Wifi adding an external antenna question?

I have an 11Mb access point going spare, which has the short twin
separately adjustable antennas on the rear, permanently fixed (no
socket). I understand it makes a choice as to which antenna to use, for
a particular connection.

I am trying to set up a short range link to give access a little way
beyond the coverage of my main wifi access point, so my idea is to use
the older access point to provide this. I plan to replace one of the
antennas with an external yagi home brew antenna and removing the
second one. How might this affect the switching between two antennas?



--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

Andy Burns used his keyboard to write :
> But I suppose if you just remove one aerial the access point will just assume
> that the other aerial is always the best one and use it.

That is what I am hoping for.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

Peter Crosland explained on 10/01/2009 :
> A much more elegant solution would be to relocate the access point to the
> area where coverage is need it and connect it by CAT5e.

That is not possible, it goes over other property - hence the need to
link via wireless.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

It happens that Andy Burns formulated :
> If the aerials are covering different areas and you have multiple wireless
> devices it can lead to one device not getting much of a look in, so that's
> not recommended.

This setup only needs to provide coverage for one single systems
access.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

On Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:32:00 GMT, Harry Bloomfield wrote:

> I have an 11Mb access point going spare, which has the short twin
> separately adjustable antennas on the rear, permanently fixed (no
> socket). I understand it makes a choice as to which antenna to use, for
> a particular connection.
>
> I am trying to set up a short range link to give access a little way
> beyond the coverage of my main wifi access point, so my idea is to use
> the older access point to provide this. I plan to replace one of the
> antennas with an external yagi home brew antenna and removing the
> second one. How might this affect the switching between two antennas?

Rather than replace the existing aerials, consider adding d-i-y reflectors
to the existing aerials e.g.
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template/

"Harry Bloomfield" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) k...
>I have an 11Mb access point going spare, which has the short twin
>separately adjustable antennas on the rear, permanently fixed (no socket).
>I understand it makes a choice as to which antenna to use, for a particular
>connection.
>
> I am trying to set up a short range link to give access a little way
> beyond the coverage of my main wifi access point, so my idea is to use the
> older access point to provide this. I plan to replace one of the antennas
> with an external yagi home brew antenna and removing the second one. How
> might this affect the switching between two antennas?
>
>
>
> --
> Regards,
> Harry (M1BYT) (L)
> http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk
>
>

Get a couple of pringle tube antennas and use them! Easy to make, very
cheap
and they outperform a normal vertical. You could also use home made
reflectors
from tinfoil glued to cardboard.
Come on, you have been a radio amateur for years, you shouldn't even need to
be asking in a newsgroup. I would understand if you had a silly novice
licence.

Harry Bloomfield wrote:

> I am trying to set up a short range link to give access a little way
> beyond the coverage of my main wifi access point, so my idea is to use
> the older access point to provide this. I plan to replace one of the
> antennas with an external yagi home brew antenna and removing the
> second one. How might this affect the switching between two antennas?

If you're lucky, the firmware on the AP might let you switch off the
diversity. Failing that, you might be able to install firmware that does
[eg OpenWRT].

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James R has brought this to us :
> Come on, you have been a radio amateur for years, you shouldn't even need to
> be asking in a newsgroup. I would understand if you had a silly novice
> licence.

It was a technical enquiry on the hidden inner workings of the router
only. I am already well under way with the build of a couple of gamma
matched yagi antennas.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

alexd explained :
> If you're lucky, the firmware on the AP might let you switch off the
> diversity. Failing that, you might be able to install firmware that does
> [eg OpenWRT].

Thanks...

I was thinking along the lines of removing both antennas and linking
the unused connection with a 50 Ohm resistor. That way when it looked
at that particular antenna it would see no wifi signal and use the
alternate one where it should see the signal via my external antenna.
Does that sound feasible?

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

Andy Burns pretended :
> Unless you router has an option to disable diversity (then you'd need to
> check which was the main aerial) it'll still spend half its idle time
> listening to your resistor, but it shouldn't miss incoming packets as the
> switching is faster than the duration of the pre-amble of the packets
> (disabling long pre-amble might confuse it I suppose)

Thanks, that was the answer I was hoping for.

--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk