Modifying a home wireless AP

[Chainsaw13]

Been thinking of ways to improve the wireless signal out in my garage. The ap is in a back bedroom of my house, maybe 30-40 ft from the garage. I get a decent signal, but it's not consistent. I have a Linksys e3200 ap. Found instructions online on how to add external antenna. Anyone ever try this? Will it increase the signal to the garage?

I have an old ap with external antenna I could pilfer to use for parts. There's also a guy on eBay selling a kit to do the same. With that kit, I could get antenna with a higher db rating which should help.

[G G]

Not sure because I've never done it. I have one of these and the range is awesome. I turn the wireless off on my Linksys router and use this as the ap.

[Chainsaw13]

I'm planing on getting a Fire tv stick for the tv, so looking to improve the signal.

[G G]

The ubiquiti will def do that Bob. I have it inside and can pick up the signal on my IPhone at least 50 feet outside, probably farther.

[Chainsaw13]

Ubiquit? To the interwebs!

[CigarNut]

I have put larger antenna on a Linksys in the past and it did make a big difference -- this was an older Linksys and it had the two ~5" antennas on the back and Linksys sold a kit with larger (~9") antennas to provide extra range. (I could also have used an external antenna but the longer ones satisfied my needs).

The catch is that the bandwidth was a little reduced for devices farther away from the AP.

There are always tradeoffs but often an antenna change is easier or less costly than moving the AP.

[G G]

I have two of these set up as a point to point network from my house to my grandfathers old house next door. The two houses are probably about 150 feet apart. And since these aren't shielded all that great I basically also have wireless on about 7 acres.

http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-NanoS...words=ubiquiti

[Flynnster]

Originally Posted by Chainsaw13

I'm planing on getting a Fire tv stick for the tv, so looking to improve the signal.

I just got mine, ordered it the day they were announced, and I LOVE IT!

I've got a chromecast too and it's no where near as great. I hope you like it.

[rr_coyote]

Originally Posted by Flynnster

I just got mine, ordered it the day they were announced, and I LOVE IT!

I've got a chromecast too and it's no where near as great. I hope you like it.

I've been looking at getting one of those fancy devices for my dated TV in the bedroom.. you may have helped make up my mind.

[T.G]

Ditch the crappy stock firmware and install tomato usb or dd-wrt so you can control the radio power levels. With the add on high gain antennas and a decent firmware, you should see a significant improvement. If that isn't sufficient and if your old router is compatible with tomato or dd-wrt you can install on it and set it up as an access point wired or wireless repeater. Wireless repeater will cut your bandwidth in half for wireless devices connected to it though.

[shilala]

Bobster, I got two of these here monkey bumpers.
One is in the front of the house in the office, takes care of the office, shop, and upstairs.
It's hardwired.
The second is line-of sight, but in the sunroom. That's the extreme back of the house.
It's just set as an extender.
With the two, I have internet goodness aplenty on the entire property.

If I take a minute to explain to my beautiful wife the line-of-sight thing, she'd probably quit moving the extender all the time.
It really does matter with these routers, the speed falls off significantly through two walls or more. Not so much that it interferes with work or browsing, but it'll slow streaming to a point where things may need to buffer.

[Chainsaw13]

Originally Posted by T.G

Ditch the crappy stock firmware and install tomato usb or dd-wrt so you can control the radio power levels. With the add on high gain antennas and a decent firmware, you should see a significant improvement. If that isn't sufficient and if your old router is compatible with tomato or dd-wrt you can install on it and set it up as an access point wired or wireless repeater. Wireless repeater will cut your bandwidth in half for wireless devices connected to it though.

I was reading a bit about dd-wrt last night. Sounds like I'll be installing it, plus modding my ap. I was trying to use my ipad in the garage last night, and the signal was horrible. Constantly dropping, even after moving the ap closer to the window nearest the garage.

[T.G]

Originally Posted by Chainsaw13

I was reading a bit about dd-wrt last night. Sounds like I'll be installing it, plus modding my ap. I was trying to use my ipad in the garage last night, and the signal was horrible. Constantly dropping, even after moving the ap closer to the window nearest the garage.

Word of warning, DD-WRT has about a bazillion different releases. The one given by the compatibility database page on the website, while it is often the newest build/version, it's typically NOT the ideal one to install. Find the peacock announcement for the chipset in your router and also the specific page for your router, between the two, will list the most current known good revision, which is typically much older than what is listed on the database page.

Also, micro, mini, standard, mega, etc. - The core features are all the same, most installations are fine with just mini or standard. The larger builds like mega and (lord) humongous just add more business level VOIP, VPN and linking etc features that most people won't need.

[Chainsaw13]

Well, my plans to pilfer my old router for parts won't work. Hard soldered in, with no cable on one antenna. Attached directly to the board.

[Chainsaw13]

Originally Posted by G G

I have two of these set up as a point to point network from my house to my grandfathers old house next door. The two houses are probably about 150 feet apart. And since these aren't shielded all that great I basically also have wireless on about 7 acres.

http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-NanoS...words=ubiquiti

So how exactly does this work? Do I hard wire the one device into the linksys, and the setup the other device in the garage?

[Chainsaw13]

Originally Posted by Chainsaw13

So how exactly does this work? Do I hard wire the one device into the linksys, and the setup the other device in the garage?

Ok, I think I understand now. Just one connected to my router, I can point it at my garage for better coverage out there. I might opt for the locoM5, for the 5ghz band.

[G G]

Bob I think I have mine plugged into my switch but basically you got it right. Plug it into a port on the router and set it up as an AP.

[Chainsaw13]

Originally Posted by G G

Bob I think I have mine plugged into my switch but basically you got it right. Plug it into a port on the router and set it up as an AP.

[Chainsaw13]

Well, you get what you pay for. Tried a external antenna upgrade for my ap. Doesn't seem to help. I'm getting 1.5mbps speeds out in the garage. Time to buy a Ubiquiti extender.