I'd like to get an outdoor directional antenna facing my parents house (2 houses away), and rebroadcast their signal in my house. I’ve been able to connect to their network with a directional antenna connected to a network card and aiming it out a window but I want to be able to move around and after replacing my windows with Low-E my signal is gone. Do you know if repeaters collect signals through their antenna and repeat them through their base, or do they collect and repeat the signal through their antenna only?
I’d like to put an outdoor antenna dish to get my parents signal, carry it down to the base unit 2 floors below and rebroadcast it. The base unit needs to know what I do, get that signal and broadcast it to my parents house. Do you know if repeaters both send/receive only through their antenna or, do they receive/send through both their antenna and base?
Hope I explained that well. Jennifer
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Hi. First of all, there is no sending or receiving at the base unless it has no visible antenna. Standard repeaters are just one radio that receives, holds and then repeats. They do everything thru their antenna.
They are not usually recommended as there can be all kinds of problems with them, especially if you want to do WPA security (which you should, probably), but they are sold and some people report success.
I'm setting up a true two-radio repeater right now, where one is pointed at the internet source or gateway and the other is pointed at a pair of houses that want wifi. The specialized radio antenna I have is up in a tree with a better view and gets a much better signal than inside the houses.
It's more complicated with two units, but should work reliably when I get it set up.
Hope that helps you get a little orientation repeaters. Steve
Huh? I hope you know that the junk you typed above is way way way wrong and reiterates false information.......
You may want to learn about bi-directional amplifiers...... They not only make and sell em, but they make and sell em in packages you can buy online... While not the only one, here's a link I happen to have handy...
That makes no sense at all. Actually, its incorrect information.
Whether or not an antenna is visible is a moot point as some devices have built in antennas inside the weather proof enclosure. The ONLY thing that does anything "through the antenna(s)" would be a passive repeater - nothing more than two antennas connected back to back and pointing in different directions.
I don't know what a "standard repeater" is, but I do know what "store and forward" and "full duplex" repeaters are.
Consumer grade "repeaters" receive a bunch of packets, turn off the receiver and turn on the transmitter , then send the packets back out on the same channel/frequency (that's a simple over simplification, of course) and that means your throughput is halved. And they have just one omni-directional antennas. This is the same general idea behind a mesh set up.
A "real" repeater has two actual radio units and can send and receive at the same time. It may have two direction antennas or a direction and an omni, it all depends on the application. We often use two back to back boxes with no visible antennas to repeat a signal over a hill or to increase range.
Venus wrote in news:Venus.32orq3 @no-mx.wirelessforums.org:
Not really.
Anyway, what I'm assuming here is 1) that your parents have a wireless router. And 2) you want to use their internet thru their wireless router from your house.
Additionally, not only above, but 3) you want to have wireless access within your house as well.
How much do you want to spend ? If you have none of the equipment, what you would like to do would cost in the vicinity of $200 USD to accomplish.
For $150 from TigerDirect, you can buy an Engenious outdoor all-in-one b/g bridge. All in one means the unit has an integrated antenna and utilizes POE (power over ethernet) so from wherever the unit is installed outside, the only wire run is a CAT5 eth cable and not messing with coax and rf connectors and such. This particular product has a 'Client Bridge' mode. This means that it would act as a client to connect to an AP, just as any laptop or desktop 802.x adapter would. You could use this mode to connect to your parents AP.
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This would be mounted outside of your house facing your parents house. The CAT5 cable from the radio would come down to the building entry point. There is an inline power injector for the POE that runs from a DC adapter, a small little plastic box with 2 network jscks and a power jack. After the CAT5 enters the building, somewher in line you would insert the POE injector. (Somewhere meaning wherever an AC plug is handy to plug in the DC adapter.) The CAT5 from the radio into 1 end, the CAT5 going to it's final destination on the other, and the DC power plug on the side (I think the side).
That takes care of getting the wireless connection into your house, and what you have inside is a CAT5 cable.
This cable can then be connected dirctly into your PC, or can be plugged into another wireless AP to provide wireless at your location. That is where the additional $50 comes from, the extra AP at your house.
Done.
As for configuration, as stated, the Engenius as a 'Client Bridge', no DHCP on that if DHCP is enabled at your parents rtr. And the CAT5 connection from the outdoor bridge to the wireless AP/rtr INSIDE your house would plug into one of the INSIDE AP's regular ETH jacks, NOT the WAN jack.
Woa. Peter Pan. Why so insulting? Be nice. You don't need to call my answer junk. It's far better manners to clarify or correct specifics or ask for clarification.
As far a bi-directional amplifiers, I know that you are enamored of pricey cell phone solutions, I've seen you suggest such in the past when a $50-$100 client adapter would do.
On to your link - from what I can tell, an amplifier is not a repeater in any sense. An amplifier is....an amplifier! And being a "bidirectional amplifier" even with an antenna included, thus combined, as they suggested, with another $300 amp + antenna, will still not make a repeater without radios. OK. Great. Buy two wireless radios too. But even for $7-800 this would still not be a repeater, it would be a (illegal?) long distance wireless ethernet bridge. Excellent solution for extreme long range.
The OP is considering a simple repeater to get wifi around her house. The signal is already strong enough, just needs to repeat it. Check out the question.
I appreciate a civil tone. Obviously my wording confused you too. I should have taken more time with my answer.
I agree I was unclear, and it's described in non-professional terms.
Are you saying that the signal does not pass through the antenna?
Of course, no radio works without an antenna and when I say it won't go thru the base unless there is no antenna, I mean that if there is no visible antenna then it's internal. I was thinking of the airpot express, which I believe works as a repeater. Anyway, it's poorly described, especially to a pro.
Yes, I used standard is short for "standard consumer item as found in retail stores". That's what consumers see. The OP is not a professional or experienced if you check out her question. Most likely she is going to buy her devices in Best Buy or CompUSA ,Fry's etc.
I was trying to speak in non-tech terms. Again, it's hard to answer a beginner and please a tech. Most techs talk in prospeak and just let the beginners flounder. I often end up explaining things to non-techs and generally they seem to appreciate and understand better with simple terms. Not as precise, of course.
Yes, that is the kind of repeater I'm setting up now. Though it's an inexpensive homemade job. I put a linksys WRT54G (running DD-WRT) in a Rootenna box up on a pole (above the trees) facing the gateway router/AP. Then I ran a cable to another WRT54G with an omni placed to cover two houses. Total gear cost maybe: $200. Actually far less as they already had the two linksys laying around.
Rootennas are neat and efficient compared to an antenna/cable combo Plus it allowed me to place it in an ideal spot somewhat distant from the houses without buying another box too.
That Engenius EOC looks like a great solution, great price. I will remember that one. I suppose that the one advantage of a rootenna+ Linksy/Buffalo/whatever setup is being about to swap out the innards with whatever bridge-mode device is at hand instead of being tied to buying a specific replacement.
Sorry for the degeneration into squabbles and such. And sorry if my original answer was hasty and confusing.
I hope you can get a decent answer out of this thread. What Dan S said is good advice. Read it carefully, as that's the ticket for a good long-term solution. With a cheap wireless router thrown in, it will cost about $200 or so.
If you want to go cheaper then you could try sticking a USB wifi adapter out the window (protect it from elements) with a long USB extension cable running into your house. 15' is the max for USB passive extension cables. Won't give you roaming, but you will have a connection inside.
This one has been recommended as a good USB adapter for extending your range:
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Again, the best solution is probably what Dan S suggested.
And yes, you could buy a standard consumer repeater product as sold by Linksys and others at your local store, and it might work, but it will not be weatherized or come with a directional antenna. Generally, it must be the same brand as the router your parents have and your wifi security may not work right. You can always try it from a store with a good return policy....
Thank you, you guessed it I'm not an expert, and have appreciated the simpler explanations. DanS you are spot on with your 1, 2, and 3!!! I'd like to spend $250.
My question though, is there a big difference between 9dbi directional vs. 7dbi omni? My network card originally came with a 7dbi omni external antenna and I couldnt get my parents signal with it (it was probably $5). A geek made me an antenna out of a tin can which worked amazing, I've been using that.
Do you think the $150 one with a 9dbi directional will get me the signal when a 7 dbi omni couldn't? Or, since my budget is $250 would you spring for the $184.99 one with a 16 dbi antenna? Then get a Belkin F5D7132 wireless repeater and Cat5 cable... then I should be good to go?
On Fri, 11 Jan 2008 11:26:48 -0800 (PST), snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in :
Be warned that Engenius (Senao) is infamous for poor documentation and user interface. While some users are happy with that kit, I know of a number of others that have given up in utter frustration.
Sounds good. I just looked up that Belkin and it looks appropriate. I couldn't believe the low $33 price I saw online, surely you paid more - where you bought it....
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Let us know how it works as this is very cheap for an AP.
I have also heard that the Engenius is confusing to setup. I forgot about that. But it is considered a good piece of gear, and it is a nice all in one package, once you get the settings right. Let us know if you have setup problems and somebody will be able to help with that.
It's Jenny. Need help. I got the Engenius 3220+ bridge to work, I put it in Bridge mode and whenever my laptop was plugged into it with a Cat5 the Engenius Bridge gave it a DHCP address and I was connected to my parents network and flying online. YEAH!!! My Belkin Wireless repeater, I got that to work alone as well. If I bring it outside and click the auto-configure button it sees and repeats my parents network wirelessly. I'm not able to get the repeater to work with the bridge. I plugged in my repeater (it only has a single LAN port) to the bridge, and followed the directions to turn it into an access point and changed it's IP address. So, my network looks like
Parents Router IP:
192.168.1.1 & 255.255.255.0
My Bridge IP
192.168.1.34 & 255.255.255.0
My Repeater
192.168.1.35 & 255.255.255.0
No luck. After connecting to the repeater wirelessely, it hung on waiting for DHCP and after a minute gave me something like 68.xx.xx.xx wasn't on the same subnet. I configured my wireless adapters IP address manually to 192.168.1.36 but couldn't go online, I was able in the address bar to type in the IP addresses of the router & bridge and connect to them. So, the bridge is working alone, the repeater is working alone, but the bridge & repeater combo is not. Any idea what the problem is? Do I need the Engenius to be in Bridge/Router mode instead of just Bridge?
On Fri, 18 Jan 2008 08:50:48 -0800 (PST), snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in :
A bridge (wireless Ethernet client or wireless access point) DOESN'T need an IP address except for management.
Turn off ALL security when troubleshooting.
Setting your wireless adapter to auto IP (DHCP), your DHCP request should be passing through the wireless access point (bridge, NOT repeater) to the wireless Ethernet client bridge (Engenius/Senao) over the wireless to your parent's wireless router.
Since it works when cabled to the wireless Ethernet client bridge (Engenius/Senao), the problem is in either (a) the wireless access point (bridge, NOT repeater) or (b) the configuration of your wireless adapter. Are you SURE the Belkin wireless repeater is configured for and able to be a wireless access point? Test it on your parent's wired network to be sure.
Thank you, thank you that was VERY helpful. The Belkin F5D7132 can be a wireless access point. You run a program it comes with to change it which I did. You made my day you feel the EOC 3220+ is working correctly. I could tell why it's liked by the experts with screen after screen of configuration items one can change. I think there are over 100 items you can change! I didn't have to do much in the end but spent a couple hours crawling and fighting through them.
Phew, that being the case, I can now focus my efforts on my Belkin Access Point which has extremely few configuration items I can change. I know what items I should spend my efforts on, and I am really impressed with the Engenius 3220+, when I'm hooked in with the Cat5 it's amazing. Thank you so much, I'll reset the Access Point and start fresh and this time will stay out of the advanced menus :)
Thank you John you were right!!! It's working perfect now!!
I reset both the Engenius 3220+ and Belkin F5D7132 back to factory defaults. I set up the Engenius, connected to it with a Cat5 and was connected in no time to my parents house. I set up the Belkin F5D7132 as an access point, plugged it into the bridge, and connected to the wireless network but could not go online. I went over the AP configuration, but there's only 2 things I can change (channel and SSID), it's practically idiot proof. That narrowed it to my wireless adapter and I'd forgotten to set it back to get IP address and DNS servers automatically. Once I did, I reconnected to my access point and everything started working!
Thank you so much, I was about to go deep into the Engenius configuration and set it to Bridge/Router mode, then AP if all else failed and probably spent weeks going nowhere. If you hadn't told me I was in the right mode (Bridge only) and the Engenius appeared to be working properly, I'd be at it for weeks. I even successfully restricted the MAC addresses that can join. Thank you, you are so smart, nice and patient.
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