Boosting ISP Wireless Signal
Internet access in my country is less than acceptable. I currently use a wireless connection that is the pits. Recently I was searching for ways to see if I could boost the receiving signal from my location, but I only got info about people trying to boost their wifi or hub connections until I came across this:
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Skipping over the antique infrastructure of Cable and Wireless, was required to provide fast internet to business. There were 2 wireless providers that could supply a 1,028 Down / 256K Up connection wirelessly, although at a very high cost! The problem was that I was out of range of the service by 3 miles and was 7 miles from the base station. I am not one to accept no for an answer, so I worked with the provider to attempt to extend the range of the service via hardware. Here is what we did: 1. Add large directional antenna to boost signal reception. This worked really well as we were just able to get the equipment to receive a faint signal. We also worked to get a clear parabolic line of site or wireless line of site that was clear of obstruction. We mounted the antenna on the house and once it was mounted, we optimized the antenna until we got a connection with few dropped packets. At the end of this stage we were running 14K, not exactly high speed. 2. Add an external amplifier to the antenna cable. This worked like magic as once it was installed we were operating at 73K without any adjustments. 3. Add silicone to all antenna connections. This was a practical item but it improved signal quality by 10-15% overall. It is amazing how much of the signal is lost in cable transmission. 4. Tune the radio signal via the radio receiver. We worked to optimize the radio settings to achieve a very reliable connection rate. These settings included boosting the radio output and optimizing for packet loss. At this point we were at 143K over 7 Miles, two way. 5. Boost the source antenna range by adding an amplifier. This was by far the most expensive part of the process as the carrier equipment is much more expensive than the end user gear. The company boosted their signal strength in Feb of this year and I am now receiving 256KBPS 2 way over 7 miles. Ref. https://www.onflex.org/ted/2003/08/power-gr...nd-wireless.php |
We didn't have any bars where I live. No way to get high band except via satellite. We took the following steps:
* purchased Wilson directional antenna
* purchased top-quality coax (rated for very low dbs lost per foot)
* directed antenna towards closest tower
* installed wireless repeater inside the house (eliminates need to manually connect cell to wired antenna, and allows for more than one cell to use the antenna at any one time)
As a result, we went from zero bars to 5-6 bars. We have access speeds of about 550kbps down and 110 kbps up. Cost per month? US$15. Equipment cost? Was about $400 to $500. The equipment paid for itself in 10 months, so now we're in the black and saving money every month.
OK
What I want to know, is when you get these items above, what did you do.
Like say I have a laptop with a PCMCIA Wifi Card, and I want to do what you are saying there...
How do I go about the whole process?
Message Edited... Persephone: Please learn how to use the Quote Tags here. See our Constructive Posting Policy. |
Does your PCMCIA Card have a port to allow an external antenna? If you are not sure then do a search on the model and get the stats. If it does then you need to order the cable and adapter to fit that card. Then hook it up to the antenna and then that is it. If your card does not allow an external antenna then you first have to get one that does.
Rather off topic, but... Please check your Intro Thread for replies. |