Wireless Network Antenna
posted by Dave @ 9:34 AM
2 comments
Long live the Life After 208 revival!
A question for Dan and Joe this time:
I've got this terrible wireless network at home that's annoying as h due to a mysterious forcefield in my bathroom that won't allow wireless signals to pass through. Because of that I'm using a repeater station to bounce a signal around the bathroom to Maria's computer. That little signal repeater has thwarted every attempt I've made to secure my network via password, so I've locked it down through MAC address and limiting the number of IPs the DHCP server will give out. That works fine most of the time, but when I want to use another device for a while, or a friend brings over a laptop or whatever, I have to go change settings on my router to serve up an IP. So I'd like to just lock things down with a password and get rid of that headache.
What I think would really fix this is some sort of antenna extension for Maria's wireless card (it's a PCI card with the screw-in antenna sticking out the back). If I could just get a cable that would let me mount the cable around the corner so it had a clear path to the wireless router I think we'd be set. Can I get some sort of cable that'll connect the antenna to the PCI card, allowing me to mount it remotely?
Labels: heart break
2 Comments:
I think antennas are pretty cheap but you have to get the right connector for your card. You'll probably need a google search. This might also help out if the antenna is better quality then the current one too.
Although When my roommate's computer couldn't get a signal (combination of a bad signal and a cheap card) I got a Linksys router and put a hacked firmware on it to make it work like a wireless bridge. I was able to put the router on one end of the room where we could get signal and run an either net cable from the computer to the router. This was a little bit of work though - but I got it going.
You could go down to radio shack and see if they have a generic cable that will extend the signal. Antennas (antenni?) are just glorified wires so as long as the connector fits tight on both ends you'd be good to go. As ridiculous as it sounds, you could buy a 1000' network cable and just wrap it all around the baseboard so it's out of the way. It's still always nicer to be wired if you can. I used to have one of those Linksys routers too that you can put Linux on, they're really cool to play with and have a great signal if you go that route.
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