Re: [BAWUG] extending wireless coverage

[Sean Lazar]

Hi Hilary, >From a district technician to a fellow education techie, my sympathies to you. I started to overengineer a solution but since this will only be for three months, it makes sense to go cheaply. Higher dbi means more signal focusing thus a stronger signal. You should try to get the highest rated antenna possible. What Linksys router do you have? The Linksys WRT54G has RP-TNC style connectors. Your antenna must have that type of connector. The Hawking HA16SIP (6dbi) seems to come with a rp-smc to rp-tnc adapter so that would at least connect and boost your signal a bit, but I would try to go with a stronger antenna. Also, going outdoors (or put it in a window) will remove obstructions and give you better signal. **Directional antennas will put the signal in a given direction. You could look at using a directional antenna to focus your signal toward your clients.** Can you give the model numbers for the other antennas? What model repeater is the netgear? WGE101? If it is the WGE101 I am seeing that you should update the firmware to the latest... it will help make it faster. Also directional antennas on the netgear, pointed at your access point will help. The netgear has a RP-SMA connector. I am not sure if the D-Link DWL-800AP would work with your linksys 4-port wireless-G router. Does anyone have experience making these work with a linksys? See this: http://support.dlink.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=1136&question=DWL-800AP+ But maybe you could get a few DWL-800AP+ and put one up as your access point and then have a couple of repeaters. *Repeater mode will reduce your wireless throughput in half, thus resulting in lower transfer rates and reduced speed. *Ethernet connection does not work when in repeater mode *The DWL-800AP+ Ethernet Port Is for only configuration only while in repeater mode. Keeping the Ethernet connection on the DWL-800AP+ is optional while in repeater mode. Repeating is generally yucky and should be avoided if possible. I would focus on getting antennas. Hope this helps, please ask more questions if you are unsure or need clarification. Sean Pajaro Valley Unified School District Watsonville, CA saxon wrote: Hi everyone, I need some advice about the best means of extending wireless access across the playground of the elementary school where I am part-time tech support. This has to be a very cheap temporary solution because we will be back in the main building in January. At the moment all classrooms, administrative and support staff are in portables arranged in a U-shape around the playground. There are 6 portables along each arm of the U, and 3 across the bottom. There is an Internet connection only in the administrative portable at the top of one side of the U. (The district somehow "forgot" that the classrooms would also need to be networked. Let's not go there!) I have set up a linksys 4-port wireless-G router in the admin portable. The signal reaches the next 2 portables, and I have used a netgear wireless ethernet bridge to network the LAN in each. I want to know the optimal device to extend the signal to the bottom of the U. There are too many choices! I am considering an omni-directional antenna, such as the Hawking HA16SIP (6dbi), selling on eBay for about $15. But there are also 9 and 15dbi models - how do I know how much I need? Alternatively, a "repeater" or "extender" (terms that do not seem to have exact definitions) such as the D-Link DWL-800AP, also on eBay for under $20, might work as well. I would much appreciate the wisdom of this group! thanks Hilary p.s. I haven't measured, but I estimate the length of the U is 250' and width 80' _______________________________________________ BAWUG's general wireless chat mailing list [unsubscribe] http://lists.bawug.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless

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