Extending wifi range at campground we visit

I am trying to improve the signal and throughput when staying at a
campground we are at on the weekends. They offer WiFi, but the antenna
is at one end of the campground and we are at the other.

My thoughts are to connect an external directional antenna to a
Linksys WET54g wireless bridge. Connect an ethernet cable between the
WET54g and a Linksys WAP54G wireless access point. Our laptops would
then connect to the WAP54G.

Will this work? Is there anything special we need to know to configure
this correctly?
Bob & Geri

http://www.rbhayes.net

 

First try a better WiFi adapter, like the Hawking HWU54D or HWU8DD. I
use both regularly in campgrounds, where WiFi implementations seem to be
pretty, um, basic.

The problem may be that the park access point has enough power to reach
you, but your WiFi adapter doesn't have enough power to talk back
reliably. Most WiFi adapters have output power in the 30 mw range, Those
two USB-connected Hawking devices have 200 mw of output power.

 

I do this with a pair of WRT54GS routers on our boat. Works great. The
first unit connects to the base station as a 'client'. Then the second unit
is wired into it as an access point. The laptops wireless connect into this
access point. All you need to do is fire up a browser on a PC, load the
config page for the first router and find the camp's SSID.

Be aware that antennas are tricky to align. You want to get one that has
directional focus but not too tight an angle. Generally the higher the
gain, the tighter the angles. Both horizontal and vertical coverage areas.
So going with an antenna with greater than 8dB might seem like a good idea
but not when you try to get it aimed. I'm sure Jeff and others more
familiar with directional antenna can offer suggestions here. Just make
sure whatever mounting scheme you plan on using lends itself to easy setup
and storage if it's going to get removed while you're on the highway.

-Bill Kearney

 

I am having trouble making these units work together for the some
reason.

I am using my neighbors wireless router to test. It has a SSID of
"linksys" and I can connect to it via my wireless modem and browse the
Internet with no issues.

The Linksys wet54g has a directional antenna connected to it and is
pointed at neighbors network.

I connected my laptop to the wet54g via the blue ethernet cable that
came with it. I configured my laptop to have a static IP address of
192.168.1.55

In Internet Explorer I go to 192.168.1.226 and sign into the admin
screen of the wet54g

I do a site survey - find the network I want which has a 100% signal
on channel 6 and has encryption disabled . I double click on that
network and the system resets.

The SSID is now linksys - on channel 6 - no encryption. The wet54g is
set for a static ip address


I now configure my Laptop to get an IP address via DHCP and reboot.

When I connect my computer get's IP address from the neighbors
network, via the
ethernet cabled pluged into wet54g and I can surf the internet

I then unpluged cable from laptop and search for a wireless connection
- I find find the wap54g which also has an SSID of "linksys"by default
and attempt to connect to
it, but do not receive an IP address .

Am I doing something wrong?

Does the SSID of the source router and the WAP54g have to be the same
or can I
change the WAP54g to something other than linksys?

When I try to connect to the WAP54g via the wireless card I have a
strong signal, just cant get an IP address.

Bob & Geri

http://www.rbhayes.net

 

I now configure my Laptop to get an IP address via DHCP and reboot.

And where do you expect it to get this address from?

How are you configuring the access point? It won't just automagically get
an IP address from the source network if it's not been configured to do so.

Change your access point's configuration to use a different SSID. Don't
just use the default one. Then make sure it's configured to get it's
address via DHCP. This would assume, however, that the WET has made the
link to the neighbor's setup. If that's not working then it won't get an
IP. If it doesn't have an IP then it can't act as an access point.

No it doesn't have to be the same and it shouldn't be the same. Nor should
it be on the same channel. You're using one device to make a wireless
connection, which is then connected by the wired ethernet, in turn shared
via another wireless setup. Make the SSID and channels different.

I don't use the shore network for my addresses. I run another subnet on the
boat, behind the NAT router that makes the connection to shore. Thus my
on-boat network always has it's own IP addresses.

-Bill Kearney