View Full Version : Wi-Fi antennas
plutonium
11-01-2005, 04:07 PM
Hi
I'd like to get some decent range from my wireless network running a d-link dsl-G604T. I was thinking of getting an antenna since everyone in the house was complaining about signal loss even though i placed the AP in the 'center' of the house.
Are there specific antennas I need to look out for to suite the kind of range / area of my house?
arf9999
11-01-2005, 04:44 PM
um.......how big is your house? :)
plutonium
11-01-2005, 09:37 PM
Heh, i was wondering what I didn't say :P
roughly 200mx200m, but that's a wild guess.
arf9999
11-01-2005, 11:39 PM
Seriously?
200m x 200m?? Your house covers 40 000m square?..... thats like huge!
No wonder you're getting signal loss!
For most people's (small) houses or small offices, this kind of thing should be ok:
http://www.poynting.co.za/antennas/omni-a0004.shtml
or even:
http://www.miro.co.za/ProdAntennaDipole.htm
But you may need something bigger, possibly contact Poynting or Miro and ask for their advice.
PS: Best idea is to pace out the longest distance that the signal needs to travel and note how many walls, floors, tin roofs, etc that the signal needs to penetrate.
kaspaas
12-01-2005, 08:15 AM
The biggest problem is the distance the signal needs to travel through walls.
If the signal travels perpendicular to the wall, the path length is quite short. But the moment it is not perpendicular, the path length increases quite dramatic.
I once had a similar problem. The antenna was in the corridor. That meant that the signal path was going through quite a bit of brick. Moving the antenna to the edge of the offices solved the problem. Although the total path length was much longer in many instances, the brick & mortar path length was much less.
Try it with a pencil and paper! It is amazing.
peered95
16-01-2005, 02:24 PM
Do you no prices?
arf9999
16-01-2005, 06:53 PM
Here are Miro's retail prices:
http://www.miro.co.za/Prices/Miro%20Retail%20Pricelist%20January%202005.pdf
AFAIK Miro are resellers of Poynting
Robone
16-01-2005, 07:00 PM
I have for sale a dish antenna including cables, a cantenna (imported ) including pigtails for mywireless. You won't need the pigtails tho, but the rest are all designed for wifi.
Offers welcome. If I get sh?t offers, I might become part of JAWUG
Why not use a 2nd router (D-Link DL-624+) and let that act as a bridge or repeater
DLinkSA
14-02-2005, 03:29 PM
Plutonium
I agree with kaspaas an arf9999 a 2.4 GHz antenna will do the job. More or less have a look at the 8dBi omni-directional antennas that you can just attach to the DSL.
JayT
Getting another DI-624+ will only complicate things as the DSL can only run in AP mode and the DI can only run in AP mode, there'll be no way thay will communicate.
so here i am , looking at the dlink stuff, and i have no clue what to buy!
i need to get 2x pci cards, and 2 x external antennas, i need to cover about 700ms, no objects in the way, its over school fields! any ideas?
lewstherin
14-02-2005, 04:28 PM
bboy...in the next 2 weeks (there I've commited to a deadline :P), I will be posting a guide of sorts for exactly what you want to do...it will basically be a documentation of my own wifi network setup...
DLinkSA
15-02-2005, 07:38 AM
bboy
Have a look at the DWL-G520 H/W: Bx PCI adapters from D-Link (www.dlink.co.za) and 2 external antennas's product code is ANT2400-1400 for a range of 700m clear line of site.
Also please remember when linking up 2 PCI adapter at this range not the let the jumper cable (connecting the external antenna and the PCI) be longer then 30cm.
DLinkSA, which of the PCMCIA wireless adapters support monitor mode?
DLinkSA
15-02-2005, 08:07 AM
JayT
I'm not quite sure what you mean by monitoring mode.
Monitoring the signal strength and quality?
rf monitor mode - being able to monitor all traffic passing within signal range