Recommendations: Wireless networking antennas
Friday, June 6th, 2008 - 5:22pm
Looking for anyone who can recommend an antenna or antennas that will cover about 150m. This is for a non-profit group so cost is a factor. I need to go wireless as we are crossing a road and can't bury the cable. Looking at 2 Wrt54gl with open source firmware set in wireless repeater mode but its the distance where the problem starts. I haven't a clue when it comes to antennas and I would prefer to draw on someone's experience or knowledge then making some wild guess. So anyone know of some antennas that will do the job?
Thanks in advance.
The other thread reminded me to follow up on this. If you need to cover about 300-400m the WHR-HP-G54 from bullafo are the answer. After trawling all over the net these seemed to crop up a few times. So I bought a couple and was impressed. In built amplifier and dd-wrt compatible makes for a pretty solid mix.
SteamID: Coyler
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You could try expanding your current antenna range with the windsurfer antenna. Its a cutout made of manila folder, a paper cutout and aluminum foil.
*Legion* wrote:
Sorry, missed the thread first time around.
While I haven't used anything I would consider affordable, most of the "home" units will allow you to ramp up the power with custom firmware. Add some directional antennas (can't recommend a specific cheap one, but they start around $50) and you can cover solid distances very well, as well as eliminating a lot of drive-by.
"And the circle has been charged through the power of unphysics, which are physics so stupid they erase normal ones from your mind." -Wields-Rulebook-Heavily at rpg.net
Antennas are complex, and they aren't magic. All they can do is radiate or collect energy. The default antennas are generally omnidirectional, meaning they radiate in every direction. All antennas that offer gain do so by compressing the transmitted or detected signal into a smaller area. They might, for instance, improve gain horizontally but reduce it vertically. The old trick of using a Pringles can makes an extremely directional antenna with a lot of gain; you can see and send VERY well down a very narrow cone, but are entirely deaf and mute in every other direction.
The first thing to try to do is to improve sensitivity or increase transmit power. It sounds like you've done the first, and that it's working for you. Transmit power goes up logarithmically, so a 10x power boost will result in only about 2x the range. When you're down in the milliwatt range, increasing by 10x is often not too difficult, but increasing by 100x usually is... so at that point you generally need to get a focused antenna instead.
I've seen a few antenna projects on instructables.com that could help, if you still need something more directional.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
Maybe I'm projecting my experiences on the situation, but every time I've needed to cross a road in this manner, it was a wireless bridge, and the strong narrow cone of a directional was exactly what I was looking for.
Now, aiming it can be a bitch, and you have to make sure it doesn't move...
"And the circle has been charged through the power of unphysics, which are physics so stupid they erase normal ones from your mind." -Wields-Rulebook-Heavily at rpg.net
Thanks lads. I had checked out Free Antennas for some info if I needed to get some extra range but the buffalo routers bridged the gap without a problem. I walked around with a laptop and was surprised how far the signal reached and this was through a double glazed window. I'll wait until the event is over and try that Pringles can idea and up the xmit power and see how far I can push the range without frying the router. Can't resist a little tinkering.
SteamID: Coyler
Xbox Live: Coyler