wireless misery must end
 

For unavoidable reasons, I have only one phone jack serving a DSL signal. It is almost entirely impractical to run cable from the jack to the other end of my condominium. When I put a Linksys WRT45G at the phone jack's location, my iMac G5 (10.3.9, AP Extreme card 802.11g) is two walls and 40 feet away. I get persistent but irregular loss of signal entirely, perhaps every 10 to 30 minutes. 4 other wireless networks are consistently in the air; I am on channel 1 and no one else is. My upstairs neighbor's router shows me a stronger signal than my own, and I keep getting on his network when the iMac loses mine. Of course, this ain't secure, and he's got MAC address filtering so I can't do anything on his network at any rate. I am losing my hair.

I cannot practically move the router, so given we are on OS X and need OS X compatible gear, what do you suggest?

--wireless amplifier like Hawking WiFi Booster or Radiolabs .5 watt device connected to Linksys
--usb amplified wifi adapter for iMac like Quickertek's Quicky line
--3rd party router, like Buffalo WHR-HP-G54, which is supposed to be amplified
--patch style external antenna to replace rubber duck antennas on Linksys router
--flashing Linksys with DD-WRT firmware and turning up the output power on the router
--buying new Airport Extreme with draft N, is it true that it will improve range to old style 802.11g cards like in my iMac?
--3rd party router with "pre-N" features that supposedly improve range, like Belkin's Mac-compatible Pre-N router?

I'm dyin' over here.

I've used that Linksys and I didnt like it to say the very least. I returned it after a day.

-Flashing the firmware may resolve some issues with the box. It's definitely worth doing if you like the product and wish to continue working with you. It could also be a quickfix that wont involve you driving somewhere and returning it.
- 40 feet, in theory, is a fraction of what an 11g Access Point can cover, unless of course the 2 walls you mentioned are serious obsticles (especially if they're made of concrete or something denser). When I was using that same router it had the task of meandering out a door and through an S-shaped corridor. From the opening of the corridor to the AP were about 25 feet. The signal made it to a maximum of 40 feet and then lost pings/signal. I switched to a MIMO Netgear 11g and the range extended significantly - that is to say that in my testing the Linksys was inferior to the Netgear (and undoubtedly the netgear is inferior to some other brands in its class). The multiple antennas on the MIMO seemed to provide better sensing of obsticles. The proof was in the range.
- a 11n AP, in theory, would give you longer range, but only if you had an 11n wireless card to receive the signal. You state that you have an Airport Extreme card, so the 11n AP would use 11g range to your G5.
- You list many options. If it were up to me, I would get the Airport Extreme 11n router (giving you expandability in the future) and you should see improved range. Then you could even enable interface robustness on the AP and the card to help with the interference and obsticles. If you still run into problems you could pick up an Airport Express and use WDS as a range extender.
- if you wanted to continue using the Linksys you could pick up the extended range antenna, but from what i've seen the extra dBs dont match up to the thoretical extended range.
- in any case, running a longer rj11 cable isnt good practice, as you may well know, because the longer the cable to the adsl modem the more problems you'll run into with disconnections.

hope there's something in there that's new and helpful

the solutions you list focus on amplifying the signal. another option is to relay the signal.

you could buy another access point that supports WDS (wireless distribution system) and put it somewhere where it is still close enough to see the signal from your existing access point, but it is better able to serve the remainder of your house.

some help
 

Dear MisterJ,

Yes, this helps somewhat. Got a twisty corridor here. Right now I'm leaning toward taking a chance on powerline ethernet, but you did indicate that a MIMO router would help, or that the new Airport base station with draft-N would help? Even with a standard Airport Extreme g card? I'd love to believe it. Starting to think amplifiers may cause more trouble than solve trouble.

Testing today, I've strewn rj45 all over my living room and placed the Linksys router close to the first obstructing wall, only eliminating about 20 feet of open air, and the signal improves a lot. But I can't have that cable there. Oddly enough, two paper and foil hand-made "parabolic" reflectors stuck on the rubber duck ears improve signal about 25% when I have the router next to the wall. Not any apparent dropouts today with this set-up, so this suggests I need more signal. Think a non-Apple MIMO router would do it? Rather not drop $180 on a new Airport base station.

Had any experience with ethernet over the powerlines? Netgear, Phonex, or Airlink at (shudder) Fry's?

thx

DDuff,

Afraid I don't want WDS since it only supports WEP, and I need to keep my WPA2 encryption. Otherwise an Airport Express would be dandy. Oh well. Thanks

I've had that same router for three or four years now and find it to be a flawless performer. It is flashed with: v4.71.1, Hyperwrt 2.1b1 + Thibor15c. But I have not boosted the signal (still set at the default 50%). I live in a concrete house and have no trouble receiving a good signal through three or four walls.

I just took my 12" G4 PowerBook for a walk. 200 feet from my house and through three concrete house walls and two concrete garden walls I still had an 18% signal strength as measured by iStumbler.

Is it possible that your router has a hardware defect?

Newman,

Not a router defect I think, it works fine in the room where it's located, and the room next to that. Just in this one far room I lose signal unpredictably. Works no prob when wired directly too. But I wonder about using 3rd party firmware to boost output, just scared I will brick it. It's v4, one of the good ones with the larger amount of RAM and flash.

quatre

Mine is v2, also with plenty of RAM. It was easy to flash. I did it not to boost power but to get better control over router policy (turn off Internet access after 10:30PM).

I only suggested defect because the wireless power level seems to be so low. Have you tried measuring it with iStumbler or something similar?

Newman,

iStumbler gives an average strength of 40%... what happens is it suddenly drops to zero, not gradually. Then in maybe 3 minutes it's back. Meanwhile if I put the iMac to sleep and wake it to try and refresh the airport menu, it connects to a neighbor and I want that to stop. Machines in other parts of condo don't seem affected. Is there a way to diagnose the Airport Extreme card in the iMac?

quatre

At the risk of being verbose, I must say after more observation my Powerbook is also occasionally affected by the loss of signal, but not as often. It occupies a different part of the problem room, but not by much.

I didnt even mention some of the basics in troubleshooting this. Do you have a cordless phone operating on the same frequency (2.4ghz)? Now that you mention a sharp drop in signal it makes me think that there are other RF devices that are interfering. Cordless phones around your flat could affect the signal as well. Heck, so could a microwave. Changing the channel on your AP might help, one of the non-overlapping ones, but chances are as the other RF devices scan up and down their channels the same issue will occur. Regardless, if you have RF devices in the house within the range of the AP, unplug them and see the performance.

Sorry if this is trite.

Mr Jax is right. Your description now sounds like RFI. Most likely someone's cordless phone.

Try different channels.

I'm on channel 1, which I thought is one of the non-overlapping ones, but I have tried other channels too. It's not a cordless phone, since I've tried using a 2.4GHz one next to both the router and the computer, and that does nothing. Suppose it could be a neighbor, but I'm starting to think it's the router. As I say, when the signal drops, it just vanishes completely and not after a spell of wavering or fluctuation when graphed. In fact when this happens, a spurious duplicate listing of my network shows up in iStumbler, with the wrong channel listed, a MAC address of all zeros, and a stated frequency of -1MHz. Go figure.

Directional antenna
 

Hi,

Try using directional antenna both ends. Make your own from a Pringles can or tin can (http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html) or buy one (http://www.cantenna.com/)

I have seen 1km links set up with standard WIFI kit and commercial directional antenna. Need a laser to set them up though!

This gives you a strong signal where you need it and swamps any other signals.

Hope this is of interest to someone......

Regards,

Nick

I think I shall quash my fears and try flashing the router with DD-WRT. If this works, perhaps increasing the power output through the interface will help. At least this costs nothing, and will force me to try a different router or ethernet over powerline as Plan B. If it works, will let everyone know.

quatre

Incidentally, there is a cheap antenna dingus that actually works... but unfortunately it only makes a real difference when I get the router up against the first of the two walls separating it from the computer. In effect, that removes 20 feet of air. But once placed closer, these crazy cardboard and foil kludges

http://www.freeantennas.com/projects...te2/index.html

actually increased signal almost 25%. Amazing. If anyone is only one room away from their router and need more signal, try these.

I've flashed the WRT54G with DD-WRT, boosted the transmitter power, however this seems to make little difference. So to all of you who suggested powerline ethernet, that's the next step. I'm doubting that a different wireless router would help bust through this dead zone.

Airport Express as a WDS supports WPA2. That's what I'm running in my setup.

Really? I thought WDS and WPA2 were mutually exclusive. If you're right, this is very interesting. Do you know if WPA2 on AP Express will work with a Linksys WRT54G? I've read instructions on the net about how to get the Linksys to talk to the APX but seemed to indicate that WPA2 was unavailable, only WEP.

I don't know if it will work with the Linksys. I'm using 2 Airport Express units -- one as the base station and the other enabled as the WDS. WPA2 security with the radio mode set to 802.11g only.

Do you think WPA2 will still work if the radio is set to mixed, both b and g? I've already done a bit of searching and people have gotten Linky and APX to talk, apparently. I need b and g compatibility, however. If this can work, I will be thrilled.

It should work with 802.11b/g -- that's the way mine was originally setup when I was using an 802.11b iBook on the network.