bandworthy

Ok for a few months now me and friend who lives just across the street have wondered if we can network our pc's using Wifi, the distance is roughly about 45 m (from pc to pc), my pc is on the close side of the house his is towards the middle of the house. We bought 2 Netgear MA101 USB adapters. I have 2 pc's we tested them here and worked perfectly 100% signal browsed files. But across the street it seems the signal is just too weak.
Unfortuniatly my friend has a fairly inbuilt setup on his system and can not move to a closer room although i'm not sure if that would help. So obviously we need to extend the range of our signal. What exactly could we use to do this?. One question is that we are tech within range to get 11mps but we can not even get 1mbps (he can sometimes see me ) which according to the specs is easily in that range even if it was in an office. But this network is "Ad-hoc" no Access Point do AP's make a difference? and are those ranges WITH AP?.

MaryJ

You could try to put up an out side antenna which connects to your usb adapter that's if you have connection for one. Have a look at this http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/weblog/view/wlg/448 and http://www.wireless.org.au/~jhecker/ for tips on antenna design,:happy:

bandworthy

Unfortunately this seems to be for ppl using pci or laptop cards, since the MA 101 is a usb device with an inbuilt aerial i can not plug any kind of external aerial into it. This means i may need another device to boost the signal such as a repeater although i have no clue where i can get one, this is why i am hoping a AP (Access Point) may give better signal but before i spend the money on it i'd like to know if someone can confirm a infrustracture setup has more range then an AD-HOC setup.

lmi91

Stick it in a pringles can

bandworthy

Does a access point give better signal (twitch twitch)

RabidPenguin

Yes

Also would be better off getting 'real" wirless NIC's. USB is not meant for networking.

Sazar

yes it does... but note that the STATED range is not always accurate... by a long shot

we have a D-link (has higher theoretical bandwidth @ 22mbps compared to 11mbps for most other companies) wifi setup @ our house and my m8's computer is only around 15 meters from my room (where the router is) and he had a hard time seeing the network initially...

if he setup an access point it may perhaps make receiving and relaying the signal easier and therefore he would be 'always on'

access points are relatively cheap @ the mo... some routers have built in access points... might be a decent investment if more devices are to be added... else a regular access point should do...

---

bandworthy

Ok we went out and got a AP and it makes the difference we can now transfer files at full speed no prob. I'll no doubt have other questions soon!! , HA! not for building to building indeed netgear support!! HA!!!