is advertised as doing so. The
> one antenna is a omni-directional with a gain of 4dBi.
>
> DI-514
> http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=226
> Antenna
> http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=325
>
> However I see Linksys sells an antenna that I think is compatible (SMA
> connector) with a 7dBi.
> http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=38&prid=648
> Would this work with the D-Link.
>
> Is 7dBi the best gain that can be acheived with this type of antenna?
>
> Would I see any improvement in gains by adding a 7dBi antenna?
>
Stock dlink antenna is probably about 2db and has a "Reverse SMA"
connector, sometimes spec'd as RP-SMA
the optional 4db dlink antenna is a mild range extender, very mild.
the linksys 7 db is a somewhat healthy boost over the stock antenna
yet still a pretty mild antenna as its an Omni.

If he can live with a little directional panel antenna, 6 db focused in one
direction is a nice boost. Those are quite popular like Hawkingtech
http://www.hawkingtech.com/prodSpec.php?ProdID=143 which sometimes can be
found quite reasonable.

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 20:27:34 GMT, "bumtracks" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>
>"ax" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>news:(E-Mail Removed).. .
>> I'm looking to improve a friends indoor wireless signal. He has a
>> D-Link DI-514 with a PCMCIA card on his laptop. It has a 15dBm
>> antenna. I notice d-link sells a couple of antennas but it doesn't
>> seem to increase range even though it is advertised as doing so. The
>> one antenna is a omni-directional with a gain of 4dBi.
>>
>> DI-514
>> http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=226
>> Antenna
>> http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=325
>>
>> However I see Linksys sells an antenna that I think is compatible (SMA
>> connector) with a 7dBi.
>> http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=38&prid=648
>> Would this work with the D-Link.
>>
>> Is 7dBi the best gain that can be acheived with this type of antenna?
>>
>> Would I see any improvement in gains by adding a 7dBi antenna?
>>
>Stock dlink antenna is probably about 2db and has a "Reverse SMA"
>connector, sometimes spec'd as RP-SMA
> the optional 4db dlink antenna is a mild range extender, very mild.
> the linksys 7 db is a somewhat healthy boost over the stock antenna
>yet still a pretty mild antenna as its an Omni.
>
>If he can live with a little directional panel antenna, 6 db focused in one
>direction is a nice boost. Those are quite popular like Hawkingtech
>http://www.hawkingtech.com/prodSpec.php?ProdID=143 which sometimes can be
>found quite reasonable.

thanks, very helpful information.

I recently bought the SMC flat panel antenna

http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?event=v...id=33&pid=1299

And use it through an MC to RP-SMA pigtail with a Proxim/Orinoco gold
card.

I'm frankly quite amazed at how well this antenna works. The beam is very
directional and the front-to-back ratio and front-to-side ratio is great
which may be important in eliminating interfering signals.

Sitting here in my recliner with my laptop, I see about a 15 db boost when
going from the Orinoco built-in antenna to the panel. Note that this
involves both the added gain and the better location of the panel antenna
as opposed to the built-in one buried down in the furniture.

John

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 22:36:47 -0500, ax <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>If he can live with a little directional panel antenna, 6 db focused in one
>>direction is a nice boost. Those are quite popular like Hawkingtech
>>http://www.hawkingtech.com/prodSpec.php?ProdID=143 which sometimes can be
>>found quite reasonable.
>
>thanks, very helpful information.

---
John De Armond
(E-Mail Removed)
http://bellsouthpwp.net/j/o/johngd/
Cleveland, Occupied TN