Range of Wireless Networking.

I used to have a Linksys BEFW11S4 11 mbps wireless router, and now I have
the WRT54G 54 mbps router, which looks identical to the old one. The only
problem is that the slower 11 mbps system had great coverage, but now I have
less than one-half that range.

Is this normal? Will installing a set of those long, black Linksys accessory
antennas make a noticeable difference? Will buying the newer Linksys router
with the three antennas give me better coverage. Should I try another brand?

At least I don't have to worry about hackers. They would have to park in a
very small, specific area to get a signal at all.

Thank you all for your help, and peace be with you.

--
Blaine Hamrick, AL7HH
Irving, Texas
444.800 MHz, 110.9 Hz
(E-Mail Removed)
http://home1.gte.net/hamrick

Blaine Hamrick wrote:
> I used to have a Linksys BEFW11S4 11 mbps wireless router, and now I have
> the WRT54G 54 mbps router, which looks identical to the old one. The only
> problem is that the slower 11 mbps system had great coverage, but now I have
> less than one-half that range.
>
> Is this normal? Will installing a set of those long, black Linksys accessory
> antennas make a noticeable difference? Will buying the newer Linksys router
> with the three antennas give me better coverage. Should I try another brand?
>
> At least I don't have to worry about hackers. They would have to park in a
> very small, specific area to get a signal at all.
>
> Thank you all for your help, and peace be with you.
>
In my testing I did not see a noticeable differences with those
larger antennas you are talking about.

You could try different firmware like from Sveasoft that would let you
boost up the power output which I think helps. I usually only turn it up
to around 200mw and not go to the max for fear of overheating and I
think the signal starts to get a little unsteady at the higher power.
I'm sure other people from this group will have lots of other good
suggestions as well.

On Wed, 28 Sep 2005 01:00:47 GMT, "Blaine Hamrick" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I used to have a Linksys BEFW11S4 11 mbps wireless router, and now I have
>the WRT54G 54 mbps router, which looks identical to the old one. The only
>problem is that the slower 11 mbps system had great coverage, but now I have
>less than one-half that range.
>Is this normal?

Well half the range implies a 6dB loss somewhere in the system
(antenna, tx power, or rx sensitivity). This is not normal. I just
happen to have a BEFW11S4v4 and a WRT54Gv1.1 at home. However, I've
never bothered to do a range test with the stock antennas. Offhand, I
would guess that both work about the same with the stock antennas
(which are identical between the two models) using my ancient Orinoco
classic Silver 802.11b. No way do I see any substantial range
difference.

Are you using the same client radio when testing both routers? Or do
you have two clients, one 802.11b and one 802.11g? If so, it just
might be a client radio problem.

>Will installing a set of those long, black Linksys accessory
>antennas make a noticeable difference?

I have one of those on my office router of the week (DLink DI-614+).
It seems to improve performance noticeably when I'm outside. It seems
like a worthy improvement but it's not going to compensate for 6dB
worth of loss.

>Will buying the newer Linksys router
>with the three antennas give me better coverage. Should I try another brand?

I don't know. It would be nice if you could grab some test equipment
and find out whether it's the receiver or the transmitter that's
hurting on the WRT54G. The MIMO (pre-n) routers seem to offer a
noticeable improvement in performance, even with ordinary 802.11g
client radios. However, I've had very little experience with these.
Best to ask someone that owns one.

>At least I don't have to worry about hackers. They would have to park in a
>very small, specific area to get a signal at all.

Not a problem. All wireless hackers have big dishes and yagis.

>Thank you all for your help, and peace be with you.

Yeah, I could use some peace and quiet. I've been throwing hams and
visitors out of my office all evening. Maybe I should go home and
hide.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831.336.2558 voice Skype: JeffLiebermann
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS
# http://802.11junk.com
# (E-Mail Removed)
# (E-Mail Removed)