Is this 8dBi antenna strong enough to...

[xenolith]

... provide a signal through an exterior wall (that has clear line of sight) 100 feet away?

Antenna: TRENDnet 8.0dBi Outdoor Omni-Directional Antenna

Qualifiers; the signal has to be strong enough to only websurf in the wood exterior "camper" 100' away; provide enough signal for online gaming (in a 20' space) in the house it's mounted on.

Any opinions would be appreciated.

 

[AFB]

Probably not. A directional antenna MIGHT work, but I doubt it.

 

[AFB]

Probably not. A directional antenna MIGHT work, but I doubt it.

 

[ktwebb]

Probably. Maybe not. You'll have to test to find out. Depends on a few things. How long is your transmission cable run from AP to antenna? Lot of loss there if its long. Connectors will introduce loss as well, especially if your doing them yourself (generally anyway when amateur's are crimping, not always) How much power to the antenna is a factor. Receive sensitivity of both omni and client antenna(s). Point being, you'll have to try it to find out. 100' is not that much for a 8 dB omni but that is perfect conditions and put together correctly. Directional, if it's your only antenna source, would not be good choice. It would pretty much assure that the 100' link would work though, again assuming it's done right.

 

[JackMDS]

Every thing the ktwebb said and:

If the exterior wall is Old Style Japanese wall (I.e. made of rice paper) you will be fine.

Otherwise I doubt that it will provide a solid connection.

However if the Antenna will be at the window or out side it will be terrific.

If the Antenna must stay inside get a 100mW Cisco Airnet and you probably will be set.

 

[AFB]

I have problems with 30ft indoors without brick walls.

 

[xenolith]

The camper has pretty thin walls, about 4 1/2 inches of wood, dry wall, and fiberglass insulation. And yes, the antenna will be mounted on the outside.

Thanks for the input. I think I'm going to give it a try after all.

 

[ktwebb]

You can make it work. You may end up using something with higher gain at the client side, perhaps having to go with something more directed. My guess would be you'll be fine. Keep your cable runs short and move the omni mount away from walls, preferably above roofline. If you do go above roofline you'll need to ground and use lightening arrestors. It won't exactly be cheap if you want to do this right but it shouldn't break the bank either.

 

[howdyduty]

8 dbi antenna is pretty good. Most antennas on wireless routers would be much less than that. I'd bet it would work.

 

[PerfMan]

Yes.. it will work. I have a linksys WRT54G in the basement of my house... going to a WPC54G card I can get 100ft into by backyard... signal is low... 25%... but if I bring the WRT54G up to main level it is not a problem, signal increases significantly. This is with stock antennas...

If you add 5dbi... or 8dbi to the Access Point it will increase it's range... but if you do not add something to the laptop card it won't help you at all... It's like playing ball with a kid... you can throw it along way, but the kid can't throw it back.

I have also proved in my testing that the antenna means more than the power output. I tried a 250mw SMC card and the LinkSys 54G card (35mw) ... both got the same range... however the SMC card allows me to add an external antenna... I added a HyperLinkTech 5DBI blade and it got 3 times the distance.

Otherwise you can try something really cool... I just picked up a DLink DWL-800 range extender... I put it in my garage.. (100 feet from house). It repeats the signal from the LinkSys WRT54G. Now my laptop can go anywhere in my backyard without having any problems. Again this was with stock antennas... the DWL-800 only has a 1dbi antenna on it.. but it seems to be pretty good. It is upgradable to anything up to 17dbi... The other cool thing is the laptop auto-switches between the two AP depending on which one has better signal. Also there was no noticeable bandwidth loss when going through the repeater... and ping times were still under 20ms...

If connecting the DWL-800 to a LinkSys there are a few tricks... (Dlink says it only support a few of there units in repeater mode)... wrong... all you have to do is make sure you are transmitting the WEP key on the AP. I tried 64bit and 128 bit... both worked fine.. once I upgraded the WPC54G card to the latest drivers. Also use the WAN MAC address from the LinkSys on the DLink... Manuals says to use the Ethernet MAC... but it is wrong... use the WAN MAC.

 

[ktwebb]

There'e so many things wrong with that post I don't even know where to start. Just make sure you test if you can xenolith. Someone else's experience doesn't mean all that much to you unless your environments are practically identical.

 

[howdyduty]

PerfMan's experience is interesting and likely right on for that situation. Seems good to me.

ktwebb is right on the the experience thing. With wireless, all depends on the environment your operating in. Best thing is to try your equipment and experiment.