Re: Municipal wifi antenna

You could more than likely get a usable signal with a directional antenna.
15 db to 24db increase, but low loss high frequency cable is very
expensive.and you would need some sort of adaptor to your wireless card.
Ron
"MTR" <MTR.2xvxil@no-mx.wirelessforums.org> wrote in message
news:MTR.2xvxil@no-mx.wirelessforums.org...
>
> Philadelphia's new municipal wifi network kind of sucks, but I'm trying
> to give it a shot. I'm about 450 feet down the street from a lightpole
> antenna for the network. There are leafy trees all down the street. When
> I hang my wireless router out my 2nd floor apartment window (WRT54G with
> dd-wrt) it can just pick up the signal, but weakly and intermittently.
> DD-wrt reports signal strength no better than about -72, and it changes
> constantly. So I'm trying to figure out...
>
> 1. What kind of antenna should I use outside the window, or better yet,
> through the window? My WRT54G stock omni antennas with handmade
> reflectors barely pick up the signal. I tried using a prefab "Deluxe
> Cantenna" and it didn't help. I'm thinking that, because I'm trying to
> get signal around the trees, a directional antenna isn't the solution.
> From eBay I got really tall, supposed 9dbi replacement antennas for the
> WRT54G, and put on the reflectors, but that didn't have much effect
> either. I'm looking for a cost-effective solution - perhaps one of those
> Hawking corner antennas, to grab a focused swath of signal?
>
> 2. An alternative is to go on the 3rd-floor roof rather than through
> the window. I'm not sure yet if I have roof access, but if I do I'm
> thinking a directional antenna might help because it'd be above the
> trees. So then there's the cabling issue. To keep the antenna cabling
> short, I guess I'd have to put my router on the roof as well (in a
> sealed plastic box?) and then run an ethernet cable down the outside
> wall and through a window. That would mean leaving a router on the roof,
> and a window slightly ajar, through an east coast winter. And providing
> power to the router! (Argh.) I don't think a USB-wifi-stick antenna will
> work - I want to run my home network (a couple desktop computers and
> Vonage) off the line, using an ethernet-fed second router. What's the
> right way to set it all up?
>
> Thanks for your thoughts!
>
>
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