Wolfsblood August 20, 2006 Share Wolfsblood Member August 20, 2006 I need to figure out what wireless network to get for our computer network at work. My wife is using one from Hawking Technologies (sorry, I don't have a link, or remember the model of it) for her gaming rig. It's fine, but sometimes will not connect to the network when it first boots up. Here's the computer situation I have. The network router will be seperated by a ceiling from the wireless card, and probably be roughly 20' from each other. (straight line distance) Both computers run WinXP SP2. THere will be a total of 2 computers, plus an Epson Color Stylus 3000 wide format printer hardwired into the router. The router is a Linksys wrt54g running the stock firmware. Data transfer needs: be able to relaibly send data from the wireles computer to the other computers on the network, as well as send data to our printer. Internet access will be adad to that part of the network at a l;ater date as well. So, does anyone know if there are any good wireless cards that can blast the signal through walls reliably? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwEEziL August 21, 2006 Share dwEEziL Member August 21, 2006 It wouldn't be on the wireless card. It's dependent upon the WAP (your Linksys router). Luckily, you have one of the routers that supports the DD-WRT firware (linux firmware - http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/index.php and http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_%22DD-WRT%22%3F ) which allows you to increase the Transmit Power to increase the WAP's range. A buddy of mine just got the WRT54GL, flashed the firmware, adjusted the Transmit Power setting and can now cover his whole house where before he was using two WAPs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWarrior August 21, 2006 Share HWarrior Member August 21, 2006 Yeah router is key really. I have the same router (ver2, stock firmware). Major factor with it is what kind of walls you have. My old apartment was single level with concrete block & plaster walls and going through 2 walls to another room (20 feet) the connection would drop occassionally. The new apartment is a duplex with wood studs & drywall. The wrt54g reaches the entire apartment with the router in upstairs southside and laptop downstairs southside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfsblood August 22, 2006 Author Share Wolfsblood Member August 22, 2006 Thx for the advice guys. Looks like I'm going with a US Robotics card, and I'll check out those links dwEEzil. That's the reason I bought that particular router, because there were 3rd party firmware programs that I could use to increase the functionality of the router. Glad to know that I made a good choice of routers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox August 22, 2006 Share appalachian_fox Member August 22, 2006 Which hardware revision of the WRT54G do you have? Also, you can look into gain antennas for your computers. You can usually find a good deal for 3 dB of power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunk August 22, 2006 Share Lunk Member August 22, 2006 Which hardware revision of the WRT54G do you have? Also, you can look into gain antennas for your computers. You can usually find a good deal for 3 dB of power. You know, I've tried these antennas and really didn't notice much difference in my 2 story house. I'm gonna try those links that dweezil posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox August 22, 2006 Share appalachian_fox Member August 22, 2006 You know, I've tried these antennas and really didn't notice much difference in my 2 story house. I'm gonna try those links that dweezil posted. I've heard mixed reports on these high-gain antennas...I can't say I'm surprised to find out they don't work in some cases. I'll bet in many cases the gain is overstated or based on some non-standard. The DD-WRT package is nice, I've seen it in action, but make sure if you jack your power you stay within the legal limits. If you're an amateur radio operator, it's an accepted practice to bump up above those limits if you use your call sign as your SSID, but from what I understand there's a lot of wiggle room, especially if you are using stock antennas, so that much power shouldn't be necessary (and might not be available on most router models). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfsblood August 23, 2006 Author Share Wolfsblood Member August 23, 2006 The router is revision 2, I believe. (not at work right now, so can't check till later) The ceiling the signal has to pass through is comprised of drywall, wood studs (think they're wood, and not metal) and plywood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox August 23, 2006 Share appalachian_fox Member August 23, 2006 Have you actually tried a network in the area yet? Depending on the layout, you may not need anything fancy at all. If you can borrow a card for testing at the site, I'd give that a shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfsblood August 24, 2006 Author Share Wolfsblood Member August 24, 2006 I tried hooking into the network yesterday, but no go. I d/l'd the dd-wrt firmware last night and will try that. I'm not sure if signal strength is the problem, but this should rule that out. I will say that I'm no expert at setting up networks. I've done it before, but usually run into problems getting the computers to communicate with each other at first. Everything I know about networking has been self taught (trial/error, following the WinXP toutorials, or from computer forums), so it's highly likely that I'll end up asking for more help with the networking. One other note. The computer that I installed the wireless card into used to be hardwired into the network a couple years ago, so it is already set up for networking. It shows itself as part of the same workgroup as the other computers on the network. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
appalachian_fox August 24, 2006 Share appalachian_fox Member August 24, 2006 You will definitely want to look into network cards that have a higher output power, then. I don't know that it will be necessary, but if you can't get any signal to yoru computer from the WAP as it is you're likely not going to send a signal from your desktop back to the WAP. Try with a regular card first, just to be sure (you know, so you don't invest all that money) but if you can see the network and your connection is still spotty you need more power going back: Either from increasing your gain in the direction of highest sensitivity or increasing your power. And if it's a 20' straight line shot, are you sure you can't find a way to run cable? I know it's a pain, but ethernet cables are cheap enough these days... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfsblood August 27, 2006 Author Share Wolfsblood Member August 27, 2006 Yeah, running ethernet cable would be the last resort. This is the card I installed. It's supposed to be a higher power card, and allow for faster data transfer. Still haven't had time to flash the bios of the router. Not only am I the default "tech guy", I'm also the lead production guy. Tends to cut down on the amount of time I have to play with the network. That and the fact that my wife and I are finishing up the process of moving across town, which takes the rest of my free time. Hopefully when I flash the router everything will work correctly, the wireless computer will see the network, and all the other computers can communicate with each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunk August 27, 2006 Share Lunk Member August 27, 2006 It wouldn't be on the wireless card. It's dependent upon the WAP (your Linksys router). Luckily, you have one of the routers that supports the DD-WRT firware (linux firmware - http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/index.php and http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_%22DD-WRT%22%3F ) which allows you to increase the Transmit Power to increase the WAP's range. A buddy of mine just got the WRT54GL, flashed the firmware, adjusted the Transmit Power setting and can now cover his whole house where before he was using two WAPs. Dweez can you help me find some setup instructions in English for the DD-WRT? Can't seem to find them. I want to give this a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfsblood August 31, 2006 Author Share Wolfsblood Member August 31, 2006 It wouldn't be on the wireless card. It's dependent upon the WAP (your Linksys router). Luckily, you have one of the routers that supports the DD-WRT firware (linux firmware - http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/index.php and http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_%22DD-WRT%22%3F ) which allows you to increase the Transmit Power to increase the WAP's range. A buddy of mine just got the WRT54GL, flashed the firmware, adjusted the Transmit Power setting and can now cover his whole house where before he was using two WAPs. Dweez can you help me find some setup instructions in English for the DD-WRT? Can't seem to find them. I want to give this a try. Lunk, here is the link to the wiki in english. I haven't gone through it completly, but looks like it should help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwEEziL September 1, 2006 Share dwEEziL Member September 1, 2006 Weird, I don't know why you were getting a non-english page. The links I gave take me to english pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrashOverride September 1, 2006 Share CrashOverride Member September 1, 2006 Your looking at omnidirectional antenna there too. Think of a big donught (Mmmmmm Sprinkles) radiation pattern from your WAP. That based on vertical antenna alignment. Basicaly it is moving out in a circle and down and up a small amount. Try putting the antennal level with the floor, which would make the pattern more vertical. If your flashing your firware linux, id say your beyond basic skills. Try running Omnipeek personal from wild packets. Its free and can help with your setup. Seek CWNA/CWSP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lunk September 2, 2006 Share Lunk Member September 2, 2006 Weird, I don't know why you were getting a non-english page. The links I gave take me to english pages. I was looking for a downloadable manual in pdf or word format dweez. The links you gave were in english. The downloadable manuals weren't. Sorry for the confusion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfsblood September 9, 2006 Author Share Wolfsblood Member September 9, 2006 Your looking at omnidirectional antenna there too. Think of a big donught (Mmmmmm Sprinkles) radiation pattern from your WAP. That based on vertical antenna alignment. Basicaly it is moving out in a circle and down and up a small amount. Try putting the antennal level with the floor, which would make the pattern more vertical. If your flashing your firware linux, id say your beyond basic skills. Try running Omnipeek personal from wild packets. Its free and can help with your setup. Seek CWNA/CWSP Hmmm, so I should have the antennae horizontal rather than vertical. Never thought of that, have to try that on Monday. Still no luck getting the card to pick up the wireless signal. First time I've had a problem with a wirteless card not picking up the router signal. It appears that the card itself is working since it seemed to pick another WAP in the area, but when I connected to it, I could see nothing on that network so I'm not sure if it was a legitimate WAP or some kind of ghost. I even maxed the transmit power (from the default 25watts to 250 watts) for a few minutes to see if I could blast through the drywall, but still nothing. I hope to have access to a wireless lappy to verify that the router is indeed sending out a signal this week sometime. I'll let you know if I make any progress. In the meantime, if anyone else has any other ideas/help, I'd love to hear from you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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