Boosting the Signal on a WRT54G

After reading some of Jeff's posts back to 2004, I decided to try the
link he posted for http://www.freeantennas.com. I cut out the
template and glued tin foil to the back side. I then glued a laser
transparency to the backside of that. I took care to do it very
accurately.

My house is three stories. I have a rental suite in the basement
(which is partially underground). My renter, Ed, is at the farthest
point from my wireless router. I'm top north corner and he is bottom
south corner. After placing the "Windsurfer" antenna on each of my
linksys poles, my signal went from two bars on my laptop on the second
floor to 5 bars. Ed phoned me around 7 tonight and asked if I'd done
anything to the internet. I told him about it. He says he has
doubled his signal strength and is getting speeds of about 8 - 9 MB/
second. He says there is no fluctuation in signal as he would
normally experience.

This is the best 50 cent solution I've every had!

Thanks to all who talked about it.

Nick

Nick - Surrey, BC wrote:

> After reading some of Jeff's posts back to 2004, I decided to try the
> link he posted for http://www.freeantennas.com. I cut out the
> template and glued tin foil to the back side. I then glued a laser
> transparency to the backside of that. I took care to do it very
> accurately.
>
> My house is three stories. I have a rental suite in the basement
> (which is partially underground). My renter, Ed, is at the farthest
> point from my wireless router. I'm top north corner and he is bottom
> south corner. After placing the "Windsurfer" antenna on each of my
> linksys poles, my signal went from two bars on my laptop on the second
> floor to 5 bars. Ed phoned me around 7 tonight and asked if I'd done
> anything to the internet. I told him about it. He says he has
> doubled his signal strength and is getting speeds of about 8 - 9 MB/
> second. He says there is no fluctuation in signal as he would
> normally experience.
>
> This is the best 50 cent solution I've every had!
>
> Thanks to all who talked about it.
>
> Nick

That reflector design by Michael Erskine really works well.

I made up a free-standing variation for a PCI card antenna using the
EZ-10 template.

http://users.picknowl.com.au/~gloaming_agnet/ant1.html

I can easily detect usable signals from neighbouring houses as far as
150 meters away - without putting the antenna anywhere near a window in
my double brick wall house.

I'm not surprised at the results you achieved.

I take it you had the antennas orientated downwards towards the lower
floors?

Cheers

Rob





--

On 12 Nov 2007 21:32:55 +1050, "me here" <gloaming_agnet@hotmail.com>
wrote:

>Nick - Surrey, BC wrote:
>
>> After reading some of Jeff's posts back to 2004, I decided to try the
>> link he posted for http://www.freeantennas.com. I cut out the
>> template and glued tin foil to the back side. I then glued a laser
>> transparency to the backside of that. I took care to do it very
>> accurately.
>>
>> My house is three stories. I have a rental suite in the basement
>> (which is partially underground). My renter, Ed, is at the farthest
>> point from my wireless router. I'm top north corner and he is bottom
>> south corner. After placing the "Windsurfer" antenna on each of my
>> linksys poles, my signal went from two bars on my laptop on the second
>> floor to 5 bars. Ed phoned me around 7 tonight and asked if I'd done
>> anything to the internet. I told him about it. He says he has
>> doubled his signal strength and is getting speeds of about 8 - 9 MB/
>> second. He says there is no fluctuation in signal as he would
>> normally experience.
>>
>> This is the best 50 cent solution I've every had!
>>
>> Thanks to all who talked about it.
>>
>> Nick
>
>That reflector design by Michael Erskine really works well.
>
>I made up a free-standing variation for a PCI card antenna using the
>EZ-10 template.
>
>http://users.picknowl.com.au/~gloaming_agnet/ant1.html
>
>I can easily detect usable signals from neighbouring houses as far as
>150 meters away - without putting the antenna anywhere near a window in
>my double brick wall house.
>
>I'm not surprised at the results you achieved.
>
>I take it you had the antennas orientated downwards towards the lower
>floors?
>
>Cheers
>
>Rob

That is the strange part. I first oriented them downward but it had
little or no effect. I ran back upstairs and oriented them straight
.... ie... as I sit at my desk i can look straight at them and read
"Windsurfer" left to right. With this config, the signal downstairs
increased dramatically.

I don't understand that part.

N.

Rangefire Wireless wrote:

> On 12 Nov 2007 21:32:55 +1050, "me here" <gloaming_agnet@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Nick - Surrey, BC wrote:
> >
> >> After reading some of Jeff's posts back to 2004, I decided to try
> the >> link he posted for http://www.freeantennas.com. I cut out the
> >> template and glued tin foil to the back side. I then glued a laser
> >> transparency to the backside of that. I took care to do it very
> >> accurately.
> >>
> >> My house is three stories. I have a rental suite in the basement
> >> (which is partially underground). My renter, Ed, is at the
> farthest >> point from my wireless router. I'm top north corner and
> he is bottom >> south corner. After placing the "Windsurfer" antenna
> on each of my >> linksys poles, my signal went from two bars on my
> laptop on the second >> floor to 5 bars. Ed phoned me around 7
> tonight and asked if I'd done >> anything to the internet. I told
> him about it. He says he has >> doubled his signal strength and is
> getting speeds of about 8 - 9 MB/ >> second. He says there is no
> fluctuation in signal as he would >> normally experience.
> >>
> >> This is the best 50 cent solution I've every had!
> >>
> >> Thanks to all who talked about it.
> >>
> >> Nick
> >
> > That reflector design by Michael Erskine really works well.
> >
> > I made up a free-standing variation for a PCI card antenna using the
> > EZ-10 template.
> >
> > http://users.picknowl.com.au/~gloaming_agnet/ant1.html
> >
> > I can easily detect usable signals from neighbouring houses as far
> > as 150 meters away - without putting the antenna anywhere near a
> > window in my double brick wall house.
> >
> > I'm not surprised at the results you achieved.
> >
> > I take it you had the antennas orientated downwards towards the
> > lower floors?
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > Rob
>
> That is the strange part. I first oriented them downward but it had
> little or no effect. I ran back upstairs and oriented them straight
> ... ie... as I sit at my desk i can look straight at them and read
> "Windsurfer" left to right. With this config, the signal downstairs
> increased dramatically.
>
> I don't understand that part.
>
> N.

Seems a bit strange, unless the signal is reflecting off something else.

If you can put a similar reflector on the basement PC, Ed should see an
even bigger improvement in signal.

Cheers

Rob

--

Rangefire Wireless <rangefire@bcfirst.com> wrote:
> That is the strange part. I first oriented them downward but it had
> little or no effect. I ran back upstairs and oriented them straight
> ... ie... as I sit at my desk i can look straight at them and read
> "Windsurfer" left to right. With this config, the signal downstairs
> increased dramatically.


It might be that you are pointing down a stairwell instead of through a
floor, or something like that. Maybe out a window, although you would
probably have to be bouncing off of a neighboring building for that to work
out well.

I have run Netstumbler or a client signal strength tool on the client PC
and run VNC or Remote Desktop back to a PC near the WAP, and then adjusted
antenna positioning to see best signal.
http://www.rahul.net/dold/clarence/EZ12-windsurfer.jpg

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5