Boost WiFi Signal

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euanandrews

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Topic # 13688 23-May-2007 19:32

I want to strengthen my WiFi signal, so to better stream media....
I don't care about expanding the wireless signal's reach....I more want to strengthen the signal to provide better quality

Short of going to the N draft....what is best recommended?

I currently have a D-Link DSL G604T wireless adsl router.....(b/g)
Connects to a laptop with built in b/g

I'm reading up on wireless antennas and boosters....but the technical jargon is throwing me a bit...

Any suggestions?

tonyhughes

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Reply # 71959 23-May-2007 19:40

one
two

I bought the 5db version, and use it on a 604T with a b/g lappy same as you, and it makes quite a difference. If i had known the 7DB version existed, I would have bought that instead.

euanandrews

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Reply # 71963 23-May-2007 19:44

Yeah I was looking at those....

Most of the writeup was about 'extending' the reach of the network though....

Your saying they do boost the strength/quality of the signal....making streaming media wireless more reliable?
And the 7db will make a noticeable difference?

If so, I'll go out and buy one tomoro

tonyhughes

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Reply # 71969 23-May-2007 19:54

Signal strength quite a bit higher. Helped increase a wireless bridge link from about 2Mbps to about 6Mbps.

euanandrews

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Reply # 71971 23-May-2007 19:57

Cool, cheers for that info Tony

inquisitor

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Reply # 72339 26-May-2007 22:07

Boosting your AP's signal won't help at all. You forget that WiFi is 2-way-communication with synchronous up- & downstream rates and boosting the AP will improve signal quality only in one direction, but as long as your WiFi-clients don't broadcast a stronger signal and so won't "reply louder", too, your WiFi-devices won't negotiate a higher bandwidth.
Those devices sold as "boosters" are no good for nothing - firstly most of them have very cheap electronics, which rather cause interferences than improving anything, and secondly just repeating the frequency spectrum analogously doesn't boost only the WiFi-signal, but the background noise, too. That's like listening to an age-old tubby and noisy audio tape - it won't sound better at all if you raise the volume.

What you should try is first downloading a WiFi-scanning tool called "Netstumbler" with which you should look for other WiFi-networks in your neighbourhood, that may interfere with your's. If you discover another network you must set another channel differing by at least 5 channels, as diagrammed below:

You should always use the channels of one row - e.g. 1-6-11 or 3-8-13, but you can of course also chose a channel more distant than 5 channels. If your neighbour uses channel 7 or 8 you could chose channel 1 instead of 3 or 2. Generally it's better to use lower channels, as the lower the frequency is, the farther the signal reaches.

Further, if all your WiFi-devices support 802.11g (the 54 MBit/s WiFi-variant), you should set your router to 802.11g-only mode, as the 802.11b-compatibility impacts on the bandwith even among 802.11g-devices.
I don't know your router model, but in a D-Link DI-624+ router you'll find those settings in the configuration menu under the "Advanced" tab, "Performance", set "802.11g Only Mode" to "Enabled" and if there are settings for some acceleration mode like "Super G mode" set that to "disabled" as most of those proprietary acceleration modes also throttle wireless performance unless all WiFi-devices support the very same mode.

If these two steps don't improve the situation there are two methods left how you may achieve higher bandwidths and this practically means expanding your WiFi coverage by hardware modifications:

The cheaper one is to get larger antennas (omnidirectional with a gain of at least 7-9 db) with short cables (1-2 meters) for all your WiFi devices and place them where the less obstacles are. Of course this requires all your WiFI devices to have external antenna connectors. Most USB-adaptors or built in WiFi-adaptors lack of such.

The more expensive, but better method is getting two WDS-enabled WiFi-routers, like the Linksys WRT54GL (must be "GL" not another "Gx" version). WDS enables you of setting up a second router as wireless repeater, which you can place freely in the coverage area of your main router's WiFi network, and thus expand your WiFi-coverage. However each WDS-repeater halves the available bandwith. So in this proposed setup your network would provide a netrate of 27 MBit/s and approximately 10-15 MBit/s grossrate. And if you're still willing to spend money, give both WDS-routers larger antennas (in case of a WRT54GL you'll need 4 pieces) and you'll get an even better signal.

router: AVM Fritz!Box Fon 7390 with Huawei K3765 USB modem attached as GSM voice gateway
VoIP-providers: intervoip.com | sipgate.de (German DID) | sipgate.co.uk (British DID) | sipcall.ch (Swiss DID)
connection: 100/5 MBit/s (DOCSIS 3.0)
mobile devices: Huawei P6 | Nokia Lumia 630 Dual SIM | Huawei: E5832, E1762, K3715, K3765 | Qualcomm Gobi 2000 in Sony VAIO VPC-Z12X9E/X

cyril7

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Reply # 72352 27-May-2007 09:38

I think the inquisitor has pretty well covered all the points. But would like to reinforce the fact that boosters only assits with the transmit path, you still have to recieve. Whilst an antenna will apply its gain to both paths.

Also you cannot increase the signal density in you desired coverage area without increase its overal coverage, unless you use directional antennas and have all you coverage area is a small pie slice and even then the coverage range in the direction of the antennas gain will be moved out.

WDS repeaters systems cut down on throughput as the inquisitor pointed out, however you can place 2 or 3 further AP's in service to increase coverage and wire them back to you central switch (rather than using an RF airpath backhaul source).

Cyril

inquisitor

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Reply # 72361 27-May-2007 10:14

I forgot another possible cause: Do you happen to have a 2.4 GHz cordless phone in your home? Most of them interfere with WiFi and need to be replaced by a 1.8 or 5.8 GHz phone.

MauriceWinn

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Reply # 74759 15-Jun-2007 09:09

Big antennae are good. We did some tests with true line of sight [that is, with nothing but open space between the notebook computer and the Linksys WRT 54GL wireless router]:

Test 1: Using the standard antennae, a reliable connection was possible over a distance of approximately 380 metres.

Test 2: Using 9dB high gain omni-directional antennae reliable connection and transmission of data was possible over a maximum distance of about 490 metres.

Test 3: Using a single 14dB high gain directional antenna gave a very robust reliable signal over the maximum measured distance of 880 metres.

The above tests were performed using the internal Wi-Fi functionality of an ASUS Z9100L notebook computer across Mangere Bridge [the bridge wasn't long enough to test the maximum range of the 14dB high gain directional antenna].

inquisitor:The cheaper one is to get larger antennas (omnidirectional with a gain of at least 7-9 db) with short cables (1-2 meters) for all your WiFi devices and place them where the less obstacles are. Of course this requires all your WiFI devices to have external antenna connectors. Most USB-adaptors or built in WiFi-adaptors lack of such.

The more expensive, but better method is getting two WDS-enabled WiFi-routers, like the Linksys WRT54GL (must be "GL" not another "Gx" version). WDS enables you of setting up a second router as wireless repeater, which you can place freely in the coverage area of your main router's WiFi network, and thus expand your WiFi-coverage. However each WDS-repeater halves the available bandwith. So in this proposed setup your network would provide a netrate of 27 MBit/s and approximately 10-15 MBit/s grossrate. And if you're still willing to spend money, give both WDS-routers larger antennas (in case of a WRT54GL you'll need 4 pieces) and you'll get an even better signal.

Chloe's Motel opted for the expensive two router method [costing $000s]. Aquarius Motel [easier covered] opted for the simple single router and they are going to buy the 9dB omni-directional antennae to ensure coverage in a couple of difficult units. The 9dB antennae were about $70 a pair which is reasonable for the extra coverage. 9dB omnidirectional antenne will be worthwhile in many places [cheap and easy to install with good bang for buck].

Mqurice

Maurice Winn
Shareholder, Zenbu Networks Ltd