Wireless Networking: Maximum length of an 802.11 "pigtail" cable?

[gsaldivar]

I need to mount an exterior 802.11 antenna, but I'd like to locate the card/computer as far away from the antenna as possible.

What is the maximum length of the 802.11 "pigtail" cable I can use for this purpose, without having serious signal loss problems?

Thanks!

 

[zeusfaber]

i have heard 90-96 inches, thats using LMR100A cable. http://www.aerialix.com/cables/LMR100A.pdf if you need longer go with a higher grade cable like LMR400 http://www.aerialix.com/cables/LMR400.pdf

these guys do really nice custom cables from what i hear: http://www.aerialix.com/arlx-cables-item.html if thats what your looking for.

 

[Soybomb]

The shorter the better How long do you need to go?

Check out http://www.fab-corp.com/ they have alot of premaid pigtails and will make custom ones if you need. Nice guys.

 

[gsaldivar]

I think I'll need about two 10 foot cables for each end; one for the base station, another for the remote station. I need to get above some line-of-sight obstructions, and was really hoping to avoid buying a new set of access points.

Thanks for the feedback guys! That Aerialix link was great!

 

[zeusfaber]

personaly i would go with 3-4 pigtails and then 15ft of LMR400. but that costs a bit more money, than just going with pigatils. if you do it this way you would be less likely to have noise problems and if you ever move the access point you wouldnt have an annoying 10ft pigatil running from it.

 

[ktwebb]

The link you posted is using RG-58 or something similar. You start to see significant loss after a couple of feet. 10 feet with that cable is completely out of the question. For a 10 foot transmission cable run go with LMR400 or Belden 9913.

 

[Fritzo]

You could take another approach. Here's what I did:

Get an Orinoco USB Wireless Adapter. This product is unsual in that it's actually a standrad Lucent PCMCIA card plugged into a USB adapter with a plastic case covering it. After you get it, you remove the casing and drill a small hole in the top of it. You can then plug an antenna into the PCMCIA card and run the cable out of the small hole you drilled. You can run up to 30' of USB cable from your PC to get this device near a window, so that way you won't lose any signal quality.

I have this setup at my mother-out-law's house approx. 500ft away and it works great! I have 24ft of USB cable going to the adapter, the adapter is on the window sill, then the thin 19" antenna cable is stuffed into a crack in the window frame so the window can open and close with no problem. The end of the antenna cable is attached to a "cantenna".

A good rule of thumb is you'll loose 50% of your signal strength for every 6' of antenna cable you run (unless you use something like LMR400 or higher). Hope this helps.

 

[DurocShark]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
You could take another approach. Here's what I did:

Get an Orinoco USB Wireless Adapter. This product is unsual in that it's actually a standrad Lucent PCMCIA card plugged into a USB adapter with a plastic case covering it. After you get it, you remove the casing and drill a small hole in the top of it. You can then plug an antenna into the PCMCIA card and run the cable out of the small hole you drilled. You can run up to 30' of USB cable from your PC to get this device near a window, so that way you won't lose any signal quality.

I have this setup at my mother-out-law's house approx. 500ft away and it works great! I have 24ft of USB cable going to the adapter, the adapter is on the window sill, then the thin 19" antenna cable is stuffed into a crack in the window frame so the window can open and close with no problem. The end of the antenna cable is attached to a "cantenna".

A good rule of thumb is you'll loose 50% of your signal strength for every 6' of antenna cable you run (unless you use something like LMR400 or higher). Hope this helps.

Soooo.... The shielding in the USB cable is enough to allow that kind of length??

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
You could take another approach. Here's what I did:

Get an Orinoco USB Wireless Adapter. This product is unsual in that it's actually a standrad Lucent PCMCIA card plugged into a USB adapter with a plastic case covering it. After you get it, you remove the casing and drill a small hole in the top of it. You can then plug an antenna into the PCMCIA card and run the cable out of the small hole you drilled. You can run up to 30' of USB cable from your PC to get this device near a window, so that way you won't lose any signal quality.

I have this setup at my mother-out-law's house approx. 500ft away and it works great! I have 24ft of USB cable going to the adapter, the adapter is on the window sill, then the thin 19" antenna cable is stuffed into a crack in the window frame so the window can open and close with no problem. The end of the antenna cable is attached to a "cantenna".

A good rule of thumb is you'll loose 50% of your signal strength for every 6' of antenna cable you run (unless you use something like LMR400 or higher). Hope this helps.

Nice work McGyver (Fritzo), thought I was the only one that does stuff like that around here

Actually I just installed my first Wireless Network today (all D-link equipment) and was thoroughly impressed, I will avoid running Wires like the plague.

 

[Fritzo]

The signal has already been processed when it hits this wireless adapter. The digital computer signal is what's going through the USB cable...that's different.