Dummies, Wireless

Chapter 18: Ten Ways to Troubleshoot Wireless LAN Performance
point in the same place and just move the antenna around until you get the
best signal. In a home, there’s not a huge distance limitation on how far away
the antenna can be from the access point.
802.11n systems, with their special MIMO transmission technologies, are typically
designed to use only the antenna that came with the system. You can’t
just slap any old antenna onto an 802.11n AP or router. For the most part, this
isn’t a problem, simply because 802.11n has significantly better range than
older systems such as 802.11g.
Use a Signal Booster
Signal boosters used to be offered when 802.11g came out a few years ago.
The concept was that if you have a big house (or lots of interference), you
can add a signal booster, which essentially turns up the volume on your wireless
home network transmitter. Unfortunately, it does nothing for the wireless
card in your computer, and that was the great failing in this product. Your
base station would be stronger, but your workstation’s signal would be the
same. So, you could see your base station better, but couldn’t communicate
with it any better because your wireless card was at the same signal strength.
A signal booster was supposed to improve the range of your access point.
The 802.11g products now typically have a range of 100 to 150 feet indoors
mainly because 802.11g products operate at a relatively low frequency.
802.11a products have an even shorter reach — up to 75 feet indoors —
because the higher frequencies that 802.11a use lose strength faster with
distance than do the lower frequencies used by 802.11g. The 802.11n
products from companies such as Belkin reach at least another 25 to 50 feet,
and many products using MIMO also achieve better range.
The signal range of the APs now on the market is steadily increasing because
manufacturers are creating more efficient transceiver chipsets. We recommend
reading the most recent reviews of products because products truly
are improving monthly.
You can still find signal boosters for sale on eBay from companies such as
Linksys, which sold the WSB24 Wireless Signal Booster that piggybacked
onto a Linksys wireless access point (or wireless access point router).
Signal boosters have pretty much been discontinued, and even though your
can still get them, we strongly recommend staying away from them because
you have many other options that are more versatile and compatible with
what you already have and that keep you up-to-date with the newest
technologies.
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