airport reach

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I am putting an addition on my house, and will be moving my Mac from the cool basement, my cave, and putting it in an upstairs room. And, I am finally going to get DSL, in stead of a dial up connexion. Now, if I get me an Airport, how well does it transmit through walls, or through wood? Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question. Those are the best kind to learn something from. Or is it best used on the floor level where the phone inlet comes in?



Or would I be as well off to run ethernet cable? It would be handy to just have the wireless.



I would like to get an Apple notebook some time, and be able to use it in more than one place in the house, whether upstairs study, or downstairs living room.



Apple has this 'AirPort Extreme Base Station with power over ethernet +UL2043', or at least I saw one in a catalogue. I have not heard of this before, and I could not find it this morning on Apple's pages for the AirPort, that is, on the store pages.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    Ethernet may be faster (can be 100Mbps vs 802.11g which is 54 Mbps), but putting Airport in will make more sense if you've got portable machines.



    As for range through various materials, the max range is 150 ft, but to get good signal strength you'll usually want to stay within 50 ft. There are 3rd party antennae that will boost range closer to 300ft. Dr. Bott makes uni and omnidirectional models. You can also take advantage of 'Wireless Distribution System' to relay signals for greater range. If all else fails, there's the pringles tube.



    Apple's AirPort Support pages have some useful .pdf files on setting up or managing AirPort Extreme or designing or setting up original AirPort networks, which talk about location and limiting factors (microwaves and portable phones on the same 2.4GHz piece of spectrum can make Airport cranky).
  • Reply 2 of 12
    Thanks. Yes, the thing with ethernet is that it would have to be all over the place here, but I am thinking about it.



    I have always had PowerMacs in my computer owning existence, but I would like to get an Apple notebook.



    I noticed those Dr. Bott omnidirectional boosters on Apple's site.



    Thank you very much for the reference on Apple's site for setting up a network. I had forgotten about the 2.4 Ghz matter, I will have to make a change.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    Only one advise apply when designing an Airport network and that is to try it out in real life.



    I have a long a curved appartment. In my original setup I had the last 802.11b base station and a last generation iBook G3. It didn´t reach into my kitchen and it was only 20 feet away (albeit through some heavy walls). I then replaced the computer with the first iBook G4 with 802.11g. It got somewhat better but not perfect. Still blind spots in the kitchen. Then I got my Mac Mini along with an express base station. PERFECT connection between the Mini and the base station and no blind spots for my iBook.
  • Reply 4 of 12
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Anders

    Only one advise apply when designing an Airport network and that is to try it out in real life.



    I have a long a curved appartment. In my original setup I had the last 802.11b base station and a last generation iBook G3. It didn´t reach into my kitchen and it was only 20 feet away (albeit through some heavy walls). I then replaced the computer with the first iBook G4 with 802.11g. It got somewhat better but not perfect. Still blind spots in the kitchen. Then I got my Mac Mini along with an express base station. PERFECT connection between the Mini and the base station and no blind spots for my iBook.




    Thanks. So where have you put your Mac Mini? You have the location where the phone line comes in. Do you have DSL, or a cable connexion? Anyway, you have your Mini Mac, and whereabout have you located your base station, in relation to the mini? That is how close do you have all these items. Obviously the iBook goes where you like it to.



    How do you like your iBook G3?



    Yes, I suppose one will have to try this out. I am downloading those pdfs that curiousuburb kindly made note of, it takes several minutes to do so.
  • Reply 5 of 12
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    The mini is in line of sight, 30 feet. We have communal local network. I get 20 mbit/s to the outside of our lan on both computers (even in my kitchen) so I doubt the airport network is setting the limit.



    I´ll try to stress it later, go a few floors down. The building is from 1903 so its supporting walls are quite dense, mortar and bricks, not steel or concrete.



    If you are willing to use an antenna I would not hesitate to rely on wireless. They come in many forms from very narrow and long beam to he opposite and everything inbetween. Strangely I could not find the UL2043 model either If I were you I would perhaps start with an express base station (I am quite impressed with its range) and if that wasn´t enough I would buy the ordinary base station and use the express as an extender.



    The iBook G3 was a fine computer but as I said, the range is not as optimal as on my iBook G4. I only felt a small speed boost going G4, but they are both 800 mhz and I don´t use Altivec intensive apps so it really shouldn´t. I would not buy a used one, at least not from myself
  • Reply 6 of 12
    That is what I figured, was line of sight. There will be wood between floors, and reflective insulation, and timbers, and so I am starting to read what I can about ethernet in the days before the insulation comes in(winter is not too far from us here). I just have to wonder about it, although it is not brick and mortar.



    But the wireless is appealing.



    On that AirPort Extreme base station with power over ethernet and UL2043, I saw that in a Mac Mall catalogue, for 249$, which got my curiosity up. Thanks for the thoughts about the stations and all.



    I looked up the sku number at Mac Mall, which is 405187, and found the item. It has an ethernet WAN port, and a LAN port. It 'supports power over ethernet and UL 2043'. One may use these Dr. Bott omni or single directional external antennae.



    I have to try to understand what I am reading, as I have no experience with ethernet.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by NordicMan

    That is what I figured, was line of sight. There will be wood between floors, and reflective insulation, and timbers,



    Sounds like my building.



    I have just tried distance my iBook from the base station and its INSANE.



    I live on fourth floor. I went to sixth and first floor by the main stairs. The base station is just beside the wall to those stairs so one floor difference is 11 feet more distance to the base station, either straight up or down. No problem at all.



    Then I tried to stress it. I went down the secondary stairs (just outside the kitchen, aka the problem spot) onto first floor. No problem. I went up to our roof rooms on seventh floor. No problem. I went back and forth up there so I was placed 44 feet up, at least 60 feet to the side from the base station, three wodden floors and 3-4 brick walls in between. I even tried to hide behind an old chimney shaft. At no time did the 2mbit television stream I had going drop.



    This is soooo much better than I thought would be possible.
  • Reply 8 of 12
    progmacprogmac Posts: 1,850member
    i say run the ethernet if you can swing it. it's a fun afternoon(s) project, plus it's cheaper, more secure, and you'll be able to use the wire you install for a long time. especially if you're not using a laptop.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Anders

    Sounds like my building.



    I have just tried distance my iBook from the base station and its INSANE.



    I live on fourth floor. I went to sixth and first floor by the main stairs. The base station is just beside the wall to those stairs so one floor difference is 11 feet more distance to the base station, either straight up or down. No problem at all.



    Then I tried to stress it. I went down the secondary stairs (just outside the kitchen, aka the problem spot) onto first floor. No problem. I went up to our roof rooms on seventh floor. No problem. I went back and forth up there so I was placed 44 feet up, at least 60 feet to the side from the base station, three wodden floors and 3-4 brick walls in between. I even tried to hide behind an old chimney shaft. At no time did the 2mbit television stream I had going drop.



    This is soooo much better than I thought would be possible.




    That is a wonderful kind of thing to hear, that the connexion worked so well. I would not be nearly so far away. I wondered about this reflective insulation, the stuff that the 'space blankets' of the 1960s were made of, that have considerable heat reflecting value(like R 17 or R 19 for just a half inch, but I believe this is for directly reflected heat).



    That sounds quite promising. Thanks a lot for the note here.
  • Reply 10 of 12
    joe ojoe o Posts: 32member
    When we got our brand new iMa last week, we decided to move the computer out to the dining room to have a functioning "office nook" near where we actually live most of the time, instead of in one of the bedrooms at the other end of the house. I have a Dlink wireless router which I used to use when we had two computers hooked up via ethernet and a cable modem. We have since switched to DSL (much cheaper and fast enough for us) and got rid of her Gateway PC. The only problem with the move out to the dining room/kitchen area was that the only phone hookeup for DSL was on the wall about 15 feet from where the iMac sits.



    I remembered we had the router in a box in the closet, so I got it out, configured it, and moved it back into a spare bedroom and now through the miracle of Airport we are connected with no wires, and our connection is at maximum even though it goes through several layers of wall and is definitely not line of sight. Had I not had the router, I might have tried to run some cable, but I'm not that handy, and there is no way my wife would have allowed cords to run across the kitchen and dining room. Wireless is the best way to achieve what we needed to achieve without having to work hard at running wire or spending money having someone qualified run a new phone jack to this side of the dining room.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    regreg Posts: 832member
    Before wireless was availible I ran ethernet cables thru out my basement (unfinished at the time) and 1st floor. I still find them very useful but not as necessary as before. We have older Macs, PC's and game stations that are still connected to it but everything from the the Bondi imac till now has had an airport card and I find it to be the best item you can get with a computer. As for getting the Airport powered by ethernet I would save the $50 and go with the regular Airport Extreme . You will most likely connect a printer to it and need a power cable for that anyway.



    reg
  • Reply 12 of 12
    a@rona@ron Posts: 201member
    I've had great results with my WRT54G and then the sveasoft firmware to crank the output from 42 mw to 250 mw (max). Heck my wifi hits the parking lot when I want it to!
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