where to place my wireless access point?

Croton

Banned
Jan 18, 2000
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Do i mount it on the wall?

do i put it on my router?

do i place it on my computer?

what kind of equipment can cause interfefence w/it?

thx
 

TonyRic

Golden Member
Nov 4, 1999
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<< Do i mount it on the wall? >>


You can



<< do i put it on my router? >>


IF it is not too hot



<< do i place it on my computer? >>


If you wish



<< what kind of equipment can cause interfefence w/it? >>


A Cordless telephone working in the 2.4GHz range, or anything working in that freq range.



<< thx >>


You are welcome
 

JackMDS

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 25, 1999
29,545
422
126
If the Wireless exchange occurs in the same room, it does not matter what you do, otherwise!

Wireless devices tend perform better following the rules of transmission devices (not computer rules)

The Wireless Router, or Access Point Should be:

1. As close as possible to the center of what you would like to be you Wireless coverage area.

2. The Antennae should be vertical.

3. High as possible.

4. Away from Walls or any other obstacles (the worst are metal obstacles).

Few extra feet of CAT5 are much less attenuating then physical obstacle in the way of the transmission.

Try few positions the differences are substantial.
 

Eug

Lifer
Mar 11, 2000
24,048
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Microwave ovens (when on) are particularly good at interfering with 802.11b transmissions.
 

porkchop

Junior Member
Oct 13, 2001
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Find a program to judge signal strength, then run around the area you want to use your laptop in and see what happens.

High is an alright idea, but too high is bad too; floors/cielings in the way degrade quality. Vertical antanas are a good idea, but only if you're going to be mostly on the same floor. Basicly, the broader view your card has of the antanna, the better. So if you're house is 5 floors tall and 6foot wide by 6 foot deep (ok, that's a little extreme, but have you ever been to apartments in the netherlands?) you may be better with either a horizontaly mounted antanna or multiple access points.

All you can do is trial and error.

Forgive the crappy spelling,
Pkcp
 

ktwebb

Platinum Member
Nov 20, 1999
2,488
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Some pretty decent info given to you. Placing the antenna very close to a wall or ceiling can cause a multipath environment. Basically interfering with itself from RF refelections. I assume you have some kind of omni directional antenna, probably a dipole or two (Rabbit ears). Test with vertical and horizontal polarity and see what is best for your needs. Generally, if your microwave interferes with your AP you got some serious problems with microwave containment or your AP is just cheap as hell. There "should" be no interference. 2.4 phones are generally the same. You can change the channel of 802.11b AP's if your phone does interfere. There are three main channels dictated by the IEEE spec that dont interfere with each other. Channel 1 is 2.412, 2 is 2.437, and 11 is 2.462. If you find you are experiencing interference from other devices in your house, play around with channel changes.