Need equipment recommendations for 802.11g

[Dogmeat]

Hi,

Currently I have a Toshiba 5000PCX cable modem/router/802.11b AP connected to my two Cat5 wired systems. I tried to get the wireless to work with a new notebook (802.11g) to no avail (it connected to my friends computer once but had wimpy signal strength).

What I would like to do is disable the Toshiba AP and get a external 802.11g AP with enough power to penetrate the walls and get good signal through out the house.

1: Do I need to get an external antennae? (if so, I can't seem to find an AP that allows antennae upgrade) (recommendations)

2: Run multiple AP's wired (Cat5) located around the house?

3: Run repeaters (from what you all have said here, it's my understanding that repeaters cut you transfer rates in half)

4: Get the Linksys and hack the firmware to boost the mw. (I understand that this is only for transmit. I assume that this will do nothing for the other direction from the laptop - so, whats the point if my connection is marginal due to distance or walls.

I appreciate any suggestions you all can give me. I'm fairly new to this wireless thing.

 

[WeiWei]

if your toshiba now can't penetrate the walls of your house, then I don't think any other consumer level hardware will do any better.

Depending on the size of your house and the area you want the wireless signal to cover, one single external AP may not be sufficient, considering they need to penetrate your walls which the Toshiba couldn't do. Repeaters may be your best bet. Not sure about the transfer rates though.

I'm not sure if the suggestion below works but its something to think about. Anybody correct me if I am wrong.

If you could get an antenna splitter to split your wireless signal to two or more antenna, and sort of pinpoint which part of your house has the least signal and then put an antenna there. This way, the wireless signals will be more secure, and you don't have to worry about penetrating through walls.

Its not too hard to hide the antenna cable anyway..

Just a suggestion... =)

 

[Dogmeat]

Thanks WeiWei,

I can "punch" through the walls, I just loose alot of the signal strength through the stucco.

I just saw something about setting up multiple access points and being able to "Roam" between them.
I guess I'm looking for equipment that I can run more than one AP (wired Cat5) and be able to roam around without missing a beat when going from one zone to the other.

Or - get a unit around 100mw that I can put an external antennae on and put the thing in the attic where it only has 1 layer of sheetrock to blow through.

 

[JackMDS]

Let?s put this way.

Option 2 in your first Post will work for sure and would provide the best coverage.

The 100mW hardware might be Good too, but it depends on the envioroment, coverage might be spotty.

Option 3 Will provide good coverage but would cut the ?Speed? past the repeater into half.

Option 1 Does not do well indoor, the gain from better Antenna indoor is usually very limited.

Option 4 No technical Comment, seems more like a social Phenomenon.

Some people tell big success stories other end up with a lot of trouble. The whole Sveasoft site is ??smelly?? you can not find a straight place to download with a straight set of instructions and emergency plan if it does not work. The site seems almost deliberately disorganized and evasive.

:sun:

 

[Dogmeat]

First,

Thank you all for your help.

I went out and bought the Linksys WAP54G Access Point and supplimented it with the HGA7T antenna kit for more gain. The result was good as I now have good signal strength ( I still need to roam areound to see if/where the dead spots are).

However, If I do go with the mulitple AP system, are they set up (or can they be) using the same channel so they act like a single unit or are they independant where if you roam from one to the other they change networks? If the second is the case, it would be a pain.

Another question about WEP.

I connect fine when no WEP is being used. When I try to set WEP up, in either 64 or 128 bit, I can't connect. When setting up WEP in the Access Point I type in a phrase which auto-generates a key. Am I correct that it is the key that I have to enter into the notebooks WEP and not the phrase? (entering the phrase does not make logical sense to me.) I really don't want to leave the WN open. Not that I mind sharing the bandwidth with the neighbors, but I want to bridge to my wired network for file transfer and also get a print server.

Any ideas where I'm going wrong in setting up the WEP?

Thanks again.