Omni directional antenna recommendations?

I have 2 houses on my property and am about to set up a wireless
receiver in the other house. Since the Gateway and network adapter
will be about 75' apart through thick adobe walls, and since there is
another network adapter in a completely different direction, I figure
that a few dB omni directional boost might help. But there is quite a
few antennas out there to choose from and I KNOW that not all are as
good as they advertise.

Can anyone recommend a good omni directional 2.4 GHz antenna for my
Linksys network? eBay antennas are fine . . .

Thanks, MrBill

On Wed, 15 Nov 2006 16:49:57 -0700, MrBill <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
<(E-Mail Removed)>:

>I have 2 houses on my property and am about to set up a wireless
>receiver in the other house. Since the Gateway and network adapter
>will be about 75' apart through thick adobe walls, and since there is
>another network adapter in a completely different direction, I figure
>that a few dB omni directional boost might help. But there is quite a
>few antennas out there to choose from and I KNOW that not all are as
>good as they advertise.
>
>Can anyone recommend a good omni directional 2.4 GHz antenna for my
>Linksys network? eBay antennas are fine . . .

I think you're going to have trouble getting through those Adobe walls,
so buy antennas with a solid return capability.

Bear in mind that high gain omni antennas trade vertical beam width for
gain, so the more gain the more necessary it will be to have all
wireless units at a given elevation.

My own recommendation would be to go with the same manufacturer as your
wireless devices; e.g., Linksys HGA7S or HGA7T (as appropriate).

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

"MrBill" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> I have 2 houses on my property and am about to set up a wireless
> receiver in the other house.

are there only 2 houses on this map - or 3 houses ?
a single line between 2 pts, or a triangle ?
if just 2, then why omni, go with a gain reflector at each end..

On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 00:09:27 GMT, John Navas
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Bear in mind that high gain omni antennas trade vertical beam width for
>gain, so the more gain the more necessary it will be to have all
>wireless units at a given elevation.

Good tip - I can see that putting an omni at a higher elevation won't
help at all.

>My own recommendation would be to go with the same manufacturer as your
>wireless devices; e.g., Linksys HGA7S or HGA7T (as appropriate).

Sounds good. Obviously the 7S or 7T relates to the connector. Mine
looks like a BNC connector, but it's screw-on rather than bayonette
mount. Would this be the "S" or "T"?

On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 00:20:18 GMT, "P.Schuman"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>are there only 2 houses on this map - or 3 houses ?

There are 2 houses on my lot.

>a single line between 2 pts, or a triangle ?

The network will consist of 3 PC's. One is connected directly to the
Gateway and the other 2 will be connected by wireless network
adapters. The network adapter is only 15' or so from the gateway so
no help is needed. The network adapter in the 2nd house will be about
75' away, it is not set up yet. When it is, lines drawn between the 2
adapters and the gateway will form a triangle.

>if just 2, then why omni, go with a gain reflector at each end..

Sounds good, of course I should need a reflector in the 2nd house
only. Can you recommend a good 2.4 GHz gain reflector?

MrBill <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I have 2 houses on my property and am about to set up a wireless
> receiver in the other house. Since the Gateway and network adapter
> will be about 75' apart through thick adobe walls, and since there is
> another network adapter in a completely different direction, I figure

How far is it to that "other" adapter? I run about 60 feet through a
couple of sheetrock/pressedboard siding walls with one reflector and a
normal laptop card, which gets "excellent" signal according to WinXP.
Another laptop card, not in the nominal direction that the reflector is
aimed, is still quite serviceable. Directional antennas are not absolute
beams. There are side lobes and back lobes.

What is on the far client? Can you put a directional antenna or reflector
there? 75 feet of free air would be easy. Adobe is not so easy, but there
might be some windows. My best shot is not a straight line, but offline
through a window, and then also off line through a sliding glass door.

My favorites in this area of exploration:
http://www.freeantennas.com Windsurfer EZ-12.
http://www.rahul.net/dold/clarence/EZ12-windsurfer.jpg

I have used the "Hawking HAI6SDA Directional 6dBi 2.4GHz Antenna" with good
success on a Netgear WG311 PCI card. $20-30.
<http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/productlist.php?CatID=32&FamID=58&ProdID=122>

Hawking and others have USB clients built in to antennas. That might be
handy.
<http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/productlist.php?CatID=32&FamID=60&ProdID=280>

A cantenna with a USB dongle inside. The USB allows some freedom in
position the dongle, which can then be used with all sorts of reflectors or
cans.
Bob's single can:
http://members.cox.net/tulsaalstons/images/IMG_1571.JPG
Clarence's double can, with a 10-24 nut soldered on as a tripod mount.
http://www.rahul.net/dold/clarence/u...42-800x600.jpg
I used the turnpoint calculator to decide where to poke the hole.
http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html
I have used a larger single can to access a hotpoint that was indoors a
couple of blocks away with a stock antenna.

Miscellaneous reflective gadgets for USB dongles:
http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/

I have seen a cheap USB dongle sealed into a pill bottle that was then
mounted to the exterior of a metal building.

--
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Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

MrBill <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> adapters. The network adapter is only 15' or so from the gateway so

You can go directional. The adapter that's only 15 feet away should still
get fine signal. My laptop gets good signal 15 feet behind my EZ-12
reflector through an outside wall.

--
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Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

MrBill <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Sounds good. Obviously the 7S or 7T relates to the connector. Mine
> looks like a BNC connector, but it's screw-on rather than bayonette
> mount. Would this be the "S" or "T"?

http://www.fab-corp.com/pages.php?pageid=4 has pictures of some connectors.
http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/rad...ector_list.php says that
Linksys uses RP-TNC and RP-SMA. My BEFW11S4 is RP-TNC.
I have purchased some things from Hyperlink, but they have a minimum $100
retail order. Others in this group like fab-corp.

--
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Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 01:16:35 +0000 (UTC), (E-Mail Removed)
wrote in <ejge5j$k50$(E-Mail Removed)>:

>MrBill <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> I have 2 houses on my property and am about to set up a wireless
>> receiver in the other house. Since the Gateway and network adapter
>> will be about 75' apart through thick adobe walls, and since there is
>> another network adapter in a completely different direction, I figure
>
>How far is it to that "other" adapter? I run about 60 feet through a
>couple of sheetrock/pressedboard siding walls with one reflector and a
>normal laptop card, which gets "excellent" signal according to WinXP.

That's not terribly meaningful unless the wireless adapter is under
heavy load -- it's common for a wireless adapter to report
good-excellent signal until it actually tries to transfer data,
whereupon the signal level is downgraded to match reality.

--
Best regards, FAQ for Wireless Internet: <http://Wireless.wikia.com>
John Navas FAQ for Wi-Fi: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi>
Wi-Fi How To: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_HowTo>
Fixes to Wi-Fi Problems: <http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi_Fixes>

John Navas <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 01:16:35 +0000 (UTC), (E-Mail Removed)
> >normal laptop card, which gets "excellent" signal according to WinXP.

> That's not terribly meaningful unless the wireless adapter is under
> heavy load -- it's common for a wireless adapter to report
> good-excellent signal until it actually tries to transfer data,
> whereupon the signal level is downgraded to match reality.

I find a good indicator to be "Current Bandwidth" in perfmon.msc.
Just now, my WG511 shows "excellent". That's a little hard to monitor,
because I only see the popup balloon. Open the status monitor and I have 5
bars, and a speed of 54Mbps.

start-run-perfmon.msc
+ Performance Object = Network
Numbers agree with dslreports.
+ Performance Object = TCP "current bandwidth"

ftp upload at 36KBpS, the current bandwidth stays at 54, ballon pops up as
excellent. ftp download at 300KBpS, same.

Walking around, network idle, I see a momentary drop to 48, then 36. At
that point, the balloon says "very good", then back to excellent, and the
bandwidth is back to 54.

I would say that the balloon is a good quick indicator, your experience
noted. Perfmon is better, and available to almost any user.

I also posted some NetStumbler observations a while ago.
http://www.rahul.net/dold/clarence/w...fer-dining.JPG
In this graph, the effect of the reflector is apparent.

--
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Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5