How to boost a WiFi signal?

[Mutley]

Hi all,

I have a Netgear WG602 v3 Wireless Access Point, which works very well on the whole.
The problem I have with it is that the signal doesn't travel very far to be useful, and I can't move the AP.

I've seen that you can buy replacement aerials to boost the signal - is it as simple as that, or do you need to do something more than that ?

Thanks
Mut.

[dave87]

Depends if the inbuilt aerial is removable, if so it really is as simple as that

[Mutley]

I just unscrewed the aerial..so I guess its removable! ;-)

How do I know what to replace it with though? My guess is there are lots of different types of connectors.

[christt]

Depends how handy you are
or
hungry

I used passive booster aerials bought from maplin (different model but same statistics and it let me have a reliable connection 2 floors away from my AP)

[Mutley]

Cool! Tempted to give that a go,

My WAP uses the same connector as the one you link to on Maplin, so I think I'll get that instead...;-)

[Mutley]

Hey Christt, the one you pointed at from Maplin, what kind of mount does it have? The picture makes it look wall mounted - can it stand on a shelf?

[Fabula]

They usually use the same arial connectors.

I seem to have one that looks exactly the same as the one listed above from Maplins, and it works fine. but I don't remember paying £20 for it.

[Fabula]

Hey Christt, the one you pointed at from Maplin, what kind of mount does it have? The picture makes it look wall mounted - can it stand on a shelf?

Mine looks exactly the same. It can stand happily on a shelf, or could be screwed onto a wall if you felt like it. The instructions with it also said the "foot" bit could clip onto the edge of a desk, though due to the way the arial lead coems out this is actually impossible.

[Mutley]

They usually use the same arial connectors.

I seem to have one that looks exactly the same as the one listed above from Maplins, and it works fine. but I don't remember paying £20 for it.

Yeah, £20 is a bit more than I want to pay.

Any opinions on this? :
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?...=97699&doy=2m4

That would be a direct replacement for the old aerial. Would it work as well as the £20 one?

[christt]

Like I said, the maplin one is a different model from the one I got. Mine was a little clamshell shaped one with a more directional quality - but since it was being used in a desktop it did the job fine.
the one you've linked to Mutley should be just fine for your router - (be aware that there is a certain amount of directional quality even with these aerials)

I found tilting the one in the router at 45° and pointing the directional aerial in my desktop at it - made for the best connection.

i ended up with this setup because the high quality D-link PCI card I was using would not make a connection with the router with its normal aerial. Unless I took off the side of my case
got to love the voodoo computing

[adam1701]

you could alternatively get a linksys wrt54g router and upgrade it to ddwrt

[Mutley]

I've just ordered a 9db whip ("rubber duck") antenna to directly replace the existing one...EBay £9.49 including postage.