[LUNI] Linksys Wireless range issue

[Demetri Mouratis]

I've gogtten really good range out of the same setup.  My place is much
smaller, a two bedroom condo, but I get 80-99% single strentgh througout.
Once the weather warms up a bit I'll take the laptop down the street to
see what happens.

I also did some fishing around on the idea of external antenna.  There are
a few companies that make speciality antenna and cables.  I've also seen
some home construction devices the funniest of which was a converted
pringles can.  No joke, it was from the O'Reilly guys so it must have some
science behind it.

 On Sat, 2 Mar 2002, Christopher Young wrote:

> Just bought and played with a Linksys WAP 11 and WPC (That's the
> PCMCIA card) 802.11 set.  At first these seemed to work flawlessly and
> I was much impressed.
>
> However when I tried to hook the WPC into a PC two floors down, in the
> basement, I was astounded to see that I had _no_ signal.  Plugging the
> WAP into various outlets around the house showed that I could get
> between 60% and 30% signal one floor above the basement and around 30%
> signal from the 2nd floor down to the ground.
>
> Is this because I am using the PCMCIA card?  Is their antenna much
> poorer than the PCI external TNC one?
>
> I can't believe they advertise up to 1500ft with this thing when I can
> hardly get 30 feet away and make it work.  They do say that unshielded
> wires and florescent lights will limit range and there are both of
> those in this old (100 year old) house.
>
> The Knowledge Base on Linksys said that reverse TNC antennas would
> work with the WAP but that powered antennas would void the warranty.
> Powered Antennas!  Now there is an intriguing idea.  Wonder how high I
> could boost the signal transmit/receive?
>
> Anyone else have impressions?  I've seen others on the list use
> Linksys Wireless so I thought they would be a solid product.  Maybe
> just my environment.
>
> /cky
>
> p.s. I bought the stuff from Spartan Technology in Elk Grove (but via
> their web site).  They seem pretty decent.  Might have to see what
> their return policy is like soon. :)
> ______________________________________________________________________
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Demetri Mouratis
dmourati at linfactory.com