Extending Your Wireless Network With Better Antennas

When I set up my new Xbox 360, I also connected it to my existing wireless network. It's about 50 feet from my access point, with approximately 4 or 5 walls in between. I was able to get online, but barely. The signal strength indicator was at literally one bar of strength, and the signal graph was about close as you can get to no connection while still having a connection. That marginal WiFi connection was enough to get me to Xbox Live. But I also wanted to take advantage of the impressive Xbox 360 media extender functionality – to connect to my existing Vista Media Center home theater PC to listen to music or watch videos. That definitely requires a better wireless connection.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original blog entry at: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/02/extending-your-wireless-network-with-better-antennas.html

I have my WiFi router upstairs in my computer room, but my Wii (and possibly soon PS3) downstairs in the TV den. Rather than an antenna, I’m thinking I would be best off just buying a repeater and placing it somewhere in-between.

From what I can tell, you can get WiFi repeaters for ~$40, about the same price as these antennas.

Yeah, DD-WRT bridge worked for me. It was also a good excuse to buy an Airtunes airport back in the day. I’d like to go to N, but the standards need to settle first. Of course, I’d never have figured any of this out if Comcast hadn’t been so completely unhelpful in our last house: they refused to fix the cable so I could put the modem router on the third floor, so I had to hide it in the entertainment center and bridge my way up to flights of stairs. Having the router there worked out well, but no thanks to them.

I had a similar situation, but different results. What worked best for me was placing the wireless router on top of a book shelf in a more central location. This increased the signal from 2 bars to 100% signal. The extra antenna I bought was a waste of money even though it claimed +7db of signal.

Or you could sell your $90+ Xbox 360 wireless dongle on eBay, get a 50 ft. network cable for less than $10, and be done with it :slight_smile:

The room with the 360 is outside the house. Hmm, I wonder how my neighbors would feel about a network cable running out the back door, across the lawn and patio? Sheesh. Give me a credit for at least a little brainpower here, folks.

I had a similar situation, but different results.

Totally. I meant to re-emphasize this in the conclusion, and I forgot-- but it is ABSOLUTELY true that there are so many variables in wireless networking that you can’t take blanket advice. You have to try it yourself, experiment with your setup, and see what results you get. When it comes to wireless networking equipment, it might be a good idea to buy from a local store with a return policy.

All this work to keep a wireless network hobbling along? I gave up trying to make my wireless more powerful and installed network cables in my house. A few hours under the house with a long drill bit, some bulk CAT5 cable, fish tape, a crimper, a wallboard saw and I was in business. I still have wireless for my wireless devices, but no longer do I have to hope the winds of luck are blowing my way so my console can connect to it!

Jeff, you seem to be a guy willing to build stuff on your own - so bite the bullet and go wired! You’ll be much happier with wires - I sure am.

“The room with the 360 is outside the house. Hmm, I wonder how my neighbors would feel about a network cable running out the back door, across the lawn and patio? Sheesh. Give me a credit for at least a little brainpower here, folks.”

How do they feel about there being a room outside your house?

I agree with the wire-lovers on this one, Jeff. Learn how to run wiring, put an ethernet drop behind your TV, problem solved. You can even install a 2x or 4x outlet and you’ll have increased scalability. You just can’t go wrong, it’s:

-Cheaper
-More Reliable
-More Secure
-Faster
-Did I mention cheaper? You’ve just spent ~$150 on this wireless setup, when you could have gotten some cable and RJ-45 outlets for something more like $20-30.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of wireless, I love it on laptops, but for something as static as an X-Box sitting on your entertainment center, $150 and an increased wireless footprint are a little overkill. Not to mention the fact that you are enabling Microsoft’s ridiculous pricing scheme of $90 for a wireless adapter that’s worth $30.

And you call Apple computers a “dongle”…

Have you tried the ghetto version?
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template/index.html

“The room with the 360 is outside the house. Hmm, I wonder how my neighbors would feel about a network cable running out the back door, across the lawn and patio? Sheesh. Give me a credit for at least a little brainpower here, folks.”

Okay so buy some PVC and bury it 4" under the surface. For someone who just promoting DIY antennae, you seem very allergic to actual DIY. You just went out and bought a new antenn, so what was the point of even showing DIY projects?

Just want to add a little more to what lubos mentioned already. There are, depending on what part of the world you are in, limits on how much power you can radiate in any one direction as well as overall. In general in the United States you will be hard pressed to exceed this limit unless you are both running a high gain antenna and a router that allows you to adjust your power to unacceptable levels.

Apologies for the annoying units, as they’re not terribly useful if you don’t deal with them often, but I think they’re the only way to sufficiently explain what you can live with. Effective Radiated Power, or ERP refers to the power output by the radio, not regarding the effect of the antenna structure. Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power, or EIRP is the amount of power that you would have to put into an antenna with no gain in any direction in order to achieve the same effect. Power is generally measured in dBm, or decibels with respect to a reference power of 1 milliwatt, and gain of antennas as dBi, or decibels with respect to a reference antenna with no gain in any direction. Within the context of this discussion they can be added, but a real treatment of the subject is a moderately scary wall of text.

In North America you are limited to 30 dBm ERP with a maximum of 6 dBi antenna gain, for an EIRP value of 36 dBm. If the combination of output power and antenna gain in your system exceeds 36 dBm you are required to reduce radiated power to compensate. In Europe I believe (but am far from an authoritative source) your maximum EIRP value is 20 dBm, which is vastly weaker, and easy to exceed. I don’t know what the ERP value is, but I would assume that equipment purchased there complies.

One solution that is not presented, and is of less use in Jeff’s situation is that of a highly directional antenna on a ‘problem device’ such as the Xbox, because presumably other devices in the house don’t have this problem. Directional antennas work both way, and will help you hear a distant transmitter more clearly, however you will be transmitting, so you will still have to pay attention to the output of the end device. Additionally these devices are less likely to have an antenna that you can replace, as well as have fine grained control over the power output of the radio.

I updated the original post-- in red-- in a futile attempt to stem the raging tide of “ya big dummy! run wires!” comments.

Believe me, I love wires as much as the next bandwidth-loving nerd. It’s also why I think owning a router without Gigabit is a serious waste of money. 100 megabit wired connections? Really? That’s all you got? What year is it again?

To be clear, the room containing the 360 is physically outside the house, which makes wireless mandatory.

Okay so buy some PVC and bury it 4" under the surface … you seem very allergic to actual DIY

I think there’s a teeny bit of difference between building a cantenna and, uh, burying 15 feet of PVC 4" under the surface of a concrete patio.

I know it’s been mentioned by others, but also I’ve had success with installing third-party firmware, and increasing the power output. I actually have 2 wireless routers, functioning as a bridge between 2 parts of the house. All the devices (computers, xbox) plug into the wired ports on the routers.

I think there’s a teeny bit of difference between building a cantenna and, uh, burying 15 feet of PVC 4" under the surface of a concrete patio.

But you have to admit making a TBM and excavating a tunnel for your cables would be an impressive DIY project :wink:

The “waveguide cantenna” link is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while.

However, the proper way to do this is to wire the house and all out-buildings with cable and/or fiber.

Haha, I feel your pain Jeff. I am a support engineer, and I know what it feels like for people to ignore what you tell them, and prove how much more “intelligent” they are than you.

Folks, read what the man says before you make a fool of yourself. Details, in the real world, do count…

And thanks for the insightful topic Jeff!

Have you considered powerline networking? Like the netgear HDXB111?

Okay so buy some PVC and bury it 4" under the surface … you seem very allergic to actual DIY

I think there’s a teeny bit of difference between building a cantenna and, uh, burying 15 feet of PVC 4" under the surface of a concrete patio.

Only 15 feet huh ? (Which, if I’m guessing correctly is 5 meters.) I actually have a CAT5 cable running zigzagged through our yard for some 40~42 meters in a PVC. It took me only a day to plac that cable 30~35 cm deep, which included opening two stretches of paving. Granted, though, I didn’t do it alone, I had my father’s help, not to mention the pavement wasn’t solid concrete.

Either way, I must admit the pure technical and intellectual challenge of setting up a wireless network is much more enjoyable and exciting than digging up dirt and dumping a cable in it.

Hey Now Jeff,
Gotta love those pringles. They sure do get stuck in my teeth.
Davo
Coding Horror Fan