Wireless N Routers

[Tom Watson]

I often use my laptop in the shop (OBWW).

I was using a Netgear router and had indifferent connectivity in the shop. The shop is about fifty feet on line of sight from the router and is at a point at about forty five degrees down from the router's position on the third floor of the house.

The signal must pass through a sliding glass door and the roof of the shop, which is insulated with R-19 fluff (6 inches) and is further composed of composite shingles and 5/8" decking.

We gave our daughter a Macbook for her birthday on the 23d.

I was against her joining Mac cult - but there it is.

It did not play well with the Netgear router.

I purchased a Linksys WRT160N router and five out of our six boxes hooked up happily (including the Mac) - leaving only a Win95 era laptop, whose USB adapter did not speak the current encryption (WPA2)

- no great loss.

I semi justified the purchase by assuming that the alleged increase in range for the N router would mean that I would not have to be so fussy about my positioning the laptop out in the shop.

Not so.

Here is my question - does the extended range depend on having a wireless N adapter on the box, or is the range simply a fucntion of the router signal?

All of my adapters, both internal and external are B and G.

tom - still barely in range in pennsyltucky.

Tom Watson tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet

[Charley]

You need wireless N on both ends of the connection to gain any benefits. Some extended range antennas would help too. In my opinion the B and G working range is a joke. I can't even make it work inside from one end of my house to the other. N is the first one to really be useable, but like I said, you need N at both ends of the wireless connection for it to work right. Having it on only one end doesn't buy you anything, but having N on your router will probably make all your neighbors very happy if you haven't made your network secure. You need a firewall too. Your neighbors be able to connect much more easily to your internet connection, and your personal data too if you haven't set it up with good security and a firewall to keep them out.

Charley

[mac davis]

I was going to buy that same router, to replace my Linksys-g router and was told (by a techie type working at the computer store) that unless we had "N" on our computers, it was "backward compatible" to "G" and that's what we would (still) have... Bottom line in sorta English was he said that we would see no improvement with the new router AND that it would not work with the extended range antennas that I bought for our "G" router.. Ok, I'm out of breath now.. hope that helped a bit..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[Puckdropper]

Tom Watson wrote in news: [e-mail]:

*snip*

You'll never get away from the need for a decent antenna for good signal strength. However, some routers (with third party firmware such as DD- WRT) can have their signal power turned up so your current antenna transfers the signal farther.

Bigger antennas are available, but usually not cheap. However, Fry's Electronics sells some for less than $10 that do a decent job. For hotels, I have a "game adapter" with an external antenna on it. Solves the problem of signal strength quite nicely.

Someone's already answered your question about the N equipment, so I'm just adding my two pennies worth. I've got a laptop with N on the way, but that'll be my first and only 802.11N device for a while yet. (Not ready to give up my WRT54GL.)

Puckdropper

[Doug Winterburn]

DD-WRT states that you might not want to go much higher the 70mw transmit power or you might considerably shorten the life of the transmit hardware. I think 28mw is standard.

[Jim]

They are still draft-N are they not? If so, I will pass. Jim

[mac davis]

We use the "G" and are pretty happy with it..

Our house is concrete block with lots of re-bar in the walls and we still use the notebook computers in the shop, which is in the other end of the house..

We share our Satellite internet with our friends next door and they do fine, if you can call our connection fine (even on our desktop units with hard wire), unless we forget and park my truck in between the houses..

Being cheap, we gave them the firewall and router passwords in exchange for them paying 1/2 of the $60 a month for access..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[Tom Watson]

Thanks to those who responded.

I picked up a wireless n adapter for the laptop that I use in the shop and the range and throughput are greatly enhanced.

This really is much better than the g ever was.

Thanks again.

Tom Watson tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet

[Han]

Tom Watson wrote in news: [e-mail]:

That's valuable info, Tom! Thanks.

[Bruce]

On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:20:51 -0600, Han wrote (in article ):

Cantenna:

[Kerry Montgomery]

But, will a wireless router have enough power to shape hardwood molding? Kerry

[mac davis]

Not mine, but it will let me get online in the shop to see how someone else in the group suggests shaping it, without having to leave the shop.. ;-]

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[Andrew Barss]

Charley wrote: : You need wireless N on both ends of the connection to gain any benefits. : Some extended range antennas would help too. In my opinion the B and G : working range is a joke. I can't even make it work inside from one end of my : house to the other.

I have a Linksys wireless-G router (with extended range built in), and I can connect a laptop to the net with it with the router in the house, through three double brick walls with wiring in them, to laptop in the backyard, about 150 feet.

How big is that house of yours?

-- Andy Barss

[Mark & Juanita]

I have a similar problem as the OP. We can't get our wireless G to reach across three rooms (office, through living room to breakfast area), a distance of about 40 feet. Since replacing the Linksys router with a Time Capsule, I haven't checked to see if the new router works better yet.

[Upscale]

Possibly some type of interference, wiring in walls, etc?

[Charley]

"Andrew Barss" wrote in message news:fve2v2$as0$ [e-mail]...

Sorry Andy,

I didn't use enough words to fully explain my range problems. My house is all brick and about 150' long. With a wireless G setup, when I got past about 60' from the router it started getting very spotty, requiring my laptop to be held in just the right position for it to work. Sitting in my favorite living room chair and using the laptop required me to turn sideways, holding the laptop about 45 degrees from the normal sitting position to get enough signal for me to be able to access the internet, and this is where I wanted to be able to use it the most. The transfer rate fell off rather quickly as I moved away from the router, making a good and reliably fast data rate connection impossible at more than about 30'. Trying other locations in the house for the router, and adding range extenders helped in some areas, but made others worse. The big antennas helped and made the wireless G system useable in almost the whole house, but switching to N made all the difference in the world. I can now get a good solid connection just about anywhere in the house, outside on the patio, or in my shop, except for one place. When I go on the opposite side of a large brick fireplace at one end of the house (there must be a lot of metal in it) the connection is still useable here , but at about 1/2 data rate. It now even works from down by the lake (about 300'), but it's quite unreliable from there and I can't always get a connection of any quality (never expected to-but it would have been nice).

If you go with a wireless N router, make sure you encrypt it and install a firewall. The whole neighborhood will be on it otherwise.

Charley

[Mark & Juanita]

I suppose that's possible, but we have a conventional drywall and 2 x 4 construction.

[giantfrogs23]

Hey people I need some help. I have telstra bigpond adsl connection. I was wondering because i want to go wireless, do i have to use the wireless routers telstra are introducing? the gateways as they call them? because its 250 bucks and i was wondering if i can just use any wireless router around to share my internet connections and stuff. any advice please??

[strikerspam]

[Charley]

But don't get the idea that you will be able to go anywhere in town and still have a wireless connection between your PC and your router. At best you will be limited to less than about 300 feet (100 meters) distance from it. You can sometimes discover areas around town where others have not secured their wireless connections, and if you hang around within range of their homes/businesses you can have internet access through their router, but most smart users set up their connections with security passwords to keep others like you and me out. These wireless connections work on different frequencies from other types of wireless so you will only connect with PCs and routers using this.

Charley