I just returned from the church after 2 hours of trial and error. I moved
my two antennas around, changed positions, etc. The most striking
revelation is that these Hawking units add very, very little to the
equation. With the 6dB antenna on the router and the 15dB corner antenna on
the client, I was able to achieve a continuous 26%-32% signal (using the
Dlink utility) at the farthest office. This was after repositioning the
router/antenna in the equipment room many times. That strength of signal is
just barely sufficient for internet usage, and certainly unacceptable as a
long-term solution. For comparison, I replaced the 6dB antenna with the
stock antenna on the router - leaving the 15dB corner antenna on the client.
I was hugely disappointed (in one sense) to see that the signal dropped only
a couple of percentage points (on average), not enough to effect the link in
any significant way. In other words, the "+6dB" antenna is virtually no
improvement over the stock antenna. In fact, it seems that any performance
increase has more to do with being able to move the 6dB antenna around
slightly by virtue of its 15" cable and angle adjustment. I don't think the
antenna itself adds one bit.

I believe the same can be said for the corner antenna. I'd like to know how
Hawking arrives at this "+15dB" rating. I simply don't see it - or anything
close to it - and I'm in a real-life situation trying every possible
position and combination I can come up with.

Can these free antennas, such as the EZ-12, be used to enhance either of my
Hawking antennas. I really think I'm close to making this work, if I could
just get another consistent 10%-15% signal at the clients. I've got a
customer who's been using a similar Dlink setup (sans Hawking units), who
never gets better than 40% on the Dlink utility, but they're very happy with
things. The links don't drop, and the speed is sufficient.

If I can't achieve 40%+ in these two offices, I'm likely going to steal two
pair off a phone extension and hang an AP in one of the offices. It's
probably what I should do anyway.

jm














"JM" <jm@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:8wG1f.1461$Hs.733@tornado.ohiordc.rr.com...
>I really need to improve the range of a wireless LAN, so I picked up a
>Hawking HAI15SC corner antenna. It has increased my range by some multiple
>of ZERO, almost regardless of how I utilize it. What am I doing wrong?
> I've got a Dlink DI614+ router in a small equipment room in the middle of
> our church. Currently there is a Hawking HAI6SIP +6dbi omni antenna
> attached to it. Approximately 70 feet south of the room there are 3 small
> offices, clustered closely together, each with a workstation running a
> Dlink DWL-520 PCI card. The first of these offices is relatively open to
> the hallway running from equipment room, and its signal reception is
> tolerable - about 40% on the Dlink utility, which means the link doesn't
> drop and the speed is acceptable for internet usage. The computers in
> the other two offices, however, will not work at all with the included
> Dlink antenna. Because of the way the offices are positioned,
> approximately 3-4 additional walls are brought into play between the
> computers and the router, as compared to the first office. I purchased
> the Hawking corner antenna thinking it might improve things attached
> either to one of the client computers or to the Dlink router, with the
> omni antenna attached to the client(s). With the omni on the router and
> the corner antenna on the clients, I can just barely get signal. It's not
> enough to maintain the link. Swapping the antennas around doesn't make
> any significant difference.
> From various trial-and-error, I'm convinced that the advertised +15dBi is
> waaaay off. I'm not even sure it's as good as the +6dBi omni model, which
> I've used many times.
> There is a little money left in our budget for this type of thing, so I'm
> in a position to buy "better" or more stuff if needed. I know we can make
> this work wireless, but I'm going to have to really tweak things.
> Any input is greatly appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
>
> jm
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