802.11b antenna goodies

deimos

Trying to establish an ad-hoc connection in hope of sharing a net connection, but I am poor.
The cards work perfectly because I tested them both at close range (dwl 520+).

My question is whether or not it would be possible to mount some form of a reflective metal

inclined at a 45 degree angle to the rear of the house to face the corressponding same 129m

away, in effort to establish a connection.

The metal will be required to reflect electromagnetic waves of frequency of 2.4ghz.



Any ideas?

Fionn101

heh , you'd have more luck trying to form some sort of rudimentary lathe ...

don't do the metal thing , you know it's not just an electromagnetic reflection device , it's an eyesore .

what range is serperating the two cards at the moment ?

What is seperating the nics at the moment (concrete wall , wooden floor , layer of lead shileding in case of fallout ???)

Are there other alternatives available , like trying a better set of nics or perhaps going back to running a cable between the two (trying a better set will allow you to gauge the current lack of connection)

Is there anything that could be interfereing with the reception , like the room full of microwave ovens from the repair and radio shop next door ?

once you have more info you can work from there , be sure to post back

Hope this helps (although i'm sure you've tried some of these suggestions)

Fionn

Duffman

What about pringles cans? Small yet effective...

Boro

heres a link for that Pringles Cantenna and here

Capt'n Midnight

www.stumbler.org - to get netstubler so you can see the signal strenghts.

a flat metal plate will only reflect at best 60% of the microwaves and don't forget since it is not a curved surface they will dissapate after reflection (ie. it does not concentrate the rays)

If you mean a flat plate in the garden so two houses can see each other from through windows it should work when aliigned.

Chicken wire . mesh with holes less than 2cm will be cheaper and less wind damagable than sheet which makes up for the loss.

You will need lots of it eg the side of a shed to get a really strong signal.

check www.dublinwan.org - some homebrew antennas there.

NOTE: the 22Mbs card will drop down to 1MBs if the signal is not strong enough and it don't seem to run at above 11Mb over long distances anyway...

The loss is something like n x D1 x D2 / A D1 =65m and D2 =65m , n=0.6 (60%)
A is the area of the reflector in square meters...

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.netstumbler.com/download.php?op=viewdownload&cid=1&orderby=hitsD
netstumbler (the above link was wrong)