The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Crazy Antenna Upgrades Anyone?

    Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by meansizzler, Feb 2, 2009.

  1. meansizzler

    meansizzler Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    43
    Messages:
    252
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Anyone done any crazy Antenna Upgrades on their Access Point/Routers, eg. adding large high gain antenna's, kind of the size of them cellphone masts
     
  2. Bungalo Bill

    Bungalo Bill Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    97
    Messages:
    806
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    um...I have a "crazy antenna" on my wifi card. It's made of aluminum foil. Also, it's against fcc regulations to do what you propose. Unless you feel like paying large fees.
     
  3. focusfre4k

    focusfre4k Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    149
    Messages:
    569
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    7 - 11dbi antenna and then 1W of power out of it. thats what I did at an old job. WISP FTW!
     
  4. meansizzler

    meansizzler Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    43
    Messages:
    252
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    FCC does not exist in the UK, we have ofcom, here using the 5GHZ band at higher than 54mb/s is against the law... :eek:
     
  5. t2ppp124

    t2ppp124 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    7
    Messages:
    184
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    I doubt they actually enforce it though do they? :)

    Tom
     
  6. Kurat

    Kurat Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    26
    Messages:
    162
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
  7. focusfre4k

    focusfre4k Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    149
    Messages:
    569
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    FCC does like a mad man though. you get one complaint and they will be out next day.
     
  8. Pitabred

    Pitabred Linux geek con rat flail!

    Reputations:
    3,300
    Messages:
    7,115
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    206
    I was under the impression that the FCC only regulates power output, they have no regulations on the antennas you can use to receive signals as long as they don't break local ordinances or cause interference with other devices.

    Edit: On further research, I'm only partly right:
    The way I'm reading it is as long as your antenna doesn't exceed the capabilities of any antenna that's sold to be compatible with your device, then it's fine to use. Which gives you a very wide range of antennas.

    That said, my uncle ugraded his home wireless network and gave me his nice Linksys extended range antenna for my router (WRT54GL w/DD-WRT), so that's all I'm using. Nothing too crazy, and it gets me 4/5 bars of signal at the complete opposite end of the house from where the router is, so that's all I need.