Extending my Wireless network range

[BigTree]

Hey guys I have a question for you.

At work we have two computers, one with a wired connection and one with a wireless to the router. The wireless one gets pretty crappy signal strength. The NIC and router are both D-link.

I was wondering if I could use some wire to extend the antenna on the NIC and maybe the router as well. If it would carry the signal I know it would work, I just dont want to fry anything either.

Please leave your thoughts and opinions. Thanks.

P.S. Do not really want to go wired due to the location etc etc.

[Jon]

Antenna extensions are available depending on the type of connector yours has.

I extended my wireless network by using an additional router (a very cheap $20 802.11g). By connecting the two using switch ports only, disabling DHCP on the second, and assigning an IP within the range of the primary router - it then acts as an extender. Two wireless networks will appear in those detected, but the new wireless network will pass DHCP and authentication requests to the primary. It's almost like a bridge, except you're still on one subnet.

[Diggrr]

Don't add a wire to extend the antenna.
Antenna length=frequency used.
You wouldn't help your signal, but your cordless phones and your car alarm might object!

Believe it or not, this works fantastic, and it's dirt cheap to make. You need metal (aluminum foil is fine) to cover the rectangular part.
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html

I made one for on the router antenna, and it let me use my laptop from the shop in my backyard.
I used aluminum furnace tape to cover mine, and just printed it on photo paper to use as is.
It's directional, so you'd need to point them toward each other, and that might make new devices a pain if they weren't in the signal path.
Using just one on the remote computer alone could help too, I just used one because my lappy doesn't have an external antenna.

[Ascii2]

Antenna length=frequency used.Not true.

For example,

1.5 meters = 2.4 GHz

I do not see an equality.

[gearhead1972]

these work great http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833147115

[asusradeon]

Not true.

For example,

1.5 meters = 2.4 GHz

I do not see an equality.

so ideally the antenna should be 1.5m long ?

[Diggrr]

@Ascii2, that's not correct, and wavelength does not directly correlate to frequency, it's an inverse correlation.
The higher the frequency, the smaller the actual wavelength in meters, and wifi is in the microwave band.

2.4 Ghtz equals roughly 121mm, but actual antenna length used by a wifi device (slightly off the target frequency of 2.4) is around 122mm for a full wave antenna, 61mm for half-wave, and 30.5mm for 1/4 wave.

I know you've seen wave guide antenna's that are 1.5 meters in length, but internally those contain 10 radiating elements soldered in a chain to improve gain.

Here's a link to a calculator I just googled showing wavelength in feet/inches, your antenna is supposed to correlate directly with said wavelength.
http://www.crompton.com/wa3dsp/hamradio/antcalc.html

Note that it's frequency in Mhtz, not Ghtz, so you'd enter it as 2400.
Half wave is 2.34 inches, or 59.436 millimeters. For full wavelength, simply multiply by 2.
**Note also that it's meant for Ham Radios, and seems a tiny bit off for these microwave frequencies.

[jenko]

I recently flashed my linksys with a hack firmware which lets me up the transmit power from the 50% default to 100%, the range increase isnt great but it helps alot in the outter ranges which had poor signal.

[JigPu]

Not true.

For example,

1.5 meters = 2.4 GHz

I do not see an equality.
Frequency = Hz = cycles/second
Propogation Speed = meters/second
Wavelength = 1/Frequency * Propagation Speed = seconds/cycle * meters/second = meters/cycle

OK, so frequency and antenna length are not equal in the strict sense, but frequency and resonant antenna length are most definitely proportional. You don't exactly have a lot of choice when building an antenna over how long its going to be (if you want it to work well, that is :D).

JigPu

[Ascii2]

My comment about not seeing an equality was poorly written. It should have conveyed that there is no true equality. A length per se cannot equal a frequency per se, wherefore it would be impossible for the equation representation to be true.

I now believe I understand what Diggrr was trying to convey.

[Diggrr]

:)

I'm no engineer by any stretch of the imagination.
I just read a lot about wifi in my own quests, and picked up a thing or two.

So the actual length of a 2.4Ghtz wave is 1.5 meters?...huh. Learned something new today...from both of you! :thup:

[schnikies79]

I recently flashed my linksys with a hack firmware which lets me up the transmit power from the 50% default to 100%, the range increase isnt great but it helps alot in the outter ranges which had poor signal.

I've read on linksys forums that you shouldn't kick the Tx power up to 100% because it can burn out the radio chip. Around 90% was the max you should put it if I remember correctly.