Wireless Broadband
 

When we move to the new place, I intend to do my networking wirelessly. I have the Linksys wireless router, but I'm going to need to up the coverage in order to get between the main house and my son's apartment. I'd rather not have to buy a repeater/bridge, and I don't think the distance is such that I should need to do so. I will, however, want to put a remote high gain antenna on the thing and elevate said antenna a ways. It will also be in line of sight with Son of Spode's apartment window.

All that being said...what is the best high gain antenna solution without having to take out a second mortgage?

lol @ son of spode :)


I don't know but I know the solution will come your way.

Look at a company called YDI , they have helped me in the past with wireless soulutions , directional antennas and the such ,
http://ydi.com/products/bwa/point/qu...dge/index.html

If you are feeling Froggy you could even do Voice over IP phone service to the Bach Pad !!!

This may apply:

NETGEAR WGXB102 Wall-Plugged Wireless Range Extender Kit

The WGXB102 allows the user to have their wireless network originate from the middle of their home, or from even the furthest extremity, with no cables visible. The kit consists of the XE102 Wall-Plugged Ethernet bridge and a WGX102 54 Mbps Wall-Plugged Wireless Range Extender. The XE102 connects to an existing wired or wireless router from any vendor, and the WGX102 can be plugged into any electrical outlet to create an area of wireless access.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833122062 $109.99

http://www.netgear.com/images/produc...ge/wgxb102.jpg

Caveat: Some of the X-10 control devices don't work across long wiring thru multiple cirucuits.

if you really want to go on the cheap you could do the cantenna.

Or...

Zonet ZWA3006 2.4GHz 2-In-1 Directional Wireless Antenna

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833984001 $15.99 times two

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggIma...984-001-02.jpg

What I'm hoping to do is achieve less directional coverage. Visualize a "bubble" encompassing the main house, the garage apartment, and a portion of the backyard (yes, so I can both sit outside *and* surf with my laptop).

What I want is more akin to a "hot spot" than a home wireless network, I guess.

This is it:

RangeMax™ Wireless Access Point - Model WPN802

navigates through possible signal interference (at speeds up to 108 Mbps), turning your former “dead zones” into hot spots!

http://www.netgear.com/products/details/WPN802.php

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833150022

http://www.netgear.com/images/diagrams/wpn802_range.jpg

That's precisely the sort of thing I'm looking for! Thanks, RS.

I bought one of these yesterday. I am posting this from my patio. I get a 2/5 bar signal here. It is about 40 feet from the wireless access point here. This laptop only does B wireless (not G).

This is a big improvement over the old linksys wap which barely gets signal outside of the room.

Any idea how much better performance in the real world I could expect from G?

I don't really know. You can get a G WAP and upgrade computer NICs later.

Another thing that may help you out, if coverage is not long enough, you can get two WPN802 WAPs and use one as a relay to extend range:

The WPN802 repeating feature lets two distant sections of a wireless network communicate, without having to provide uniform coverage over a huge single huge area.

In repeating, one access point is the root access point (configured in "access point mode"), and the other is the repeater (configured in "repeater mode").

http://kbserver.netgear.com/images/1546_net.jpg

I've looked at the repeater hardward, but it seems to be largely directional by design.

... whereas this is not directional. The repeater is another instance of the same WAP. Hopefully, you would not need to extend range like this. The repeater can provide wireless connectivity to a wired-only device such as a ReplayTV.

I like Linksys gear. I have the WRT54G in the basement, and these did the trick for me. Actually, the exact antennas are not at that link, that is the start of their selection of High Gain Antennas. Choose the one best suited to your AP.

edit: linksys offers very high bang for buck quotient