Wireless or Wi-Fi Booster... (More IS NOT better)

Judas · Dec 17, 2007, 01:43 AM

I've been thoroughly experimenting with this..

i've got your tri-attenna booster, your Omni boost, your direction booster..

i've got your 10+db, your 19+db boosters..

i've got just about every conceiveable booster, even some that you mount outside of the house..

The truth is.

One booster, one attena on your client machine is about all that is going to help, the other booster tend to have NO effect at all.

Top this off with..

Single/Dual/Triple attenna (or capable) pci cards ranging from the orginal 802.11a/b/g/n specs that i'm familare with anyways....

I've got your wireless routers running from netgear to dlink to linksys (which is the poorest of them all oddly enough), airlink (which uses Ralink technology)... some with triple/dual/single attenna capabilities....

What i've learnt:

A single attenna capable PCI card using a 19+db omni directional booster combined with a router with a triple attenna OR using a single booster (19+db omni direction as well), nets you the best connection... plain and simple...

All the other crap is just blown money for NO improvement at all, not even a few inches..... not even going through other things.. even a direction booster doesn't help aside from perhaps limiting other being able to "possibly" connect to you (directional is limited to a specific degree of transmittion and probably best to use on a router and highly recommended NOT to be used on the client)

Nope,

I've used boosters in cases with old building and wireing, lath and plaster, steel walls, cement walls, dirt, grass, snow trees, through cars and well etc. , long and short distances.......The list is quite long.... and i've been doing this over the past year.

Here my suggesiton:

If you buying a wireless router, BUY ONE WITH a detachable attenna so that you can attach a booster (they are like mini coax cable connections)

And if your going to get a booster, try and get the BIGGEST +db rated OMNI Directional one if you can, enless of course your concerned about privacy, in which case, get a directional one and try and focus to where you'll be parked permanently.

Lastly, If your getting a PCI wireless card, as far as i'm aware, 90% of which come with the detachable attenna.... DEFINITELY get a omni direction highest +db rated booster....

Don't blow your money on fruitless things.

And lastly, if neither work, don't bother fretting about it, just break down and drill the holes nessary for a solid wired connection

Hopefully i can save alot of people some headaches.....

Al_Vampyre · Dec 17, 2007, 04:24 PM

Sounds like good advice, I've been looking into this recently as my WiFi in the house is crap and I can't work out why...

kris23 · Dec 17, 2007, 04:43 PM

where does one buy 19Db omini-diirectional antennas that dont cost several hundred dollars apiece?

Erroneus · Dec 17, 2007, 07:21 PM

What about those free "boosters" you can print out and put on your antennas, they should actually be pretty good.

Tril · Dec 17, 2007, 08:12 PM

What about getting a router like the WRT54G and install another firmware like DD-WRT. It gives you access to an option to inscrease the power of the antenna. There's a range of 0 to 251 mW (although I think it's not recommended to go to 251 mW). The default is 28 mW.

I'm saying this because I have one with this firmware and always used the default power so far and it's fine for all the house.

Judas · Dec 17, 2007, 08:37 PM

I've tried hacks to boost power output of attenna... trust me.... it's not a good idea.... it may work for awhile.. but your putting your trust in the mechanics of a electronic device that may or may not survive very long.. it's essentially a method of overclocking.. warranty is void..... and i've had something fail within a few weeks when i did this.

10-19+db boosters aren't all that much.... it only starts getting EXTREMELY expensive when you start getting into the bigger larger transmitters that go outside, and they typically only solve a single one of dozens of problems...

IF you NEED a solid system, your looking at about $400-600 worth of equipment to guarantee much better quality signal/shooting distances..... that go on the outside

At which point it becomes completely worthless as i myself, can get a wireless internet directly piped into my house for several times LESS then that....

Nope, get a nice cheap 10 or 19+db inside omni direction booster and stick with the wireless A/B/G standards, wireless N adapters while backwards capable... have shown me some pretty piss poor results in a number of cases.