[michaelh613]

If one has a house that is too large to be fully covered by one wireless router. What options are their to bring full wireless access through the house. Can one just ge a more powerful router or does one typically need a 2nd machine somewhere in the house?

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You can add another wireless router to act as an access point and relay data from the computers that are farther away.

[98springer]

You can add another wireless router to act as an access point and relay data from the computers that are farther away.

[Major Payne]

There are wireless antennas available which you can use to extend the range. My PCI card's wireless antenna removes easily and I only need to add the antenna. Some antennas are omni-directional and some directional with around 7-9 dbi gain. The more expensive ones may go to 18 dbi or so.

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10 tips for improving your wireless network

Ron

Edited by Major Payne, 24 December 2007 - 11:15 PM.

[michaelh613]

How much range should I expect from a Lynksys router. Is it generally better to use a higher rangemax router or use a repeater?

[Major Payne]

Depends on the model you have. When I was searching for wireless stuff, Belkin had models covering from 200 to 700 feet. All the specs were listed on the boxes with the coverage in distance and not dBM. I'm sure it's the same with Linksys.

Ron

[michaelh613]

Depends on the model you have. When I was searching for wireless stuff, Belkin had models covering from 200 to 700 feet. All the specs were listed on the boxes with the coverage in distance and not dBM. I'm sure it's the same with Linksys.

Ron

Unfortunately they don't mention it.

[Major Payne]

All I can say is that I would keep it as simple as possible with the minimum of "boxes". High gain antennas for your wireless system would work fine, but it is hard to recommend something without really walking through the situation checking for rf obstructions, etc., i.e., any wireless system working on the 2.4 GHz frequency is susceptible to cordless phones on the same frequency.

You haven't mentioned the model you are interested in, but the specs on one I looked at (Wireless-N Home Router) mentions specs like this: RF Pwr (EIRP) in dBm is 17 dBm; Antenna Gain in dBi is 1.8 dBi. Hard to determine distances with this data since propagation characteristics vary from installation to installation.

Ron

Edited by Major Payne, 26 December 2007 - 03:54 PM.