Bruce, I appreciate your suggestions very much, but the size and layout of my place make them extremely impractical. I live in an old building (which, for Miami Beach, means circa 1930), and at some point in its history two apartments got joined into one.
On Mar 3, 4:28 pm, Bruce Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mar 3, 2010, at 1:44 PM, Ashgrove wrote: > > > On Mar 3, 3:16 pm, Bruce Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I don't suppose there's any way to put it in the middle of the > >> apartment? > > > I'm afraid not. I have DSL, and the only phone jacks are in the living > > room and the bedroom. > > You can use a long ethernet cable between the DSL box and your WiFi > router, move it at least a little closer to the center of the place, > don't forget, radio signals obey the inverse square law, which means > your signal strength increases a lot the closer you get to the source. > > And example: (using numbers plucked from thin air) > > A 10' or 15' difference on a 40' run will make a large difference. At > 40' the signal is 1/1600th the level it is at the source; at 30' it's > only 1/900th. That's almost a 2x gain in signal strength for 10' of > distance. > > (note this is completely theoretical, with attenuation solely due to > distance, not taking into account the effects of walls, pipes, etc, > etc. It this distance lets you get a better line of sight to the > router you may see even better gains. > > Line of Sight is NOT a restriction of WiFi, but if you can see the > router from where you're trying to use it, you can be reasonably > assured that you're going to get the best signal for your distance. > Things like metal corners in drywall and metal studs (as used in newer > construction), or worse metal-mesh-backed stucco, will have a major > effect on signal reception.) > > I don't know what the limitations are on connecting DSL modems to the > phone jacks are, either, perhaps you could connect it with a longer > cable, too, but I know Cat5 ethernet is supposed to be rated for 100 > meters. > > If your apartment is longer than that, just hire some slaves to carry > your email back and forth, Mr. Trump ;-) > > -- > Bruce Johnson > University of Arizona > College of Pharmacy > Information Technology Group > > Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Books, a group for those using G3 iBooks and PowerBooks (we run a separate list for G4 'Books). The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g-books Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/
