[geeks] Cheap wireless APs

[Lionel Peterson]

On May 21, 2009, at 6:23 PM, Mike Hebel <nimitz at nimitzbrood.com> wrote:

> On May 21, 2009, at 4:30 PM 5/21/09, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>> You need a big house to need more than one access point...
>
> I beg to differ with this one.  I've known several houses that you  
> couldn't get a wifi signal from one end to the other.  Mine in fact  
> (1952 ranch) has trouble getting signal to you from one corner to  
> another.  And it definitely won't reach to the garage even though  
> it's close.

A ranch style house is twice as wide as a same-sized two story house,  
the send story is, in effect, sliced off the house and placed at one  
end of the first floor.

A 1,500 square foot ranch house typically has twice the "foot print"  
of a 1,500 square foot colonial.

> It all depends on the house and the AP.  I tested mine with the  
> current Linksys WRT54GL, a Motorola W series that I've forgotten the  
> number of, as well as two Belkin models that I'm currently using for  
> a bridge between the house and the garage.  So far the Linksys is  
> providing good enough support but I'm going to have to move it to a  
> different location and use directional antennas to send it down the  
> center line of the house.
>
> I do have to admit though that the Cisco Aironet 1200AG I just set  
> up at work would probably blow most of these away AND give me things  
> like a guest wireless and so forth.  Though that's outside of the  
> cheap realm...

We use them at $WORK, very nice units...

Lionel