Extenders for Access Points

[cheweric]

Has anyone unscrewed the antenna from their AP, used splitters/amplifiers and coax cable to place multiple antennas throughout their offices/homes? Is this a viable solutions or am I totally out of my mind? Otherwise, how hard is it to set up repeaters to extend my wireless capabilities? Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

[ua549]

Use multiple access points.

[cheweric]

How does using multiple access points work? Do they need to be connected via a cat5 cable to my hub/switch? Or can they work standalone as extenders/repeaters from the central access point? Sorry for the novice questions.

[MoleStrangler]

Think of installing multiple Access Points as creating a very small cellular network. They all need to be connected to a network that can see your hosts.

Splitters are a bad idea, they create too much signal loss in the splitter and the extension cables. I know that you can purchase very low loss cable. But in my experiance it just creates problems.

You have to careful when thinking about installing amplifiers on the antenna. You do not say where you are in the world but you have to make sure it is legal. Also can you bost the antenna on the client for the return trip of the transmission, I do not think so. You will always be limited by the power products in the client.

Yes I know that the AP is tweated on the receive side to be more sensitive so it can hear the client. But that also increases the signal to noise ratio and can only be pushed so far.

More important, these things use the same frequency as a microware oven.

You have to check with your supplier to see if the AP supports repeating (we call it wireless repeating). This has to be a function of the manufactures AP as it is not in the 802.11 standard (I think). This also means that repeating to another manufactures AP is not likley to work.

Unless you are experianced in this then I would just add more APs to extend your wireless network.