AP options to increase WiFi range
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 2:55 pm
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.
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.