Wireless access point sugguestion

[BigRed]

Im hitting the airwaves I want to play games downstairs and such and I need a sugguestion for a wireless access point. I need one thats just for 802.11b and it must have excelent range.
Sugguestions?

[robbie]

Linksys is MY pick. The thing just freaking works!!!! I didn't have to take it back or nothing!!!
Rob

[BigRed]

Originally Posted by robbie

Linksys is MY pick. The thing just freaking works!!!! I didn't have to take it back or nothing!!!
Rob

Which model?
What sort of range do you get indoors?

[Aedan]

I have both a Linksys WAP11, and a Netgear ME102. In fact, they're pretty much identical internally, to the extent that the firmware is interchangable!

Range indoors depends on what your walls/floor are made of. My apartment has a number of solid internal walls (IE, solid brick walls and a concrete ceiling), which cuts down the internal range massively. Inside the apartment, the WiFi struggles to reach the kitchen, which is less than 10m as the signal flies.

My GF's place on the other hand, uses wooden flooring and partition board walls. I've yet to see the signal strength much below maximum there!

My parents place also has solid walls. The signal has difficulty penetrating some rooms, but the wireless connection works quite happily 30m down the garden...

[BigRed]

Originally Posted by Áedán

I have both a Linksys WAP11, and a Netgear ME102. In fact, they're pretty much identical internally, to the extent that the firmware is interchangable!

Range indoors depends on what your walls/floor are made of. My apartment has a number of solid internal walls (IE, solid brick walls and a concrete ceiling), which cuts down the internal range massively. Inside the apartment, the WiFi struggles to reach the kitchen, which is less than 10m as the signal flies.

My GF's place on the other hand, uses wooden flooring and partition board walls. I've yet to see the signal strength much below maximum there!

My parents place also has solid walls. The signal has difficulty penetrating some rooms, but the wireless connection works quite happily 30m down the garden...

Ive been eyeballing the WAP11.
I have another motive in mind for it. I was going to bring it to a regular lan party I go to (www.lanpartynw.com) and see if I can get a signal from the confrence room where the lan is held in my hotel room that I get when I attend so I can play games in the room
Since the hotel involves multiple walls and floors, unless I can get a room thats close to the lan I dont think ill get a signal

Does the WAP11 have a hookup for an external antenna? Prehaps if I can get 2 directional antennas and point the one from the access point at the other one in my room It might reach...

[Aedan]

The WAP11 I have has two external antenna. Both of these use something that looks like reverse TNC connectors, so they can be unscrewed.

It all depends on what's between you and the access point. WiFi doesn't tend to go through solid walls or water very well. Water absorbs the RF, and solid walls bounce it.

The Netgear has fixed antenna, so there's no chance of replacing them.

[mookydooky]

Why not spend a little more and get a 802.11g?

[BigRed]

Originally Posted by mookydooky

Why not spend a little more and get a 802.11g?

3 reasons

1: Im spending money which I dont have (cc)
2: At the range im going to be using it, the access point is just going to revert to 802.11b anyway.
3: Id rather wait for the standard to mature a little and maybe they can improve the range/speed even further. I never jump on new standards because there might be bugs that need to be squished

[Aedan]

Bugs that need to be squished? Well, 802.11b has them in spades, especially the encryption and network management sides.

[BigRed]

Originally Posted by Áedán

Bugs that need to be squished? Well, 802.11b has them in spades, especially the encryption and network management sides.

I was talking about G. It has only recently become a standard by ieee and I usually dont jump on new things like that.

[BigRed]

Well I just ordered the WAP11 v2.6 from newegg

[SiGmA_X]

Humm, I get full 54Mbps everywhere in my house with my desktop (I have tried it in basement, my room, and kitchen ) and the laptop is not the same story.. My mom's laptop has 802.11b only, and it gets a solid 11Mbps everywhere - Grague (sp!) included. My dad's laptop (802.11g) strugles to get 2Mbps in the basement, while my mom's gets 11Mbps there. His laptop has issues with getting a full 54Mbps when he is at his desk, 2 feet from the AP. Mine gets a full 54Mbps from 50 feet, and my moms gets 11Mbps from over 100 feet.. Amazing!

[BigRed]

Right now its just my other computer downstairs thats going to be using it. Since im in an apartment I cant attach wire to the walls or drill holes to run it downstiars from the dsl modem thats up here

[Aedan]

It really does depend on what the walls/ceilings and other surfaces are made of. Water's a very good absorber of 11b and 11g, so things like foliage can cause issues. Solid walls, and floors tend to bounce the RF too. Wooden floors are better, as they tend to be semi-permiable to RF. My apartment also sucks for mobile phones due to all the solid walls/ceilings.

Line of sight, you get much better reception, hence testing outdoors isn't the best test! (Incidently, it's possible to go over 20km with no boosters at 11MBit/sec)

[Jazz]

On ebay you can get some greatly improved omni and directional antennas with the revtnc connector already on the jumper from the antenna.

[SiGmA_X]

What type of antenna should I get to go in my car? Mounted in trunk.. I was thinking about getting a Cantenna and having it point to where my house would be from where I park, but that will limit my mobile cracking..

[Aedan]

Mounting an antenna in the trunk wouldn't be a good idea if there's any metal between it and the source of RF. Metal's a good way of shielding antennas from RF, which is the opposite of what you want to do.

The more gain the antenna has, the more directional it is.

[BigRed]

Got my AP hooked up and everything but I ran into a problem. It wont let me connect to the advanced options in the ap. I followed the instructions on how to get into it from a browser but it wont let me connect

[Aedan]

Do they still do those wonderful little apps to manage it? One does it via USB and one via SNMP... Or have they changed it lots since my WAP11 V1. I found that I had to use the SNMP manager to be able to set various options.

[BigRed]

Originally Posted by Áedán

Do they still do those wonderful little apps to manage it? One does it via USB and one via SNMP... Or have they changed it lots since my WAP11 V1. I found that I had to use the SNMP manager to be able to set various options.

You are supposed to be able to configure it just like a router. Type in the ip addy in explorer and it will bring up access points login screen. But it doesnt connect on mine