[plug] home cat5 issues

[Gregory Orange]

Craig Foster wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: plug-bounces at plug.org.au [mailto:plug-bounces at plug.org.au] On
>> Behalf Of Paul Antoine
>> Sent: Thursday, 20 March 2008 5:39 PM
>> To: plug at plug.org.au
>> Subject: Re: [plug] home cat5 issues
>>
>> I'm a fan of larger antennae for poorly performing wireless links... I
>> always try to buy an AP with replaceable antennae. Marvellous what a
>> difference a 7dbi antenna can make!! (And no, more power on the AP
>> doesn't help.)
>>
>> P.
> 
> For cheap home sites,
> http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html and a
> (semi-)flattened pringles do two things:-
> 1) kills the signal *behind* the AP meaning it doesn't extend equally
> over next door :)
> 2) directs the signal towards your other wireless AP and/or laptops.
> Over two floors, don't forget to tilt the antennas :P
> 
> 7dB antennas are at least $60 each, so it's not the cheapest option.
> 
> IIRC Matt Kemner was a member of www.e3.com.au, so he should be a good
> source of info should you want to do longer distance wireless.

Ah good, a source of experts. I suppose I should have asked here long 
ago. Anyway, I've been vaguely asking around at computer and electronics 
shops for ages, never got any confident advice so never did anything.

Fairly straightforward requirement: I'd like longer coverage from my AP. 
It's a D-Link DI524 (from memory... I think that's right). Replacing its 
regular-length antenna with a longer one (came with another wifi card 
I've got) gave me small improvement but not nearly enough. I see 
Altronics has:
http://www.altronics.com.au/index.asp?area=item&id=S9719
http://www.altronics.com.au/index.asp?area=item&id=S9722 (hmm, looks 
like my longer one)
http://www.altronics.com.au/index.asp?area=item&id=S9725
http://www.altronics.com.au/index.asp?area=item&id=S9730
http://www.altronics.com.au/index.asp?area=item&id=S9739 (yikes)

I'll attempt a description of the layout. Two houses on one property, 
front and back. It slopes from the front house, fairly gently downhill 
(where the AP lives) to the back. Currently I get zero coverage inside 
the back house, and poor signal in between the two.

My question: Can someone advise me what to buy and who to buy from? I've 
heard e3 might be a good place to go. The boards there aren't super 
active so I thought I'd start here - especially while we're talking 
about it (: I suppose e3 people might be active, just not using the boards.

Cheers,
Greg.