Hi, everyone. I'll introduce myself quickly, I'm Crispin and I just
relocated from Seattle to Mill Valley in Marin. I'm part of the Seattle
Wireless.net(SWN) list, an excellent group and a great resource for all
kinds of info... www.seattlewireless.net
Anyways, I get excellent reception with my Airport Extreme card in a 12"
Powerbook. Some of your friends might be getting a stronger signal because
they have a "B" card w/stronger mw power. The Apple AE card is just another
flavor of the Broadcom radio which is many devices(Linksys, Buffalo, ASUS)
and that radio has a pretty modest amount of milliwatts... 30 or so. I just
traded a Cisco card that was a healthy 100mw for a Senao 2511 that has a
whopping 200mw w/great sensitivity to boot.
There is a solution(or solutions...) depending upon which Powerbook you
have 12" or the 15" or 17", if you're using one of the two bigger models you
can use the PMCIA card slot. I used to use a Buffalo "G" card that had an
antenna connector in my DVI model Titanium powerbook, as Titanium is a great
material for blocking wireless signals having the internal card was not the
best option. The beauty of using that Buffalo card was it used the same
Broadcom chipset as the Airport Extreme card so even though the Titanium
never shipped w/the ability to use an Airport Extreme card, OSX recognized
the card and used it as it would a stock airport card. No special tweaks,
third party drivers, etc., I had "G" bandwidth and the option to use a
variety of Antennas since it had the popular, MC or Lucent/Orinoco style
connector. This method requires removal of the Airport or Airport Extreme
card, won't recognize two Airport cards at the same time and I never had
luck getting the "G" card working in OS9(which I NEVER use these days &
can't anyways). BTW, this might be a good time to mention I'm not using
this card anymore so it's available for purchase or trade :) There's also a
company called quickertek...
http://www.quickertek.com/
That has a range of overpriced(I think), setups. They're over $80 for the
cable(a pigtail) & a small antenna.
You mention the Linksys WRT54G which I have and use with alternate
Sveasoft firmware. The alternate firmware gives me the option of radically
boosting mw output from 32 to 251(at your own risk, of course) along with
enabling features not in the stock firmware like WDS repeating, client &
ad-hoc modes, & much else. You mention wanting to use alternative antennas,
at Radio Shack for about $30 I was able to get two 5db antennas that replace
the stock 2.15db omnis(3db is a doubling of the output). I also have a
"pigtail" which is RP-TNC Female to Female N connnector and about a 18"
long(usually the slang for the short cables that go from an antenna to a
wireless card are called "pigtails"). With my cable I can remove one of the
stock antennas from the back of the Linksys(which is the RP-TNC connection)
and attach a directional waveguide antenna(or in my case cantenna,which uses
the N connector) if I wanted to do a long range link(you can easily go a
couple km's with semi decent waveguides, line of sight, and some know
how...a person on the other end helps, of course).
Think this adequately answers your questions, Crispin
On 7/31/04 12:59 PM, "Ryan Marsh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Thanks to everyone. You have all offered alot of helpful info. As far as
> what equipment to purchase, what would you suggest as far as wireless
> routers? It's become apparent that I'm going to need a wireless router, and
> I'm going to run CAT-5 from the router to one or two wireless AP's (I'll
> need all of those radios to cover all of the ground and penetrate the
> buildings). I'm going to need antennas for sure. I have a Linksys WRT54G at
> home, I like it but I couldn't find any high-gain antennas for the Linksys
> stuff. What would you guys use?
>
> Hope this doesn't start a flame war.
>
> BTW: Is there a better way to get reception on my PowerBook? This Aluminum
> case has got to be the problem. All of my PC friends can pick up networks
> that I can't. Does anyone sell external antennas that connect to the
> AirPort Extremem card?
>
> Regards,
> -ryan
>
> =====
> Let us, then, be up and doing,
> With a heart for any fate;
> Still achieving, still pursuing,
> Learn to labor and to wait.
> -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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