I really need to improve the range of a wireless LAN, so I picked up a Hawking HAI15SC corner antenna. It has increased my range by some multiple of ZERO, almost regardless of how I utilize it. What am I doing wrong? I've got a Dlink DI614+ router in a small equipment room in the middle of our church. Currently there is a Hawking HAI6SIP +6dbi omni antenna attached to it. Approximately 70 feet south of the room there are 3 small offices, clustered closely together, each with a workstation running a Dlink DWL-520 PCI card. The first of these offices is relatively open to the hallway running from equipment room, and its signal reception is tolerable - about 40% on the Dlink utility, which means the link doesn't drop and the speed is acceptable for internet usage. The computers in the other two offices, however, will not work at all with the included Dlink antenna. Because of the way the offices are positioned, approximately 3-4 additional walls are brought into play between the computers and the router, as compared to the first office. I purchased the Hawking corner antenna thinking it might improve things attached either to one of the client computers or to the Dlink router, with the omni antenna attached to the client(s). With the omni on the router and the corner antenna on the clients, I can just barely get signal. It's not enough to maintain the link. Swapping the antennas around doesn't make any significant difference. From various trial-and-error, I'm convinced that the advertised +15dBi is waaaay off. I'm not even sure it's as good as the +6dBi omni model, which I've used many times. There is a little money left in our budget for this type of thing, so I'm in a position to buy "better" or more stuff if needed. I know we can make this work wireless, but I'm going to have to really tweak things. Any input is greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
jm