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koam
Pink Pecker
Premium Member
join:2000-08-16
East Puddle
·Shoreham Telephone

koam

Premium Member

Extend range of WRT54GS

I'm using a WRT54GS and want to reach different buildings on my property. I have the stock firmware.

We get an OK signal for usage in the closest building at 75 feet from the router. It gets about 2 bars in Windows Networking in the systray. Throughput is acceptable at this range. The signal's going through one exterior wall and some trees.

We'd like the signal to work to other buildings about 150 to 200 feet away.

What is the best method? Do booster antennas work? We tried a repeater and my friends report that it didn't work to repeate the signal from 75 feet to 200 feet.

We also tried an N router but it didn't appear to improve performance.

Any help would be appreciated.
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman

Premium Member

What type of repeater did you try?

koam
Pink Pecker
Premium Member
join:2000-08-16
East Puddle

koam

Premium Member

Sorry I don't know what they tried.

Thane_Bitter
Inquire within
Premium Member
join:2005-01-20

Thane_Bitter to koam

Premium Member

to koam
Given the range you need you will likely have to set up a wireless bridge between two similar routers and keep the WRT54GS to service the closest building. Using panel antennas for the bridge link would allow you to extend the distance and improve signal strength. The downside is you need more equipment and possibly might need to installed external directional antennas.

DDWRT has a small write up that describes different scenarios.
»www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/inde ··· _Routers

Flashfox
Eco-Text -- Why print E-mails?
join:2003-10-01
Carlsbad, CA

Flashfox to koam

Member

to koam
Have a look here:

»www.labnol.org/internet/ ··· e/13534/
TX CS Aggie
TX CS Aggie
join:2009-07-22
College Station, TX

TX CS Aggie to koam

Member

to koam
What version of WRT54GS is it? with 3rd party firmware you can turn up the transition power a bit and high gain antennas would help.

Orientation of the antennas matter as well. Image the antenna has a doughnut around the tip. That doughnut is the signal; so pointing the antenna straight at the building would give you worse signal not better. also on these models WRT54's like you have one antenna is transmit and the other is receive so keep that in mind and not pointing them in 2 completely different directions.

Placement of the router is good to think about too. If there was the option to put it in front of a window facing the other buildings instead of a wall that would be a good idea too.

koam
Pink Pecker
Premium Member
join:2000-08-16
East Puddle
·Shoreham Telephone

1 edit

koam

Premium Member

I believe it's V4.

A friend is looking at this antenna, which is described as mobile, but also says it its compatible with WRT54G router.

»www.data-alliance.net/-s ··· ail.bok#

Can anyone interpret what use this antenna would be?

Thane_Bitter
Inquire within
Premium Member
join:2005-01-20

Thane_Bitter

Premium Member

my 2 cents.

In an idea world an omni directional antenna would radiate power equally in all directions. If you happen to map the power in 3d space and plot it out it would appear to be a large sphere around the element.

But in reality omni directional are biased, their radiation pattern looks like a donut with the antenna in the middle. More power is radiated out to the sides then from the top or bottom. The higher gain an omni directional antenna has the flatter the donut. Remember communication is 2 way so even if you can get a signal it does not mean that your computer or other device will have the power to send a signal back.

Sometimes upping the power level does help overcome dead spots in a home, however these routers don't have the best radios in them, as you increase power you are also increasing noise. If you have ever owned a cheap stereo or MP3 player you will know what I mean, as you turn up the volume the noise of the amp (usually a hiss) also becomes louder.
Far too often people jump to the maximum power setting and assume this will fix their issues; generally it makes the problem worse and burns out the router very quickly. My point is that there is a balance between useful gain, and noise, if one goes beyond that they are making the problem worse.
38632383 (banned)
join:2009-09-25
Houston, TX

1 recommendation

38632383 (banned) to koam

Member

to koam
said by koam:

Can anyone interpret what use this antenna would be?
If that antenna was toilet paper it wouldn't be worth wiping yer ass with, and it certainly would not be worth the $9 for your wireless system.

You need to stop jacking with this home grade crap. Technology has evolved to the point where you can get some decent out-door rated WIFI gear for just about the same price.

Get one of these radios ;
»store.wisp-router.com/it ··· &eq=&Tp=
With this POE ;
»store.wisp-router.com/it ··· &eq=&Tp=

For Omni coverage out to 2 miles get this antenna ;
»www.l-com.com/item.aspx?id=22365

For a focused target area out to 3 miles get a nice panel like this ;
»www.l-com.com/item.aspx?id=21827

If you can give more detail on the coverage area I can get more specific with a recommendation. You might be able to get away with just this ;
»www.wlanparts.com/produc ··· 610.html
It has a 10 dB built in antenna and includes the POE. A laptop will link to it at 2,000 feet with no problem.

koam
Pink Pecker
Premium Member
join:2000-08-16
East Puddle
·Shoreham Telephone

2 edits

koam

Premium Member

Thanks.

The area is a wooded island about 500 x 250 ft with 6 wood cottages on the shoreline on all sides. The router is at the middle of one of the longer sides. Trees cover the island, which is slightly domed at the center.

The router is mounted on a shelf about 10 feet above ground level.
TX CS Aggie
TX CS Aggie
join:2009-07-22
College Station, TX

TX CS Aggie

Member

ok, first off sounds REALLY REALLY nice. Can you rent these cottages and where are they?

if you what to see what you can do on the cheep you could try something like these »cgi.ebay.com/Linksys-HGA ··· 36836fb6 and 3rd party firmware and turn the transmit power up to 90mw. I like Tomato myself »www.polarcloud.com/tomato you will need »www.7-zip.org/ to unzip the download.

this place sounds like they could use a bigger setup like Full Power started to talk about.
38632383 (banned)
join:2009-09-25
Houston, TX

38632383 (banned) to koam

Member

to koam
said by koam:

Thanks.

The area is a wooded island about 500 x 250 ft .... Trees cover the island, which is slightly domed at the center.
Ouch ! Trees are going to be a wild card. WIFI does not like trees at all. The transmitter location being elevated may present problems with the high gain omni as well. Unfortunately this is going to be one of those "Try it and see" installations.

To minimize your initial expense I would start with a lower gain omni hooked to the WRT54GS that you already have. Depending on the specific model revision you have, the GS may be able to take Tomato firmware for a bit of a power boost. You can use this chart to see ;
»www.polarcloud.com/tomat ··· s_run_on

Have a look at this antenna ;
»www.l-com.com/item.aspx?id=23779

It still has a lot of gain, but also has down tilt built in. If you want to give it a try I'll help you find the proper pigtail to hook it to the GS.

What is the elevation of the hill as compared to that of the cabins ?

koam
Pink Pecker
Premium Member
join:2000-08-16
East Puddle

koam

Premium Member

The hill isn't as tall as the cottages, which are mostly 1-story. But from the router to the cottage behind the hill, the antenna may be slightly below the top of hill height.
38632383 (banned)
join:2009-09-25
Houston, TX

38632383 (banned)

Member

Then your best bet would be to stay with the 15 dB omni. You will need to put it on a pole so it is high enough to get over the hill. For such short distances you may be able to light up the whole place with the scatter through the trees. If not, you can always use 24 dB grids at each cabin and daisy chain each cabin to the next using two radios per site.

What is your budget for this project ?