Re: Municipal wifi antenna

MTR wrote:
> 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...


I thought part of the deal on Philly's WiFi system is that you could
call up Earthlink and they would install home equipment for the very
purpose you describe at some nominal cost?
>
> 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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