Friday, February 04, 2005
Wireless Network Aerials
I live in one of those streets where everyone gets on. While we don't live in one anothers houses we do socialise frequently and share more than just the odd jug of milk or bowl of sugar. So what does this have to do with Wireless Network Aerials?
Well one of the things we also share is a wireless network connected to an ADSL access point. So for an up front investment of $200 each we all enjoy free broadband. It of course helps that one of my neighbours gets the broadband free courtesy of his employer.
There is only one problem. Wireless is not really designed out of the box for a street network. If all our computers are at the front of our houses then everything works fine but if your computer is at the back of the house the walls start to degrade the signal and connectivity becomes as issue. We originally set it up with a DWL-2000AP access point and everyone was happy.
Over christmas due to some network topology changes I had cause to want to redeploy the DWL-2000AP and replaced it with a DWL-2100AP. Now both these devices have identical specs but for some reason the neighbours started to have problems with connectivity. It seems that there are some tolerances on the signal strength of these devices and the 2100 one I got is slightly weaker than the 2000 I replaced. So now I need to buy/build a new aerial to boost the signal strength.
After doing a bunch of research it is obvious that it will be difficult to buy a suitable Omni-directional antenna for less than AUD$100 which is a bit more than I hoped to pay so now I am looking at building one. Over the next few weeks I plan on giving a run down on my research and experiences in building the aerial.
The first issue I am facing is connecting the wireless access point to the aerial. For some dumb reason aerials seem to have standardised on N-Type connectors while DLink access points use RP-SMA connectors. Other vendors are no better with at least 4 or 5 other bizzare connectors being used for aerials. These connectors are not easy to come by. Mass market electronics stores carry N-Type connectors but not RP-SMA. I have found a store in Queensland http://www.rfshop.com.au which will sell me a RP-SMA-N-Type connector for about AUD$25.
So right now I am:
- Ordering the connector
- Researching Aerials I can build.
In my next post I will summarise the aerial plans I have found in my research.
Well one of the things we also share is a wireless network connected to an ADSL access point. So for an up front investment of $200 each we all enjoy free broadband. It of course helps that one of my neighbours gets the broadband free courtesy of his employer.
There is only one problem. Wireless is not really designed out of the box for a street network. If all our computers are at the front of our houses then everything works fine but if your computer is at the back of the house the walls start to degrade the signal and connectivity becomes as issue. We originally set it up with a DWL-2000AP access point and everyone was happy.
Over christmas due to some network topology changes I had cause to want to redeploy the DWL-2000AP and replaced it with a DWL-2100AP. Now both these devices have identical specs but for some reason the neighbours started to have problems with connectivity. It seems that there are some tolerances on the signal strength of these devices and the 2100 one I got is slightly weaker than the 2000 I replaced. So now I need to buy/build a new aerial to boost the signal strength.
After doing a bunch of research it is obvious that it will be difficult to buy a suitable Omni-directional antenna for less than AUD$100 which is a bit more than I hoped to pay so now I am looking at building one. Over the next few weeks I plan on giving a run down on my research and experiences in building the aerial.
The first issue I am facing is connecting the wireless access point to the aerial. For some dumb reason aerials seem to have standardised on N-Type connectors while DLink access points use RP-SMA connectors. Other vendors are no better with at least 4 or 5 other bizzare connectors being used for aerials. These connectors are not easy to come by. Mass market electronics stores carry N-Type connectors but not RP-SMA. I have found a store in Queensland http://www.rfshop.com.au which will sell me a RP-SMA-N-Type connector for about AUD$25.
So right now I am:
- Ordering the connector
- Researching Aerials I can build.
In my next post I will summarise the aerial plans I have found in my research.
