Which antenna to upgrade?

So, you don't have that external antenna at all? The price on that is ludicrous. Someone else's aftermarket antenna should work just as well. I have used the "Hawking HAI6SDA Directional 6dBi

2.4GHz Antenna" with good success on a Netgear WG311 PCI card.

It might fit. Or you might need something that would fit an Orinoco card, which has a little tiny connector.

There have been some suggestions of putting a V-shaped piece of aluminum behind a laptop that has no external antenna to reflect the signal somewhat. I'm not keen on that idea, although it should work a little.

I would be more in favor of putting free reflectors on the WAP. I have a pair of windsurfer reflectors on my BEFW11S4.

EZ-12. A single one on my Netgear:

What are you talking about? Both the LinkSys and the ** CAMERA *** have antennas. Go have a look at this link:

The standard 10M antenna for my camera is visable in the two two images and in the lower left image. The 150M antenna is visable in the lower right image.

Considering there is no laptop, let alone wireless computer, I don't think I will try that option.

It is a thought, except my access point has two antennas.

Sam

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What does your wife use? Telepathy at 2.4 GHz? Come on now, somewhere in this loop you have a wireless computer. :-) And in any events the point is, you put it round the /antenna/. Doesn't matter what teh antenna is attached to

So what? Does that mean it can't possibly have weak output?

Do you want help or not? If so, be less ascerbic with your responses to assistance. Mark McIntyre

Ok, you're going through the floor. What's the floor made of? Wood or concrete? Any aluminum foil backed insulation in the floor? If so, I don't think a better antenna will help.

Wood, drywall, foil backed insulation?

If you add a directional antenna to the access point, any signal you aim in the downward direction (towards the basement) will be taken away from your wife's connection. Antennas do not produce RF, they only redirect it. I supose some type of exotic antenna could be contrived that would have good coverage to both your wife's computer and down to the basement, but methinks there are better alternatives.

Ouch. The prices on those antennas are rediculously high.

OK, let's assume that we don't mess with the camera and just work on improving the signal in the basement.

The easiest way is to just add another wireless access point in the basement. Run a CAT5 cable between floors and install a 2nd WAP54G. Use a different channel (1, 6, 11) but the same SSID to make roaming easier.

Yeah, I know. You don't wanna run the CAT5 cable. That's what everyone grumbles about. You can use power line networking adapters or bridges to get between floors. See:

's basically the same idea as the CAT5 plus WAP54G except it uses the power lines to complete the connection. That should get you sufficient RF in the basement.

A marginal trick is to borrow one antenna and extend it downstairs. This is sorta what I have running in my 2 story house. The WAP54G has two antennas for diversity. Leave one antenna alone for your wife's laptop, run RG-6/u coax (with adapter) from the other down to the basement. Attach some kind of antenna. It doesn't need to be the original. The loss in the coax will be horrible, but less than what you would get trying to get RF to go through the floor. My guess is about 25ft of RG-6/u maximum or you'll end up with bigger coax such as LMR-400. However, there's a catch. Some chipsets screwup when running wildly dissimilar antennas in a diversity arrangement. I could not convince a WAP11 or a BEFW11s4v4 to work this way. I eventually set the access point to a single antenna, and installed a power splitter on the other port. That worked well enough until I got fed up with the mess of cables and just installed the WAP11 downstairs and the BEFW11S4 upstairs.

I don't wanna go into detail, but I would NOT recommend a "range extender", "range expander", or wireless repeater.

No, my wife uses a desktop machine just like I do. Both machines have an ethernet card built into the motherboard and are tired together along with three other machines (all servers) and the access point via CAT5.

Like I said in my first posting, there are only two wireles devices, my camera and the AirPort Express.

Jeff,

I have seriously considered simply installing a second access point. The only problem is that my basement is finished and where I want the wireless access point is over the finished part of the basement. I, personally, lack the skills to get a CAT5 line to the living room. If I go with that option, do I simply need to put the second access point on a different channel and all will be good?

Sam

P.S.

I just saw one of those for the first time today and thought it would be a good solution. Are there any good web sites you can point me to, to explain why they are bad? I would love to be a bit more informed.

Well, if you can't hire an electrician or do it thyself, the power line networking idea is easy (and cheap) enough.

The 2nd access point should be on a different non-overlapping channel (1, 6, or 11) to prevent mutual RF interference with your other access point. The SSID can be either the same for seamless roaming, or different to allow you to select which access point you want to connect.

The basic problem is finding a location for the repeater that will have a good signal to BOTH the upstairs WAP54G and the downstairs camera. I don't think it can be done without drilling holes.

I don't wanna get into why I hate repeaters and such. I'll write something when I have time (later).

I missed the little antenna in some of those photos. Now that you point it out, I can see that the lump is missing in the photo that shows the optional antenna.

The aluminum reflector might work for the stock antenna, but positioning is guesswork.

If you are going to look for solutions designed and marketed only for your camera, I think you've already found all one of them.

I thought you were looking for other possibilities. Anyone's external antenna, retailing between $20 and $90, should work on your camera. The only limitation is the antenna connector itself.

If you post the FCC-ID from the WiFi adapter, I might be able to tell you what the connector is.

From the online photos, I suspect that the connector is the same as an Orinoco laptop card, so if you can take your camera to a store that carries an antenna for the Orinoco, you can examine the connection to see if it is correct.

If not, you might want to take a high res photo of the connector on the camera, with a ruler or a dime in the photo for scale, and send it to one of the online purveyors of antennas.

used to be helpful, but they have a minimum order of $100 now. Perhaps you could do a quantity purchase and resell to other owners of the same camera. At any rate, they have some good quality photos in the antenna and pigtail sections that might let you recognize your connector.

sells at retail, and might be able to help you identify the antenna that you need.

The BEFW11S4 is identical in appearance to your WAP54G. I use a pair of windsurfers on that, I just don't have a photo. The free reflectors is what you should try first. It's free, easy, and will probably improve the performance of your current wireless laptop. If the camera has any signal at all near where you want to use it, the reflectors will probably make it work.

Print on photo paper for thick stock, with aluminum foil glued to the sail. Leave the tabs longer than on the printout, to make them easier to stick thought the sail.

So she's not using the airport express at all then. This is what confused me - you said it was optimised for your wife's usage.

Mark McIntyre

Actually, it never dawned on me that there might be some other options. I do very like the idea of putting someone else's antenna on the camera!

FCC ID: CGJWT01 IC: 4634A-WT01

Hay, I am a photographer, I LOVE taking pictures! Here is a link to the picture I just took:

I will look into those folks now, thanks!!!

Sam

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com hath wroth:

It looks like reverse polarized SMA (RP-SMA) found on many access points and wireless cards. Lots of antennas will fit. It looks a bit shallower than the usual RP-SMA, but I don't think that will affect the fit much.

I suggest something like:

it when it's not being used. You can also use it as a handle. Bent at an angle, it will send some of the RF upwards, where you need it to go through the ceiling.

There are also smaller antennas (with less gain) which might be more convenient:

Thank you, I just ordered the second link you provided for only $6.95! I apprecaite all the help!!!!

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com hath wroth:

Well, the short antenna doesn't have as much gain as the longer one. It will probably be better than the circuit board antenna that comes with the camera. I don't know if it will be sufficient for going through the floor. It's cheap enough to just buy and try.

What's inside:

If the little rubber ducky doesn't do the trick, an antenna with a cable and some directionality will probably do well. If you don't want to build a biquad, then one of the commercial aftermarket indoor antennas should do fine:

$30-$40 or so. Notice that I said directional. Point it UP at the access point.

I'm still a bit worried about the shortened SMA connector. You may need to grind some metal off the mating plug. Also, some vendors have a nasty habit of using oversized center pins for keying. Visually verify that everything fits before crunching together.

Incidentally, I like the replaceable RP-SMA connector on the camera. If it gets crunched, it can easily be replaced. If you're going to be running around with nothing plugged into the connector, you might want to look into an SMA cap plug (plastic or metal) to protect it.

Do Jeff and I get a cut of the savings?

Another look at the online photos, and the expanded version, and I realize that it's not an Orinoco connector.

Ooh, very good. That looks like a common RP-SMA, but I don't have one handy to compare. Lots of people use RP-SMA.

Any retailer should carry external antennas that will work with this connection. Try something that says that it works with a Netgear WG311 PCI card, or something that specifically says RP-SMA.

The photos at hyperlinktech are very good, but don't have dimensions on them.

looks like your camera connection on the left. Is from the "pigtails" area of the site, and looks like your "antenna", minus the handy knurled knob.

You still might want the reflectors on the WAP54G, and you might not need an external antenna on the camera.

Also, don't forget to aim the antennas. The directional antennas all have an obvious directionality to them, but the omni antennas, like the stock antennas on the WAP54G, have patterns that are not spherical.

The pattern from those stock antennas is shaped like a donut slipped onto the stick. Broadside from the antenna is the largest signal area. The worst signal is directly off either end.

You might try repositioning the antennas with that in mind, however many of them you wind up having.

Well, I got the antenna today and your fears (and mine) of the shortened SMA connector have been realized, zero connection! There is more of a connection with no antenna then with the replacement on. Is there a standard "short" version of the SMA connector?

Sam

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com hath wroth:

No. I went looking for such a connector and couldn't find it. I'm sure someone makes it but it's not obvious or easy to find. Sacrifice one of the antennas and grind off some of the SMA connector with a file (or grinder). It should fit.