I live in typical (newly built) Taiwanese row house that’s one room across and two rooms deep. There are three floors and a half at roof level. I don’t have the exact measurements but like I said, this house is typical and I’m sure many of you wireless users have the same coverage problem.
My access point/ADSL modem is in the right hand corner of the third floor, I need the coverage in the left hand corner of the first floor (same side of the house). I could try to
move the middle floor and run the ADSL Lan Cable and the wired PC cable back up to our bedroom where the ADSL modem sits. (If I do that, is there anything different about the Lan Cable between the router and the modem IE: the difference between a computer to hub cable or computer to computer cable? How far from the modem can the router be?
Should I call my ISP to move the ADSL access point to the middle floor as well?
Use a repeater? Are there any cheap sources for repeaters or do I have to buy another router. Will going through a repeater adversly affect multimedia?
Any other suggestions, tricks or tips for getting the maximum range are welcome. :help:
Have you tried putting the router in the third-floor-right-rear corner and then accessing the net from the bottom-floor-left-front corner yet?? It might actually work. I have, uh, made use of a company’s wireless LAN from their parking lot for, uhm, educational purposes.
I’ve found that physical distance is more of a problem than walls. I sometimes surf in the bathroom and I still get full speed even with the signal passing through two walls.
I believe that you’ll happier with two base stations. Or, you might want to consider equipping your machines with cards that can also act as access points.
My home set up is just that – two Macs with cards that can also share the connection. My notebook is strictly wireless and the tower is connected to a router/hub/firewall that I got for “free” from Hinet when I signed up with them. The tower has a wireless card that shares…
However, as not all base stations and cards were created equal, you’ll want to buy from a vendor that will allow you to return the product if you find it doesn’t work in your abode. With the private shops, you need to be explicitly clear about this… ie it’s not relavant if it works in so-in-so’s cousin’s house.
Well, you asked for it… Antennas on WLAN devices are not supposed to be directional, so they radiate in all directions (well, horizontally - you will have poor coverage above or below the access point/it’s antenna). If your access point is in a corner anyway and there is nothing behind that corner that would need to contact your AP, why don’t you build yourself a simple reflector that you can place right in that corner?
The propagation of microwaves follows about the same principles as light, they just have the advantage of getting through a number of non-transparent matters. You could calculate a reflector, but for home use there is a much simpler way. Find something that is shaped like a parabola dish and made of metal. If it is not made of metal, put aluminum foil on the surface. Get that dish mounted close to your AP so that the antenna is in the focus of that dish and direct the dish to that corner in the first floor.
Even if it is a very poor reflector, you still should have some improvement. However, after re-reading your post: Before you try all this, you might want to do something much more simple: If you can rotate/move your AP’s antenna, bring it into horizontal position and let it point to the next house. In that direction (and the opposite), reception is worst. If you can’t move the antenna, bring the whole AP into the appropriate angle. Even this small measure should improve your reception significantly…
