Airport Extreme + AP/repeater

[jonnySkyman]

Hi all,

i currently have a 12" powerbook with an AEBS. I would like to extend the range of my network so i can surf in the garden.
My base station does not have an external antenna port so i was thinking of adding some kind of repeater or access point on the edge of my current range to boost it further.

Can anyone tell me how i do this and recommend some kit that will work with the base station. Cheap as poss please

Many thanks in advance

jon

 

[varmit]

things you could do

Hi all,

i currently have a 12" powerbook with an AEBS. I would like to extend the range of my network so i can surf in the garden.
My base station does not have an external antenna port so i was thinking of adding some kind of repeater or access point on the edge of my current range to boost it further.

Can anyone tell me how i do this and recommend some kit that will work with the base station. Cheap as poss please

Many thanks in advance

jon

You could crack your Base Station open, and there is just a cisco wireless card inside, just unplug the regular antenna and put on a bigger one. But this requires you to open the Base Station and void its warrenty, unless you can put it back together to make it look like it wasn't opened. Might want to google this idea.

Repeater is good if you just need a little more distance. But look into moving your base station first before doing anything. Is there a spot that you can put it that would give better coverage or is your garden far away from the house. Might want to tell us distance you need to go, from house to garden, and base station to garden.

one peace of hardware.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...ductCategoryId=pcmcat25300050001&type=product

 

[jonnySkyman]

thanks for the reply,

Moving the base station is not really an option and the kit you listed only seems to work with the D-link routers and i didn't want to go to all that expense

Surely i cant be alone in this quest?

 

[mactastic]

I heard there's a kit where you put a very small hole in your base station and you can attach an antenna to the base stations with no antenna port.

You could also buy another base station. If you buy another AEBS I know you can wirelessly bridge them, meaning you only need power to the second base station if it's within range of the first. If you buy a cheaper wireless router you can run an ethernet cable to it and let it send out it's own signal. With a different brand router I'm not sure if you can wirelessly bridge. I suspect you can, but I don't know for sure.

If you do this, please report back. I'm trying to decide if I want to get an antenna or another base station for my house. I'm leaning to the antenna at this point (I have the AEBS with the antenna port) but I'm still undecided. Another AEBS would be nice, but oh so expensive. I'd consider the D-Link/Netgear add-on as a solution if I knew it would play nice with my AEBS.

 

[Celeron]

I know this isn't much of an option at this point, but if you pick up a Linksys WRT54G, you can flash its firmware with one of the many open source projects which allow you to adjust the output strength thereby increasing the range of your signal.