hi
i have been reading the above post for what seems like a day,
im new to this and would like to improve my home wireless setup.
my 54mps LINKSYS 2.4G router is in my office in the loft, but the signal is poor at the groundfloor / downstairs in the family room, 11-15mps
i also have a laptop with a wireless pmcica card that will pick up 24mps on the same groundfloor but its almost directly under the router {all be it 3 floors up}
will one of these home made antennas inprove this
thanks
E"EZEKIEL" hath wroth:
What post? There's nothing above my monitor.
You've come to the right place.
Is there some reason you don't find it necessary to disclose the model number of your Linksys wireless router? Also include the hardwave version number on the label.
Signal strength is not measured in mps. That's the connection speed. Your radios start out at 54Mbits/sec and then slow down until they find a speed where the error rate is deemed adequate. The slowdown can be due to lack of signal, but also from interference. If you're down to 12 Mbit/sec connection speed, you still will get about
6Mbits/sec thruput, which should be adequate for most DSL and some cable modem connections.Maker and model number of laptop and wireless card?
I'm rather suprised that it works at all vertically through 3 floors. Try pointing one of your antennas horizontally and see if the signal improves down below. With the antennas pointing vertically, the antenna pattern is mostly in the horizontal plane.
It's difficult to tell. Going through three floors is not easy. If the floors are made from wood, you have a chance. However, if there's foil backed insulation, concrete, or chicken wire in the floor, it won't work. Building an antenna system that works both in the vertical and horizontal plane is not easy. You might get some improvement with a directional antenna on the "downstairs" computer that's pointed upwards. That's easy on a desktop but not so easy on a laptop. I suggest you run CAT5 cable down to the lower floor for a wired connection, or add a 2nd wireless access point "downstairs" rather than deal with the RF issues.
If you have a poor signal, the free reflectors should improve the signal.
If you are trying to go from the access point up to one client, and down to another client, that's a lot harder job. The various antennas and reflectors don't increase the power, they reform it.
A typical stick antenna on a Linksys router is going to have a radiation pattern that looks like a donut slipped onto the antenna. The best signal is at a 90 degree angle to the stick.
You might be able to get better signal up and down by laying the antenna out parallel to the floor, and fussing with the orientation.
On the other hand, the signal bounces around so much that you might be better off pointing toward a doorway to a staircase, so the signal can bounce through the stairwell, instead of penetrating a floor.
I've heard of someone mounting their access point in a central heating air handler duct and getting surprisingly good coverage throughout the house.
You might make a couple of the
If you don't have anything in the "other" direction, an EZ-12 reflector or two might be just what you need. With the reflectors, it is more obvious where you are trying to aim the signal, but you should still not ignore stairways and windows. Maybe move the router nearer to the stairwell.
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