How well does wi-fi work at home??? [Archive]

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oregon_pda

11-20-2002, 11:37 PM

I am purchasing a pocket pc, and would like to be able to use it wirelessly within our 1800 sq ft. house. The base station for the wireless lan is on the first floor, and my bedroom and office are on the second floor. It is an early 1900s craftsman house, so the walls may be a bit "thicker" than a newer house.

My questions: Is the wi-fi used in the cf cards strong enough to receive data upstairs? Any cf wi-fi cards that are better/worse? What about the built in wi-fi in the Toshiba e740?

Thanks for any help in this regard!!

Steven Cedrone

11-21-2002, 12:17 AM

Can't vouch for how well it will work in a home from that era...

I have a D-Link DI-614 WAP and I use a Symbol wireless networker CF card. I have no problems getting online from anywhere in my home (my WAP is up in the bedroom, at the far corner of the house) - my only problem is that according to the Symbol software, all I am getting is 1Mb/s (Note: this only drops to 1Mb/s when I actually initiate a ping test - if I don't do the test it reports that I am running at 11Mb/s). It must have something to do with either a)the card itself, b)the software. The reason being: I also have a PC in my kitchen that has a D-Link DWL-650 and it reports a solid 11 Mb/s connection and the strength varies from good to very good.

One other note: My current Pocket PC is a Jornada 548, there is a newer version of the Symbol software available for the Pocket PC 2002 devices...

HTH,

Steve

don dre

11-21-2002, 02:49 AM

I live in a 1200 sq ft apt. and get excellent coverage everywhere. I have a D-Link router and it couldn;t have been easier to use. Also a D-link cf card which I don;t recomend, to old and eats too much juice. I am most tempted by the new ipaq as the battery can be upgraded. Also, the toshiba seems to me too early out of the gate and i really like the degree to which hp incorporated these functions in the software. Personally, I would go with the D-Link 614+ Air Plus. I've seen these access points for as little as $100 and they are releasing a firmware upgrade in Dec. that doubles its real world throughput to 12 MBps which is excellent. Can even do video streaming I'd imagine. Also, the plus claims to have extended range which would be good for your case just to be sure. AS far as CF, I've heard good things about the Socket as well.

szamot

11-21-2002, 02:56 AM

I have a Cisco Aironet 350 running at work. It is chateau style stone and steal building. I also use Cisco and Compaq cards. Granted Aironet gives you 1000 foot range and I get just that going out and around. I also can get the singal to the basement and the second floor which is about 60 feet or so top to bottom, a far cry from 1000 feet but the wall are 3 feet thick. I would suspect that you will not have a problem using it at home even if you don't go with Cisco. Worse case scenerio take it back to the store and tell them it did not work. But whatever you do lock the damn thing up, so no one can leech.

PhatCohiba

11-21-2002, 03:25 AM

I have the linksys router and the socket wifi. Works great around the house. my house is about 3000 sqft, my access point is in the basement corner and it works in around 85% of the house.

It works better then the Linksys card that I also have.

johncj

11-21-2002, 05:06 AM

I have a Toshiba e740. I use Windows XP to bridge between a wireless card and my wired network. I have a 4000 square ft. house and the XP machine is in my first floor office with the antenna pointing out towards the front yard. I get a decent link anywhere in the house (although it drops to 1-2 Mbps upstairs and at the back corner of the house). I can even get a link out by the pool in the back yard. I don't think you will have any problems unless you have a lot of metal or stone work in the interior of your house. One problem I've seen is people who have aluminum-backed insulation in the interior of the house (pretty unusual, I think). The more open your floorplan, the better your reception.

MikeUnwired

11-21-2002, 08:51 AM

In my humble 2700 sq foot house my Linksys access point and all the CF & PC cards I've tried work great. I get connectivity anywhere on my property -- which is about 1/2 acre.

You're going to have less metal to deal with than most modern construction. Of course, the lead-based paint that has to be on your walls may have a shielding effect, but I doubt it will make a big difference.

Don't be afraid to place your access point in a more central location in your home. It doesn't have to be right next to a desktop computer to work. Mine is in the rafters of my laundry room with the router and cable modem. I thought it would be best to get it as high in the basement as possible for signal strength to the yard and deck area on the upper level.

Also, this may be obvious, but you have to play with the antennas on the access point or HUB to get the best signal. The wireless CF card is a great mobile tool for fine tuning that antenna placement as you can run to a corner of the house, and test the connection easily. Make sure you keep the equipment as far as you can from your microwave when running -- it will dampen your signal. Also, some 2.4 Gighrtz cordless phones can interfere as that's the same frequency as your 802.11b LAN.

Boingo.COM has new software for PPC for discovering open 802.11 connections in your area. You may want to pop that in your unit and test your home with your access point off because it could interfere with your signal potentially.

BTW, TechTV.COM has plans on their web site for building a directional antenna out of a coffee can that will boost the signal and send it up to 5 miles! Cluster them and who knows what you might have -- heck, you might even be able to cook an egg with the waves :D

FredMurphy

11-21-2002, 11:42 AM

I'm using Wi-Fi in a sturdily built house in the UK. Seems to have no problem with two floor and a few walls to cover the whole house and a couple of my neighbours too.

PhatCohiba

11-21-2002, 02:58 PM

Coffee Can links.

If you want to use your own directional antennas make sure you get cards and an Access Point that support external antenna. Read this for more info. http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/has.html.

Most cards and access points do not have connections for external antenna. If my memory serves me correctly, only Linksys, and Cisco support connections directly on the accesspoints.

On the cards though, The Socket is considered the highest quality CF card around. If you want to WarChalk or Drive with the pocket pc, then you need one that works with http://www.netstumbler.com.

Steven Cedrone

11-21-2002, 05:34 PM

Jorj Bauer

11-21-2002, 11:08 PM

Coffee Can links.

I've done quite a bit of antenna experimentation. As long as you know where the antenna actually is (on either the access point or the client card), the best bang for your buck (and time spent to construct) is a corner reflector antenna. They're trivial to make, really.

Buy some duct sheet metal at your local Home Depot (or suitable DIY) store. Use tin snips to cut out a rectangle that's 5.9" tall by 11.8" wide. Bend it in the middle so that you wind up with two 5.9" squares which are perpendicular to eachother. Place the corner reflector around the antenna (so that the antenna is between the two squares of metal). Really, really cheap directional 10dB gain.