Wireless Networking

[GlenR]

Can someone point me to some good resources on the web to optimise my wireless setup. When I Google I get a million pages and most of them are the real basics, and about 4 years old. I know thbasics, I want to "soup-up" my network to get the best from it. I have a few spots around the house where the signal is a little weak, so I want to try and fix those.

I'm looking at all options. I was looking at replacing my router's aerial with one of these to improve reception, but I found the little stub aerial on the Netgear WGR614 isn't detachable. I've also thought about installing an access point. Either way I want to get as much info as possible before I commit the $$$, so I get the best results.

I'm also looking at giving my father access to by broadband via the wireless network. His hous is about 100m or so from mine so I am considering using a directional antenna for him to get onto my network.

Any tips or points to resources appreciated guys.

[vlad]

Have a look here, Glen
http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?...oducts_id=7259
http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/46894/NE...omm/EM3000.asp

That will fix your range problem.
Outdoor - I will do some research
Later: found this article http://radiolabs.com/Articles/wifi-antenna.html

[aanda6]

Glen,

if you are going to spend money to upgrade your wireless may I suggest you look at 802.11 n. It will offer twice the distance of 802.11g and much greater speeds(up to five times). you would still require some sort of booster or repeater to reach your fathers house, but this would also be much less susceptable to interferance. Also would help if you want to stream video.

[logifuse]

This will sort you out:





Interesting story I heard this morning from an AV custom installer:

They went out to see why a Bose system was playing up in a customer's apartment - some of the nodes weren't working properly & Bose nodes connect over 2.4GHz, so they broke out the laptop & fired up net stumbler.... within 5 minutes it had found 54 separate 2.4GHz WLANs within range!!! "There's ya problem!"

Justin

[GlenR]

@Vlad - Thanks for the links. The Linksys one may be helpful.

@aanda6 - Yep I know about 802.11n, but that would new network cards as well as router. Since video streaming isn't a priorioty here, g should do (for now). But if I do get a new router I'll definitely look at n.

@Logifuse - I am aware of the limitations of wireless and I prefer cable (most of the time). But the cable is a real mongrel to drag along behind a laptop, and stringing a cable across the road to the father's place is a little impractical. BTW netstumbler only finds 3 WLANs in my area (one of them mine), so I'm not doing too bad.

All I really need is a bit better reception in a few black holes in the house. Most notably the lounge, so I can take a laptop in there and browse while watching TV.

[tipstir]

DLINK DIR-655 wired 10/100/1000 (wireless b/g/n-draft 300Mbps (240-270mbps real-time)
DLINK DAP-1522 (WDS access point and makes any wired LAN into wireless)

This is what I did, I have another brand for WDS access point since I already had the equipment just kept using them Buffalo High Power.

If you're going the Draft-N route then you'll need to get CAT 5e to higher, but I've don't see much of a gain yet going to CAT 6 even though I do wired and wireless network media streaming through out the house from the basement to the attic. I too like you would like to go outside and use my wireless laptop on the deck (porch) which I do and go into the woods out back. The signal does carry with the DLINK DIR-655 is very strong with the 3 ANT which can be taken off too. But there are some areas in the house where iron/metal is so that's where I use the access point in that area.

I have also 3x 8-port Netgear switches to managed the other devices in the house that's not wireless.

Everything runs smoothly as I am in mix OS environment Windows XP Pro SP2, Windows XP Pro Media Center SP2, Windows Vista Business SP1 and Windows Server 2003. The 2 that run the Server OS are the main HTPC and media file server. They're on 24/7. I am migrating from 100MBps to 10000MBps in the next week so I can move more media data around faster in the wired desktops. As prices have come down a lot of 10/100/1000 PCI cards.

Wireless has it's up and down but that's the way it is.. Draft-N or G is the way to go for now.

[richie_pag]

I have my MCE hooked up with a TP-Link TL-WN851N pci card (N wireless)

wireless router is a Linksys WRT160N.

havn't had a problem with both products. full strengh and no drop outs from about 5meters with a few plaster walls in between. Get about 11mb a second when transfering stuff.

one issue though when the media center guide is updating i get some shuttering so i disable wireless when i dont need to update.