Release the Hertz!
Getting Wi-Fi all over your home
Hello Paul: I have Comcast broadband and I have a Belkin wireless router and a Netgear switch all in my home office in my basement. I have a home theater in the family room, approximately 100 feet away, that I want to run Ethernet cable to, because the signal from the basement is weak from the wireless router. Please advise.
Dear Thomas:
Lots of people want a strong Wi-Fi signal throughout their home. But depending on their home’s construction materials, the signal may not go everywhere. For example, concrete basements can be bad places to put wireless routers. Before I give you a tech/gear suggestion, remember: The best place to put a wireless router in a standard, two-story wood frame house is in the middle of the home’s middle floor. Theoretically, an unused shelf in a first-floor kitchen would be ideal.
And while I can’t tell from your question, you may be trying to run Cat-5/Ethernet cable to your home theater because you have an Ethernet-enabled device (with a Cat-5 port on the back) in your entertainment room. Example: a new Blu-ray player that does not have a wireless adapter that receives your router’s signal. Or you may simply want to put a second router or access point upstairs so you can hard-wire everything there.
So, here are four options:
1. Call an electrician. Have him or her run 100 feet of Ethernet cable to your entertainment system (either outside the walls, which is ugly, or inside the walls, which is expensive).
2. Check out this YouTube video that shows you how to spend about 35 cents (maybe less) on a do-it-yourself solution that will likely boost your Wi-Fi reception in your entertainment room but may raise the ire of the Federal Communications Commission.
3. Purchase a so-called wireless range extender, which is also known sometimes as a Wi-Fi repeater or range expander. The idea: A device receives your wireless signal from the basement and then transmits that (now-weakened) signal to the rest of the house.
4. Try a so-called power line adapter, which uses your home’s electrical circuitry to create a home-wide network. It actually works. Just plug in one of the two adapter devices next to your router, and then plug in the other one in your entertainment room. The signal from your basement will be available at the upstairs adapter. Linksys makes one of the best versions of this.
Here’s a link: http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/PLTK300
I hope that helps!
Lots of nifty ideas, but some caution should be used with these "fixes".
The power line idea may cause you more issues then you bargained for. It should be noted that the devices are unlicensed and you are liable for any issues it may cause to a licensed user. All of the wi fi frequency allocation's are used on a secondary basis to the main user(s), in other words you are sharing some one else's frequency. As a licensed Amateur Radio Operator, have used the equipment designed to work within my allocation, boosted the power level up to 5 watts and made a bridge out of it. All legal as i am licensed on that frequency.
My neighbor used the power line device, and hosed up not only his garage door opener, but my radio as well. He also caused the local air port to go nuts, $25.00 fix and lots of problems. These do wok, but used with caution as you may have more issues then before.
The best way to get coverage across a house is the location of the WLAN access point. locating an access point in the basement is the problem as each wall the signal needs to go thru can cut you range in half and then in half again etc... For most off the shelf access points that only emit 70 to 120 milliwatts of energy a small reflector (IE the you tube video referenced) or a better antennae is a good idea and the power level is so low you will not have a problem with the regulator using gains of 3 to 9 dB (don't go to an obscene four foot satellite dish reflector with 20db of gain as that could/will cause trouble). Understand a reflector has to be aimed/directed/focused in the direction you want coverage. Often getting a better access point with more power and better antennae will make a big difference in coverage. Big ugly antenna are good and have more gain, hidden antennae are bad... :)
n9kww1 is lying about ALL the unlicensed band are used on a secondary basis to a main user. Only a small potion of one of bands are used by the amateurs, not all of them. The amateurs only have a portion of the band and almost no amateurs uses it. The 2.4 GHz unlicensed band has sharing requirements that require ALL users, even the amateurs to share the band. This band was originally a wasted microwave oven band that no one wanted... if you have an amateur nearby and he mistakenly thinks he owns the band that you can't use the wlan at all- first try moving the channel thru the GUI as there are three non-interfering channels in the 2.4 GHz band in the US ch 1, 6, 11 he can't be legal in all three channels at the same time... or even better get a 5 GHz multi-band WLAN product WiFi = 802.11a/n and avoid the interference completely and often you will have the 5 GHz channel largely to yourself but the range and coverage of a 5 Ghz product may be slightly less then a 2.4 GHz 11g/n product but the throughput and experience will be better. If this doesn't work and you still can't use the band at all you can make a complaint with the FCC, if you can't use any of the band at all, his use is not legal. And if he isn't legal he is the one that is liable. Or just buy a microwave oven and cook food in it regularly until he learns to be a good sharer/neighbor.
The Expert
Get a better antenna and angle it so that the antenna points perpendicular to the direction you want the signal to go. With the multidirectional antennas, most of the signal goes out from the sides, but very little emanates from the ends. If the antenna is standing upright and it is in the basement, the basement will have great coverage, but not much signal will reach the upper floors.
Try keeping the antenna parallel to the exterior wall, but angling it 90 degree so that the side has more exposure to the upper floors.
Actually, most of the channels of 802.11b/g/n in the US do fall within the amateur radio band of 2390 MHz to 2450 MHz. The point made regarding amateur radio covering only a portion of *all* of the 802.11 frequencies is valid. And, unless something has changed of which I'm not aware, WLAN (as well as Bluetooth) is indeed a secondary user of the band, and as such, has to tolerate any legal interference from a primary user.
I don't believe the poster is correct, however, if he feels that because he is licensed in the band that he can increase the power level and not be held accountable for interference. The device is still a WLAN and is still a secondary user of the band, regardless of the fact that a licensed radio operator is using the device in a band in which he is authorized to use (for radio).
Oh, and technically, '70 to 120mW' is not an indication of 'energy'; it's power. Energy is a measure of power over time. The common units for energy in the electrical context are the
Joule and kWh. But I don't think anyone lied by stating it as such!
The suggestions on placement and antenna orientation are the most cost effective and appropriate IMO. It may also be possible to 'hack' the WAP to output higher power but that's probably not something most users should attempt. It used to be possible to do this with some wireless routers but I honestly don't know which, if any, can be done these days.
If money is not an issue then a repeater (assuming the loss of efficiency is tolerable), higher power WAP, and/or a better antenna should be considered. I generally prefer wire myself for desktops and have wired connections to 4 of my computers and the other 3 are set up as wireless.
I'm not the expert but I did spend close to a decade in undergrad and grad electrical engineering school and I too am a licensed amateur radio operator. Plus, I stay in a lot of Holiday Inn Express hotels.
In response to 0networkguy0...
Hiring an electrician to run your CAT5 cable isn't a bad idea. Electricians have the proper skills and tools to run network cabling concealed. Let me guess, your cables are either laying on the floor or taped to the wall with duct tape, right?
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