2.4Ghz ampliier increase signal strength?

If you get more of the sending or receiving signal to your wireless cards then an antenna is doing the job of an amplifier ... without spreading more or your signal around the neighborhood.

Compare an ordinary light bulb in just a socket with a spot lamp of the same wattage and you'll get the idea.

How many walls? What type of walls? If it's drywall or wood, you have a chance. If it's concrete, steel, aluminium, or foil backed insulation, forget it.

Correct. Antennas do not generate any RF. The merely redirect it.

Many are totally illegal. Look for the FCC type certification (if in the USA).

Have you looked at the prices for these amplifiers? Even the cheapest is $100 plus.

Antennas improve the signal strengh in both directions. Amplifiers only boost the signal in one direction. In the reverse direction, you're limited by the transmit power of the non-amplified device. This lack of symmetry results in the range being limited by the weakest transmitter. The receive RF amplifier in the power amp does little except eliminate any coaxial cable losses.

Suggestion: If you're trying to get answers from newsgroups and mailing lists, kindly supply:

1. What are you trying to accomplish?
2. What do you have to work with? (Existing hardware and RF environment).
3. What have you tried and what happened? (Not applicable in this case, but very useful for techy problems).

My guess(tm) is that you're trying to improve the coverage to parts of the house. Going through walls is not a great idea. One wall is usually no problem. Two is somewhat difficult. Three or more is possible but difficult to maintain a reliable connection.

The easist and simplest antenna is a reflector behind your existing wireless router or access point. See:

work well and are really cheap.

If you're able to run CAT5 to some place near the area you want to cover, a 2nd access point will work.

If you can't run CAT5, it may be possible to use a WDS (wireless distribution something) repeater if your existing unspecified hardware supports WDS.

If you can't run CAT5 and don't want to deal with repeaters, it's possible to build a repeater/bridge using power lines as a backhaul. See:

rico snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (Rico) hath wroth:

How about 25 watts?

military, government, and export only. Yeah, sure.

Maybe 50 watts?

Better to go with Antenna approach and when you stop and think about it you can understand why. Let's say you can boost your AP output to 10 Watts (way illegal etc, just supposing here) so you get a good range boost and great signal out to your wireless computer. Question have you improved the link from the laptop back to the AP? If not then what have you gained? Remember your network is a two way converstation, both sides need to be able to hear each other clearly. The chain is only as strong as the wealest link, to toss in a cliche. The reason improved antennas help is they boost not only output in a fashion, but they also improve 'hearing'. If the Laptop can 'hear' the AP, but the AP can't 'hear' the Laptop, you are out of business, no connection etc.

Before even working on the antenna, try literally moving the AP a few inches in some direction, same with the laptop if you can. You would be amazed at what can happen with this kind of tweak in your house. 2.4GHz really won't go through a solid wall, what happens is the signal finds a crack(s) or hole in the wall or bounces off various walls/objects in the house until it hits the antenna on the laptop (if it makes it that far before dissipating). By moving things around you might improve the path to the wall crack or reduce the number of bounces off walls and such. May not work, but that is the cheapest and easiest approach and the one I recommend strongly as a first resort.

Others here like Jeff Lieberman can give you good info on antennas and other things to try, but pass on the amplifier, it looks good at first glance, but when you really think about what has to happen you can see it is really no solution at all.

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

rico snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (Rico) hath wroth:

Sorta. It's 1 watt maximum into a 6dBi omni antenna for point to multipoint systems. It's a bit more complicated for point to point.

Turn your brain and wallet to mush. Not a great idea. Grinding the numbers:

watts, 2400 MHz, 8dBi antenna, 10ft radius, no reflections, uncontrolled environment. You're "safe" to about 5.3ft radius.

Hmmm... pointing it at the neighbors barking dog might prove useful.

Sacrifices must be made in the name of wireless connectivity. Human sacrifice might be a bit extreme, but still acceptable if cooked sufficiently slowly.

Isn't the legal limit (for mere mortals, not government gods) under a watt for 2.4GHz unlicensed?

As to 25 or 50 watts, what does that much power do to your cells and such when the antennta is in the house with you (normal stick built US house,

2500 sq ft)? I can see this sort of thing as being shall we say a bit damaging over time... Sort of like living in a microwave oven on low power setting.

BTW I noticed the first link has a 10 Watter (HA2410GTI), so I'm covered. Just slightly well done.

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

Hmm, maybe we shoudl start a new urban legend (get ourselves a link on Snopes) instead of the poodle in a micorwave oven, a poodle's bed next to a

50 Watt Wireless AP. Question is, do we say the dog explodes or just roasts?

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.