Need EASY network - 210' clear line of site

Skip antennas, they don't work that well. Use a MIMO router such as the Belkin Pre-N or the D-Link 624M.

Very serious. Whether an antenna will work for you depends on your environment. In mine, I get maybe 50 more feet of coverage with a variety of high-gain antennas. With MIMO, I suddenly bumped up from 300 to 1500.

I tried Belkin Pre-N. The router was fine; however, I could not get the desktop Pre-N adapter/card to work. I tried installing it in both desktops. Several times. The computer would recognize the PCI adapter, but the installation wizard on the Belkin CD would not recognize the PCMCIA card that slipped into it. The LEDs on the PCMCIA card would not light. I downloaded the latest installation software from their site. Got a second desktop Pre-N adapter/card. Same results. I am very good at following directions. The Belkin support people always assumed that I was screwing up some step. I really wished it had worked.

I've not tried a MIMO device yet, but antennas don't work well? You weren't serious, were you?

Okay - but MIMO is still the answer for you, I bet. D-Link, Linksys, and a few others make them, too.

Yeah, my crappy old antennas only let me get a few miles range with low power devices. Guess I'd better switch to MIMO.

Roger, while you and JB duke it out, mind dropping some pearls of wisdom my way? I see yagis and parabolics, 16 dBi or so, for around $40. Is that the way to go? Which end? Or both? I understand I need a RP TNC Male (Reverse Polarity) into the WRT54G and a RP SMA Male (Reverse Polarity) into the WMP 54G. What coax do I need for 10' and

15' to the antennae? Is there stuff off the shelf? Many thanks.

Parabolic antennas are usually very high gain (there are exceptions of course) and yagis work just fine. But for ease of handling, mounting and appearance, I'd go with panel antennas. If you're not used to them, think of them as little gray plastic pizza boxes. Look at

for some ideas.

The connection between the radio and the antenna should be kept as short as possible because signal loss gets worse with the length of the coax cable. As much as possible, make the connection between the computer and the radio reach as close to the antenna as you can. That won't hurt the signal. It's the length of cable between the radio and the antenna that can cause problems. I'd use nothing less than LMR240 coax but I'd prefer LMR400 cable for this type of connection.

I'd prefer to use a panel antenna at each end of the connection. This narrows the signal down instead of spreading it out 360*. For a distance of 210' I wouldn't think you'd need a really stong antenna, but I'm not familiar with your particular radios. At the present I'm using a 9dbi antenna to connect to my access point that's at about two miles away. I've used 19dbi and 13dbi antennas here and can't really tell any performance difference, but the 9dbi is much smaller and easier to work with.

If you look over the fab-corp.com site as suggested, you'll see the same

9dbi antenna I'm using for $24.99. It's a Maxrad WISP panel antenna. If the cost is prohibitive, a home-brew cantenna or other design can be made for very little to nothing, but I find that $25 spent on a reliable, well-built antenna is money well spent.

The money is right. I will order from them. BTW, the Rootenna looks interesting since it allows placement of the router right with it, cutting the coax loss as you explained. Just Cat5e to the outside box. Comment?

Thanks.

I understand they are excellent, not done one myself yet. Most of the devices I use come already made that way. With the Rootenna gotta rig power over ethernet to the box or figure out a different way of powering the radio, not a big deal but takes a little learning. But as you say, no signal loss. You could easily go a LOT farther than a couple hundred feet with that kind of setup. Good project to learn on, but if you just want to get the present job done, I'd probably go with the little panel antenna in each window, keep them indoors.

Sort of. I'm using an outdoor style wireless bridge at my home, connected by about a 1½ foot long piece of LMR400 coax to this smallish

9dbi panel antenna. My access point is on a short tower (about 45' tall) on top of a hill, about 2 miles away. The access point is using a 120° sector antenna (14dbi if I remember correctly).

I also have an 8dbi omni antenna on another access point at a different location about 1/4 mile away that I can connect to with roughly the same signal strength and speed. None of this equipment is particularly powerful, it's just good quality.

I also use some plain vanilla Office Depot pieces from time to time. I have one connection that is a DLink PCI card with the little rubber ducky antenna in a house about 250 feet away from my omni antenna. It's just fine with about 50% signal strength. At about 500-600 feet away I have a customer with an external bridge and rubber ducky antenna that's been stable for months, but it is a better quality radio.

Yeah, a MIMO router costs less than most of this stuff. What got me going in the thread was the part about antennas don't work that well, I didn't want to let that go unanswered.

You might want to see this review of a MIMO router:

Well -- in general -- there have been a lot of problems with antennas not delivering the range people have expected...