noob question

Read the setup guide that came with your router. You set up routers directly not through the control panel. If you've lost it then get a new one here;

"shegeek72" hath wroth:

Kool. Maybe you can explain to me the difference between an MB (motherboard) and an MB (megabyte)? Thou shalt not abrev or trunc.

To improve your signal, an external antenna would have been a better choice for your DWL-G510:

The antenna unscrews exposing an RP-SMA connector. You would need a pigtail (short piece of flexible coax with an RP-SMA plug on one end and probably an N-connector on the other), and some kind of 2.4GHz antenna. The total cost would be far less than the WPN824.

Wrong type of wireless device. The WPN824 is a router, not a wireless client. It cannot be used in the manner in which you're attempting to configure it. It's designed to have wireless clients connect to it, and not to act as a client. There are routers that have firmware that has a client mode but the WPN824 is not one of those:

Basically, you bought the wrong device for your purpose.

List of different types of wireless "bridges":

It's not perfect, but might explain a few marketing buzzwords.

Pack it back up and either exchange it for a wireless client or try an external antenna. See:

for a list of possible "wireless client ethernet bridge" candidates. However, be careful. The list also includes wireless point to point type of bridges, that will only talk to each other (for extending remote networks) and are not suitable. Personally, methinks you'll have better luck with a high gain directional antenna as even the best wireless ethernet bridge client comes with a cheap junk antenna that usually needs to be replaced by something with more gain.

If the computer cannot be located near a window to obtain proper line of sight, and the coax cable run is either too long or too messy, then the external ethernet wireless bridge is probably the best bet. Another possibility is a USB radio if your cable run is less than 5 meters.

Thanks for the extensive info!

I found some antennas, which would you recommend?

"shegeek72" hath wroth:

No recommendation. I have no clue how you plan to use the antenna.

- Is the access point close or far? How far?

- Any obstructions? How bad?

- Any interference? If so, is it along the line of sight or to the side.

- How much coax cable between your wireless card and the nearest window?

- How bad is the existing signal? (signal strength and SNR).

- How big an antenna can you tolerate? 1 meter long yagi? 3 meter long yagi? 1 meter diameter dish? 0.8 meter diameter panel?

- Got a budget?

Most of the Dlink antennas are not bargains. Your IP address resolves to Seattle so US vendors would probably be best. See:

Since you're in Seattle, you might want to connect with these people:

here;

I said I was a newbie, so I'll try to answer your questions as best as I can:

I'm not sure. When I was able to connect to the internet while the computer was in a location (kitchen table) where the signal was relatively strong the speed was, IIRC, 54 mbs.

I live in an apartment in a city, so there are a lot of buildings, but they are adding new transmitters on a regular basis.

About 10'.

I have no idea, but I was able to easily connect to the internet.

I'm in an apartment, so it has to be a reasonable size.

As inexpensive as possible, while still picking up a reliable signal.

Actually, I'm a stones throw away in Portland. :)

On Sat, 03 Mar 2007 10:02:27 -0800, Jeff Liebermann wrote in :

Active USB extension cables can extend that distance in multiples of 5 meters.

On 6 Mar 2007 17:38:40 -0800, "shegeek72" wrote in :

That's almost certainly not true -- max 54 Mbps speed is only possible over a relatively short distance, no more than about 90 feet even with zero obstructions. Unfortunately, wireless adapters have a nasty habit of reporting wildly optimistic speed when idle -- you need to check or measure speed under load.

What matters are the obstructions between you and the access point you are connecting to. Do you know where it is? How far away? Clear line of sight? Or what's between you?

That's far enough that I'd recommend a USB wireless adapter like the Hawking HWU8DD Hi-Gain USB Wireless-G Dish Adapter .

You said the signal wasn't strong enough.

The Hawking antenna is pretty small.

$60 at

No way. Most municipal networks don't run much faster than 802.11b speeds, such as 11Mbits/sec. If you were getting 54Mbits/sec connection speed, my astute wild guess(tm) is that you were connecting to a neighbors wireless network and not the local municipal wireless network. You can usually tell by the SSID. If you drag the mouse over or click on the wireless connection icon in the system tray (lower right of screen) it should give you the SSID (system name).

Chuckle. If you complain about anything in the wireless business, the standard answer is that "we are adding new infrastructure" as fast as possible. That is probably true, but no clue when your location is due for an upgrade or a fix. Meanwhile, try to locate where your nearest access point is hidden. It's usually hanging on the street light poles.

That's fine, but any longer might be excessively lossy. If you have to add an external antenna, the MINIMUM would be LMR240 coax. The much heavier LMR400 is better but not really necessary for only 10ft. Most aftermarket antenna come with RG316 or LMR100 coax, which will suffice, but just barely.

Your DWL-G510 driver and client manager should give this information. You should have a big ugly icon on your desktop inscribed with "DLINK". Run it and there should be a page somewhere with statistics. What of interest are: SSID First 3 octets of the connected MAC address Signal Strength in -dBm Noise in -dBm Signal to Noise Radio in dB Link Quality in Percent You may not have all of these, but please supply what you find.

It's not going to fill the apartment but might fill up the window. How big an obstruction can you place in the window? Also, is there anything made of metal in or on the window that might obstruct RF?

What's that in dollars? It might be cheaper to buy an integrated radio and antenna, rather then trying to extend the coax cable from your existing DWL-G510 PCI card.

Sorry, my error. See:

and plug in your current IP address of 4.242.210.239 Ok, it's Portland, Oregon.

Since you've finally delivered some useful information, let's see what's on the internet about Portland's wireless system. Is it this one:

They have a nifty Google map showing their access point locations:

Find thyself.

Something like this:

On Tue, 06 Mar 2007 19:19:00 -0800, Jeff Liebermann wrote in :

Another style:

On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 03:57:38 GMT, John Navas wrote in :

And:

John Navas hath wroth:

I'll call your two antennas and raise you 2 more antennas. That's the MotoMesh Duo. If the public safety crow wants to share, they get their own 4.9GHz radio in the same box resulting in 4 antennas.

It appears to be only in the downtown area. If you're a "stones throw" away from Portland, you may not be able to get service.