Barkham Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 I use a Netgear DG834G v2 modem/router with an Ethernet connection for my desktop and wifi for the laptop It works well enough as long as my lap top is reasonably close. However, we live in an old house with 50cm stone walls, and I can't get any reception through the walls. Is there any way of boosting it's transmitting power, or do I need a more modern device - if so, which? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Redman Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 You can try antenna, but I believe the power of modem/routers is restriced by law in the EUhttp://www.tp-link.com/products/product_des.asp?id=58but I think you need a hole through the wall to with the Antenna onthe other side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 logically, knock down the wall or get those things that plug into the electricity sockets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RicandJo Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Put the router in the grenier......height is your friend where wifi is concerned. Except if you have the metallic covered insulation between your floors!I too live in an old house with 50cm external walls, we use a livebox positioned on the ground floor, smack in the middle of the house. I can use my wifi at the edge of the garden.Maybe a newer box is the answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 [quote user="Anton Redman"]but I think you need a hole through the wall to with the Antenna on the other side.[/quote]Unfortunately I don't think the Netgear router, or many others for that matter, have the facility to connect an external antenna.If you were contemplating putting a hole in the wall it would seem more locical to run the phone cable through it and put the router in the room where the laptop is then run an ethernet cable from it back through the same hole to the PC [Www] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob T Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 [quote user="AnOther"]Unfortunately I don't think the Netgear router, or many others for that matter, have the facility to connect an external antenna.[/quote]Yes it does, I have one fitted to mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sid Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Hi BobI have the DG834 but mine doesn't have an external antenna connection.[8-)]Hi BarkhamI also found the same difficulty with the thick stone walls; the router works best if it's high up, for example in an upstairs room where it can "see" down into the other rooms. I never understood how this could be true because the transmission still has to pass through the walls and this time at an oblique angle therefore making them even thicker!! But work, it did! It was too inconvenient having the router up there though.For connections outside my little office I now use the Netgear CPL boxes (there are other makes of course, but I like Netgear stuff) which transmit via the house mains wiring. I found that these work everywhere on the property, even to the extremes of the barns (where there are power sockets obviously). This solves the problem for our gite too. [geek]Sid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 I looked at the spec sheet and it doesn't look like a detatchable antenna to me, nor say so, but if you say it is then I guess it must be.http://kbserver.netgear.com/datasheets/DG834Gv2_datasheet_11May2004.pdfNot looking for a punch up but I think my comment still applies that most don't have the facility [;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 I have a Cisco wireless router and although it doesn't have an external aerial socket, the supplied stubby aerial unscrews and you can replace it with another giving up to 26dB gain IIRC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 I think your recollection is out by a factor of 10 Pierre [:'(]Most of the commonly available external antennas claim anything from as little as 3db to as much as 12 but the plain truth is that very few deliver it. In fact, you will often find that the losses incurred through the use of poor design, cheap poor spec cable and connectors, will equal or outweigh anything that the antenna might be producing so much of any perceived improvement is just as likely to be due to positioning as any actual antenna gain.As an illustration here offshore we have a point to point WiFi link running over about 3.5km. One end is fixed and the other partially mobile so at that end we have an omnidirectional antenna, similar if you like to what's on the back of your router, only in this case the antenna is about 6' long and is rated at a modest 13db gain. The cable feeding it is no more than about 5m long and despite being of good quality still loses about 3db of that.The above just goes to show that WiFi is quite capable of being transmitted over long distances if the right gear is used. In our case the power budget, geek speak for the sums, shows that we could successfully extend the distance virtually to the horizon if we needed to, and all with the same 100mw that your domestic router uses [geek] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre ZFP Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 THIS was the sort of thing I was thinking about.7dB gain so I was only out by a factor of 3.5 or so [:$] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob T Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 [quote user="AnOther"]I looked at the spec sheet and it doesn't look like a detatchable antenna to me, nor say so, but if you say it is then I guess it must be.http://kbserver.netgear.com/datasheets/DG834Gv2_datasheet_11May2004.pdfNot looking for a punch up but I think my comment still applies that most don't have the facility [;-)][/quote]If you look at the white antenna on page 2, that unscrews allowing you to attach any other antenna. I have one on the end of a 50 cm lead positioned above the Netgear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 [quote user="Pierre ZFP"]THIS was the sort of thing I was thinking about.7dB gain so I was only out by a factor of 3.5 or so [:$][/quote]Quite a neat one as they go but [geek] hat on again there is a little bit of a con trick going on because if you read the blurb it says a boost from 2dbi (typical standard antenna) to 7dbi but even that doesn't quite mean what you think. That innocent looking 'i' is quite important as it stands for isotropic (radiator) which in laymans terms means a perfect spherical antenna with the transmitting source in the center giving an even radiation an all directions. When designing a proper antenna reference to isotropic is the base standard but in terms of the rubber duck sprouting from a router it is such a compromise as to defy any such benchmark so is pretty well meaningless and their figures of 2dbi and 7dbi are as likely plucked out of thin air as scientifically arrived at.Overriding all that though are some simple principals.When it comes to antennas size does matter and in the most basic of terms the moreyou have the more you get and a doubling in size will equal a 3dbincrease in gain. Given that the average routerantenna is something like 120mm or so in length and the stated length of the antenna youlinked to is only 225mm that makes it incapable of producing even 3db of relative gain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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