Which antenna to upgrade?

I have a LinkSys WAP54G in my house. I am using it with AirPort
Express, which works fine and a camera, which doesn't always work fine.
One nice thing is that the camera does have a display that will show
me signal strength. The access point's location (1st floor office)
is optimized for my wife's usage of the AirPort Express, which is
used daily.

The problem I am having is that the signal level goes to nothing when
the camera is where it is most often used, my studio (living
room/dinning room) and by my computer (basement). When in the living
room, the signal has to go through a wall, which I believe is a support
wall. The wall does NOT have any air ducts in it. Then of course the
basement, well, if the camera is right under the access point, I get a
2/5 ~4/5 signal, but over by my desk it is zero.

The antenna on the camera unit is only designed for a 10 meter range
but there is much bigger antenna that that will give the unit a 150
meter range for $120. Then I have seen that LinkSys does sell a High
Gain Antenna for about $60. Does anyone if simply upgrading the
LinkSys will fix my problem? I would prefer not to have the huge
antenna on the camera, nor the extra cost.

Here is a review of the camera/wireless unit I have:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond2h/page15.asp

Sam

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> I have a LinkSys WAP54G in my house. I am using it with AirPort
> Express, which works fine and a camera, which doesn't always work fine.
> One nice thing is that the camera does have a display that will show
> me signal strength. The access point's location (1st floor office)
> is optimized for my wife's usage of the AirPort Express, which is
> used daily.

So, you don't have that external antenna at all?
The price on that is ludicrous. Someone else's aftermarket antenna should
work just as well. I have used the "Hawking HAI6SDA Directional 6dBi
2.4GHz Antenna" with good success on a Netgear WG311 PCI card.
<http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/productlist.php?CatID=32&FamID=58&ProdID=122>
It might fit. Or you might need something that would fit an Orinoco card,
which has a little tiny connector.

There have been some suggestions of putting a V-shaped piece of aluminum
behind a laptop that has no external antenna to reflect the signal
somewhat. I'm not keen on that idea, although it should work a little.

I would be more in favor of putting free reflectors on the WAP.
I have a pair of windsurfer reflectors on my BEFW11S4.
http://www.freeantennas.com EZ-12.
A single one on my Netgear:
http://www.rahul.net/dold/clarence/EZ12-windsurfer.jpg

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8,-122.5

On 2006-03-07, (E-Mail Removed)
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>> I have a LinkSys WAP54G in my house. I am using it with
>> AirPort Express, which works fine and a camera, which doesn't
>> always work fine. One nice thing is that the camera does have
>> a display that will show me signal strength. The access
>> point's location (1st floor office) is optimized for my wife's
>> usage of the AirPort Express, which is used daily.
>
> So, you don't have that external antenna at all? The price on
> that is ludicrous.

What are you talking about? Both the LinkSys and the ** CAMERA ***
have antennas. Go have a look at this link:

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond2h/page15.asp

The standard 10M antenna for my camera is visable in the two two images
and in the lower left image. The 150M antenna is visable in the lower
right image.

> Someone else's aftermarket antenna should work just as well. I
> have used the "Hawking HAI6SDA Directional 6dBi 2.4GHz Antenna"
> with good success on a Netgear WG311 PCI card.
><http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/productlist.php?CatID=32&FamID=58&ProdID=122>
>It might fit. Or you might need something that would fit an
>Orinoco card, which has a little tiny connector.
>
> There have been some suggestions of putting a V-shaped piece of
> aluminum behind a laptop that has no external antenna to reflect
> the signal somewhat. I'm not keen on that idea, although it
> should work a little.

Considering there is no laptop, let alone wireless computer, I don't
think I will try that option.

> I would be more in favor of putting free reflectors on the WAP.
> I have a pair of windsurfer reflectors on my BEFW11S4.
> http://www.freeantennas.com EZ-12. A single one on my Netgear:
> http://www.rahul.net/dold/clarence/EZ12-windsurfer.jpg

It is a thought, except my access point has two antennas.

Sam

On 7 Mar 2006 15:10:09 -0800, in alt.internet.wireless ,
(E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>On 2006-03-07, (E-Mail Removed)
><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>> There have been some suggestions of putting a V-shaped piece of
>> aluminum behind a laptop that has no external antenna to reflect
>> the signal somewhat. I'm not keen on that idea, although it
>> should work a little.
>
snip
> point's location (1st floor office) is optimized for my wife's
> usage of the AirPort Express, which is used daily
snip
>Considering there is no laptop, let alone wireless computer, I don't
>think I will try that option.

What does your wife use? Telepathy at 2.4 GHz? Come on now, somewhere
in this loop you have a wireless computer. :-) And in any events the
point is, you put it round the /antenna/. Doesn't matter what teh
antenna is attached to

>> I would be more in favor of putting free reflectors on the WAP.
>> I have a pair of windsurfer reflectors on my BEFW11S4.
>> http://www.freeantennas.com EZ-12. A single one on my Netgear:
>> http://www.rahul.net/dold/clarence/EZ12-windsurfer.jpg
>
>It is a thought, except my access point has two antennas.

So what? Does that mean it can't possibly have weak output?

Do you want help or not? If so, be less ascerbic with your responses
to assistance.
Mark McIntyre
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On 7 Mar 2006 12:11:39 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>The problem I am having is that the signal level goes to nothing when
>the camera is where it is most often used, my studio (living
>room/dinning room) and by my computer (basement).

Ok, you're going through the floor. What's the floor made of? Wood
or concrete? Any aluminum foil backed insulation in the floor? If
so, I don't think a better antenna will help.

>When in the living
>room, the signal has to go through a wall, which I believe is a support
>wall.

Wood, drywall, foil backed insulation?

>The wall does NOT have any air ducts in it. Then of course the
>basement, well, if the camera is right under the access point, I get a
>2/5 ~4/5 signal, but over by my desk it is zero.

If you add a directional antenna to the access point, any signal you
aim in the downward direction (towards the basement) will be taken
away from your wife's connection. Antennas do not produce RF, they
only redirect it. I supose some type of exotic antenna could be
contrived that would have good coverage to both your wife's computer
and down to the basement, but methinks there are better alternatives.

>The antenna on the camera unit is only designed for a 10 meter range
>but there is much bigger antenna that that will give the unit a 150
>meter range for $120. Then I have seen that LinkSys does sell a High
>Gain Antenna for about $60. Does anyone if simply upgrading the
>LinkSys will fix my problem? I would prefer not to have the huge
>antenna on the camera, nor the extra cost.

Ouch. The prices on those antennas are rediculously high.

OK, let's assume that we don't mess with the camera and just work on
improving the signal in the basement.

The easiest way is to just add another wireless access point in the
basement. Run a CAT5 cable between floors and install a 2nd WAP54G.
Use a different channel (1, 6, 11) but the same SSID to make roaming
easier.

Yeah, I know. You don't wanna run the CAT5 cable. That's what
everyone grumbles about. You can use power line networking adapters
or bridges to get between floors. See:
http://www.netgear.com/products/details/WGXB102.php
It's basically the same idea as the CAT5 plus WAP54G except it uses
the power lines to complete the connection. That should get you
sufficient RF in the basement.

A marginal trick is to borrow one antenna and extend it downstairs.
This is sorta what I have running in my 2 story house. The WAP54G has
two antennas for diversity. Leave one antenna alone for your wife's
laptop, run RG-6/u coax (with adapter) from the other down to the
basement. Attach some kind of antenna. It doesn't need to be the
original. The loss in the coax will be horrible, but less than what
you would get trying to get RF to go through the floor. My guess is
about 25ft of RG-6/u maximum or you'll end up with bigger coax such as
LMR-400. However, there's a catch. Some chipsets screwup when
running wildly dissimilar antennas in a diversity arrangement. I
could not convince a WAP11 or a BEFW11s4v4 to work this way. I
eventually set the access point to a single antenna, and installed a
power splitter on the other port. That worked well enough until I got
fed up with the mess of cables and just installed the WAP11 downstairs
and the BEFW11S4 upstairs.

I don't wanna go into detail, but I would NOT recommend a "range
extender", "range expander", or wireless repeater.



--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
# http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

> snip
>> point's location (1st floor office) is optimized for my wife's
>> usage of the AirPort Express, which is used daily
> snip
>
>>Considering there is no laptop, let alone wireless computer, I
>>don't think I will try that option.
>
> What does your wife use? Telepathy at 2.4 GHz? Come on now,
> somewhere in this loop you have a wireless computer.

No, my wife uses a desktop machine just like I do. Both machines have
an ethernet card built into the motherboard and are tired together
along with three other machines (all servers) and the access point via
CAT5.

Like I said in my first posting, there are only two wireles devices, my
camera and the AirPort Express.

Jeff,

I have seriously considered simply installing a second access point.
The only problem is that my basement is finished and where I want the
wireless access point is over the finished part of the basement. I,
personally, lack the skills to get a CAT5 line to the living room. If
I go with that option, do I simply need to put the second access point
on a different channel and all will be good?

Sam

P.S.

>> don't wanna go into detail, but I would NOT recommend a "range
>> extender", "range expander", or wireless repeater.

I just saw one of those for the first time today and thought it would
be a good solution. Are there any good web sites you can point me to,
to explain why they are bad? I would love to be a bit more informed.

On 7 Mar 2006 18:59:29 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>I have seriously considered simply installing a second access point.
>The only problem is that my basement is finished and where I want the
>wireless access point is over the finished part of the basement. I,
>personally, lack the skills to get a CAT5 line to the living room. If
>I go with that option, do I simply need to put the second access point
>on a different channel and all will be good?

Well, if you can't hire an electrician or do it thyself, the power
line networking idea is easy (and cheap) enough.

The 2nd access point should be on a different non-overlapping channel
(1, 6, or 11) to prevent mutual RF interference with your other access
point. The SSID can be either the same for seamless roaming, or
different to allow you to select which access point you want to
connect.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
# http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS

On 7 Mar 2006 19:01:54 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>>> don't wanna go into detail, but I would NOT recommend a "range
>>> extender", "range expander", or wireless repeater.

>I just saw one of those for the first time today and thought it would
>be a good solution. Are there any good web sites you can point me to,
>to explain why they are bad? I would love to be a bit more informed.

The basic problem is finding a location for the repeater that will
have a good signal to BOTH the upstairs WAP54G and the downstairs
camera. I don't think it can be done without drilling holes.

I don't wanna get into why I hate repeaters and such. I'll write
something when I have time (later).

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558 (E-Mail Removed)
# http://802.11junk.com (E-Mail Removed)
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com AE6KS