Wireless Add On Antenna's

Ok here is the system.

Netgear MR314 Wireless router. Just an 802.11B router. We have 5 machines in the house. 3 of which are on the wireless part. Our house is a rather large house 3500 square feet.

The computer is the far end of the house has almost constant low signal from the router. We have a cheap add on antenna that is on a 3 foot wire sitting on the desktop and it is still pretty poor. Does anyone have any recomendations.

I dont see a way to change the antenna on the router itself. I was browsing around www.tigerdirect.ca and they have a few external antenna's for around 40$ up to 200$ I dont want to buy a massivly expensive antenna to go on a 50$ card.

Does anyone have any suggestions.

Well, it depends on a lot of different things. First, make sure your access point is set to full power. Try moving the antenna around the room, see if you get a better signal. Move the computer around the room. Move the access point to a more central location, if possible. Failing that, move the access point around, as far as you can.

Move any devices that would interfere away.. 2.4ghz cordless phones, microwaves, etc. Moving it around may move it out of the way of a vent or other things in the walls that may be causing signal degredation.

If it's still bad, you can try the cheap method, and make a cantenna, which is a cheap replacement antenna, which can be made from a can of pringles and a few bucks. Just aim that at the access point, and that should give you a better signal.

Other options would be things like a signal amplifier add-on for your access point (if yours supports one), or a professional directional antenna, like a yagi, but like you said, they're expensive.

Capt Fiero said:

Ok here is the system.

Netgear MR314 Wireless router. Just an 802.11B router. We have 5 machines in the house. 3 of which are on the wireless part. Our house is a rather large house 3500 square feet.

I dont see a way to change the antenna on the router itself. I was browsing around www.tigerdirect.ca and they have a few external antenna's for around 40$ up to 200$ I dont want to buy a massivly expensive antenna to go on a 50$ card.

Does anyone have any suggestions.

Click to expand...

Your best bet is to put a higher gain antenna on the AP..

How adventerous do you feel? The below links should point you in the direction of moding the ap for an external antenna..

http://www.nodomainname.co.uk/me102/me102.htm
http://www.nodomainname.co.uk/ma401/ma401.htm

I'd check with http://www.fab-corp.com . They've got a bunch of stuff that might work. I'd put together a custom cantenna with one of their pigtails. Maybe $25-$30 out the door.

-ben

Sense it seems it is only 1 computer that is having connection problems i would just put some type of directional antenna on the computer in question. A small patch antenna (with the correct pigtail for your card) such as this should provide a cost effective solution. http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/hg2414p.php