802.11 question...

cyko95

Can anyone tell me if there is a signal range improvment with 802.11g over b? Basically my boss/friend wants to share a broadband connection with about 3 computers at his new home, but #1 it's a big house and #2 one of the systems is going to be outside of the main house in another garage/guest house. I took my Linksys Router out there a couple days ago, and I could get a signal everywhere I walked on my Powerbook, but i'm not sure if the signal was enough to carry data well enough. And I won't know this until his broadband gets hooked up later this week. Meanwhile, i'm trying to give him a budget for all the wireless gear that i'll need. So i'm trying to decide it g will be worth the price if it offers a more powerful signal.



On a related note, if g won't offer what we're looking for, can anyone recommend a signal booster for the 802.11b?



Thanks in advance.

alexander wilson

Yes, I've found signicant improvement over both distance and signal strength since getting an Extreme base station, even while all our computers have non-Extreme Airport cards (b rather than g). In addition, Dr. Botts also has two antennas that can be plugged into the Airport Extreme base stations, and a second AE base station can be added to work as a "repeater" to really increase the range.



Alex.

paul

buying 2 AE base stations and bridging the signal across them is exactly what you need in this situation...



it is the best, cheapest (probably, in terms of time anyway), and easiest way to ensure a good signal wherever he needs it and can be easily upgraded in the future if he wants more range...



http://www.apple.com/airport/campus.html

towel

D-Link (and I assume the other usual suspects) sells an inexpensive wireless repeater device for exactly that sort of situation. When I bought one last year it ran about $80 bucks, so these days it may be cheaper to just buy a second router. But the setup was easy, it's tiny, and it worked.