On Wed, Oct 30, 2002 at 12:53:28PM -0500, Jake Colman wrote: > The problem is that the wireless coverage in portions of my home is > spotty. > > Is there anything that can be done, short of physcially moving my > Access Point (it must remain in proximity to the hub), to increase > or boost the coverage? Can the antenna be replaced somehow with > something better? Can the antenna be remotely located from the > Access Point through some kind of long antenna wire? Can the signal > be boosted somehow?
Unless your house is big and made of paper, the problem probably isn't too little power, it is likely that something that is opaque to microwave frequencies is between the access point and the spotty locations. Think of 2.4 GHz radio waves as being low frequency light that can go through more stuff than can visible light but not everything, and when something opaque gets in the way of a light beam, getting a brighter beam (i.e., more power) or a better reflector (i.e., better antenna) doesn't help much. You need to get the antenna to some location that can "see" all the places where you want to use the 802.11b signal. You could get an extension cable for the antenna but they are not cheap, you still need to run it, and there will be signal loss over an antenna cable. If, however, you could run an ethernet cable to the better location and move the whole access point to the other end of the ethernet cable you will not have a signal loss problem. But you say you can't do that. Are you sure? Stick it inside a closet or cupboard and you won't even see it. A recent Cringely column wrote of his trying to find a place for his access point, and no matter where he put it his refrigerator cast a shadow and made a dead spot. He finally concluded he needed two access points, each filling in the other's shadow. -kb, the Kent who admits that he has played little with 802.11b. -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:redhat-list-request@;redhat.com?subject=unsubscribe https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
