How can I extend a wireless networks range?

well, depends.

Big arse antenna on each end does well, sometimes.

Make it line of sight with nothing in between the two points, and/or add directional reflectors to the antennas and point them towards each other.

huh!!? what the ****? lol. i was expecting a few different answers to what i got! surely there MUST be a bit of hardware that will sit in between a router and a pc and by being there, extend the range of the router??

any more answers would be appreciated. : )

om

Funny thing about Usenet, ask a question and you have no control over the answers you get. You got two perfectly sensible answers. Maybe there was some part of them that you didn't understand?

Methinks thou art lost. The CAT5 LAN cable that goes between the router and the PC has nothing to do with the RF (wireless) range of the system. That's controlled by the transmit power, receiver sensitivity, coax losses, antenna gains, and modulation methods (slower data goes farther).

Using a modified Pringles (potato based crisp) aluminium foil lined tube with the wireless antenna mounted inside has produced some unexpectedly good results of a highly directional nature (line of sight). There are a number of articles on the Net on this. I was quite impressed by claims of over 5 miles being achieved between two LinkSys Wireless Access Points by two Americans. I have two of these WAP's myself and they output a pretty reasonable signal anyway just with the normal antennae. It's worth pigging out on a couple of tubes of Pringles to try it out LOL

I think most of the current articles on the net discount the Pringles can, and prefer a cantenna waveguide or parabolic reflector.

is one. O'Reilly has some.

"OM" wrote in news:1116283559.331397.26420 @f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

2 different ways:

1) Wired access point run to the location where you aren't getting signal.

2) Wireless signal repeaters if you are able to get any sort of signal in the area.

1 is the ideal solution, and what I usually do for people looking to improve the range of their wireless networks (especially over multiple floors, etc.)

2 also works, but reduces speeds in the areas that are affected by the signal repeater. Linksys' routers and access points can be set to act as signal repeaters, for example.

You can try repeaters but I would stick to the same manufacturer type as your AP. The resason being that until WDS came along it was a bit proprietary. I know the USR AP does it but then I have a USR AP as the main central AP

Tony