We've got an infrastructure of Linksys WAP54GP's (These are the high end Linksys Vlan Trunking WAP's). They are black with a single antenna (smaller round connector vs the larger antennas on the blue wap54g's TNC?)
We've put the AP's themselves in strategic locations to achieve aesthetics, but of course this does not always give a good radio signal.
Question: Is there an antenna extension that I can use to move the antenna closer to the area's that need coverage? In most cases it might be just a few feet, or from inside a cabinet to above the cabinet. It's much easier to place a little antenna than to try and hide a honking AP.
Has anyone had any experience doing this? Did it help? What products have you used?
As you add antenna and cabling you lose signal. Sometimes that's an acceptable risk. If your existing locations are providing 'more than enough' coverage then adding various antennae would probably work. Just make sure you use very good quality cabling and keep it as absolutely short as possible.
There are ceiling antennae:
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That one is listed as using an N-female connector. I believe it's an RP-SMA connector on that AP. So an RP-SMA to N-male pigtail should be what's needed.
There are also on-wall units:
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Look at the technical datasheet PDF when picking antennae. Those polar chart (round) diagrams will give you a good idea about how the antenna covers a given area. That's important when it comes to mounting them. Make sure the antenna is aimed properly to best match it's pattern with the area in question. What sort of antenna to use will depend on the area you need to cover. As in, an open room might be great for a centrally positioned ceiling antenna. But that sort of antenna might be useless for a long straight hallway sort of area. For that a wall-mounted sector antenna might be a better choice.
Make sure to use ONLY as much cable length as the situations actually requires. As in, if you only need a 2ft length then don't get a 10ft one and coil it up. You're just losing signal strength over the longer cabling. Buy the right lengths necessary. And avoid using connector adapters, get the cabling with the correct ends on them from the start. Note there are right-angled N connectors so a ceiling antenna's cable can exit without being bent into too tight a curve. When using coax you really want to avoid bending the wire. There's a minimum bend radius all cabling of this type requires. If the lay of the cable needs a different exit angle then get the correct end to the cable instead of bending the coax. The more cable, connectors, and adapters you use the more signal you lose.
If you've never made cables of this type, save yourself that hassle and just order them ready-made. Dealing with tiny SMA and N type coax connections is less than trivial. If you're doing it all the time that's one thing. But for a DIY situation you're just asking for yet another source of signal loss and debugging hassles along the way.
Connector kits are less than $100 for several different sizes of cox, but the SWR meter to test them is $900. DIY is only feasible if you build more than a dozen a week.
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