AP options to increase WiFi range

[FireFox]

Okay so I’ve been up and down this road of “upgrading” my WiFi/AP at home for a while besides the fact no one can tell me with any guarantee how to achieve a 500 meter plus WiFi connection with only a strong transmitter and standard onboard WiFi in my Laptop/Slate as I know I was able to do this on a open network that was here in town once but since have been terminated but instead of focusing on that I’ll rather now focus on just eliminating all the deadspot in my setup.

BTW this is a double whammy as I also need to increase the range of our office wifi so I might wind up talking about two ap’s in this topic.

Anyways here is the crunch of my question. I’m looking at a couple of D-link products that might fit the bill. Things I’m keeping in mind:

The office only require a range increase
At present none of our/my devices are 5gHz capable
The fastest wifi adapter in the setup is a N band @ 150
I’m looking for an AP to replace my routers weak 2bdi wifi (G)
There will be G & N devices connected at the same time (am I right to say that this will mean the whole of the wifi will be dropped to G speed in any event?)

I’m not looking for a repeater as we have one already and it barely does the job as we still have deadspot in the building, keeping in mind the problem areas are where the signal have to breach at least 3 brick walls and the other one is the floor below at the furthers point. The other part of the problem is that the router isn’t at the center of the building and moving it is not really an option, I’d rather get an AP on the lan and place it in the center and disable the router wifi all together. Further more some of the mobile devices are limited to single AP for automatic functions and using a repeater creates a second AP with a different name which leaves the mobile devices with these limits disconnected in half of the building thus one on the reason I'm looking to setup a single strong AP.

Options:
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=DAP-2553
ftp://ftp10.dlink.com/pdfs/products/DAP ... 590_ds.pdf
http://global.dlink.com.sg/site_pdtpdfs ... 220_ds.pdf

I was also considering the 3520 but to be honest I think that might be a waste of money considering the above.

What would help is if someone could explain the following:
The 2553 spec sheet give the following
3dbi antenna
18 dbm max transmit power
Maximum Effective power 25.7 dbm
The 2590 on the other hand
4dbi antenna
15 dbm max transmit power2
Maximum Effective power 23.7 dbm
Then there is the 3220
9dbi antenna
17 dbm max transmit power

From what I’ve gather is that the above values will determine the power of the wifi using these calculators
http://huizen.deds.nl/~pa0hoo/helix_wif ... tcalc.html
http://www.wifinerd.com/wifi-calculators.html#EIRP

Now on face value it would seem that the 2553 or the 3220 is the more powerful option to achieve better range. Also with the mutli antenna AP’s are the dbi referring to a single antenna’s dbi or the combined total? I would guess it is the single antenna’s dbi. So I guess it kind of boils down to the following questions in respect of the office, will I gain the advantage of the N band at present going with the 2553 or will the difference in speed be negligible between the 2553 and 3220 as the slates are limited to 150 in any event or mixing bands will mean the wifi drops to the lowest common denominator? Of course price should also be considered. If they are both nearly the same price going with the 2553 might be the better future proof option.

For my home setup the situation is a bit trickier seeing that I want to establish a directional 500 meter link. This was why I was looking at the 3520 but spending that amount of money and ending up with a setup that won’t do that but only extent the range for twice the price as what the 2553 cost make no sense. This is why I’m now considering the 2553 and maybe just getting a 12dbi directional antenna and replace one if the standard stock antennas with it. This should still extent my current range and maybe give the 500 meter link at a considerable lower risk of wasting a lot of money as the antenna is far less than what the other AP cost and if it does not work at least the 2553 should be sufficient to cover the whole home and only set me back half the cash that a 3520 would cost that might end up doing exactly what the 2553 will do.

I hope this all makes sense to you all and like always I’d appreciate all your inputs on this if I’m missing something. Thanks in advance.

[Krom]

To be perfectly honest, 500 meters (even a 250 meter radius) on WiFi isn't happening. Just because you managed to pick up a signal once doesn't mean the atmospheric conditions will always get it through if you just find the right transmitter. Perfect line of sight with a couple huge directional antennas might do it, but carting around a 1 meter dish antenna with you would defeat the purpose of WiFi.

Also note, 2.4 GHz signals will go further than 5 GHz signals (universal law of signals, higher frequency = lower range).

[FireFox]

Yes I do realise from al my previous questions around the 500 meter setup the changes of me achieving it is basicly none. (and that the one I did achieve has many unknown factors that I'm not aware of that make duplicating it impossible) Hench why I said I'd rather start focusing on expanding my wifi's current range to eliminate the deadspot. Having the option to experiment with the 500 meter setup at low cost later on will be a bonus if I can get a AP that will allow me to do it but again it's not my primary focus anymore and like you rightly said Krom I'm not gonna cart around a 1 meter dish with me just to achieve the link.

So the goal here really is that I need to expand the current range of both my home and office wifi to at least double its current range and to eliminate all the deadspots with a single broadcasted SSID.

Any opinions on the products I mentioned will be appreciated.

[Thenior]

Look at EnGenius products too - they have some wicked range.

[Krom]

Is there a wired network available to use in the building? Or a crawl space or conduits where you could run a few wires?

[FireFox]

Yes there is a wired network and the majority of the PC's are on the wired network except for the few mobile devices and the slates that can't be connected to a wired network as they are wifi only. I was think down the line of an AP with POE so that I can just lay 1 lan cable to the centre of the building and set it up there with a POE to power it.

As for EnGenius products I can look into them but the little issue with them is suppliers. My normal hardware suppliers don't have those listed on their pricelist and the other option would be to get them elsewhere online but then shipping comes into play as well as the hassle with returning them if something were to break. Also remember I'm not in the states so I need to look at what I can source locally and so far not many local stores stock the EnGenius products that I could find.

[Krom]

Ok, here is what you probably want to do: Get a bunch of wireless access point only devices (they don't need router/NAT/DHCP features at all), plug them into your wired network around the blind spots (spaced evenly) and assign each one the exact same SSID and network key as your router, obviously using the same encryption method (WPA2 recommended). They should all automatically pick different channels, but just in case keep in mind the only channels that don't overlap or interfere with other channels are 1, 6 and 11. You want them to be on different channels than the other APs adjacent to them.

Remember, an access point is not a range extender, range extenders are wireless only and simply rebroadcast packets they receive from another device. A true access point simply provides wireless access in to a wired network (The DHCP and NAT are all provided by your router alone). And WiFi devices will automatically "roam" to different APs if they find the signal is better than the one they are currently on. Note that it only works if you give them ALL the same SSID, encryption and key, as far as the wireless devices are concerned they are all the same network just on a different channel.

Note: You can turn most routers into access points by disabling their DHCP server and NAT functions (in some brands its known as bridge mode).

[FireFox]

Another quick question a bit of the topic but PoE?

I understand the concept but if a unit is PoE capable you will still need a converter in the lan cable to supply the power unless your switch can provide it natively or am I off the mark here. Basicly what I'm after is if the unit states it is PoE capable but its shipped with no such converter and your network device does not support such an output you will need to pick up a converter at extra cost to power the unit using PoE?

[Krom]

Correct, the power either needs to come from a supporting switch or from an inline adapter device that injects it in the middle of the cable. The main advantage being one can put the power source almost anywhere on the LAN cable run.