Harry <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 13:17:20 -0600, "Tom" <(E-Mail Removed)>
>wrote:
>
>>It seems that everyone is having connectivity problems. WAG 54 G is
>>advertised as having up to 300 feet ie 100meters rang. I am less than 35
>>feet away and am having very similar probles to what are being reported
>>here. widely fluctuating signal strength and trnsmission rates. They
>>should upgrad hardware for free
>>
>>Tom
>>
>My 3Com wireless ADSL router is in the top back room of the house and
>the kids PC is at the front downstairs. The signal is going through 4
>brick walls including the original outside wall (we have and extension
>on the back)
May be... may be not! At 2.4 GHz you really can't be sure where
it's going. It could, for example, be bouncing off the metal
roof top. It could also be going out the wall, bouncing off the
metal wall of the building next door, and coming back in through
the wall.
>The USB wireless adpater is an Ebuyer.com no-name and the signal never
>drops below about 90%
>
>However, my 3Com USB wireless adapter (that came with the router) sits
>in the same room as the router and regularly drops the signal for no
>apparent reason. So much so that I have chucked it in the drawer and
>hooked up a cable to the router.
The problem with these little devices is that 4 inches is a
*significant* distance to a 2.4 GHz signal. If the antenna is
within perhaps 8 inches of any metal objects (for example the
case of your computer!) the metal will distort the pattern of
the antenna. At 2-4 inches it will *greatly* distort it. You
can't compare two units unless you alternately set them in
*exactly* the same place for testing.
Generally speaking all of these devices are using about the same
power output and have about the same receivee sensitivity.
Hence with problems such as you describe it is usually
profitable to reorient the antenna. It may be that (if the
signal is in fact bouncing off some parts of the building)
tilting the antenna will help. Or just moving the computer to a
different place, even just a few inches away.
The chances are fairly good that just about any two units will
work within the same room, but once the distances exceed a few
feet and things like loss through walls and reflections from
other objects start becoming significant, there is simply no
guarantee that a decent signal will exist. That is especially
true when using minimal antennas such as those built into
laptops, though even the typical little rubber ducky sold with
most units is not that great. The answer of course is a
separate, more efficient, antenna.
Typically the best place to start is with the unit serving as an
AP. Buy a "pig tail" that converts from whatever connector type
is on the unit to an "N Connector". Then buy a short length of
low lost cable with N connectors on each end (male or female,
depending on what is being connected to), and purchase some sort
of higher gain antenna. Locate it in a more optimum place than
where the AP physicall sits. (But avoid long lengths of cable,
because even the best cable involves a certain amount of loss.)
Another trick that may or may not work is a "passive repeater"!
If, for example, an AP on one floor works well to everything on
that floor, but doesn't work well with a client on the floor
above, a passive repeater might help. But two antennas and a
short length of coax. Locate an antenna on each floor, with the
coax connected the two. Generally that will not be useful in
homes, because the type of contruction is such that the passive
will have more loss than just radiating a signal from one floor
to the next. But in many commercial buildings the material and
construction used might be very lossy, and a passive might work
well.
Of course... wireless equipment is rather inexpensive, and it
might be less expensive to simply run CAT5 cable to the next
floor and install another AP.
--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)
(E-Mail Removed)
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