Possible Big Boost in WiFi Range

goger writes "An article in the New York Times this morning (insert obligatory note about free registration here, and don't forget the yada's) talks about a startup company in CA that says it will announce WiFi antenna technology today that can give a 2000 ft. range indoors (and up to 4 mi. outdoors). This would be awesome if they really deliver, of course (and if it doesn't require me to set up something the size of a rooftop TV antenna next to my laptop in the coffee shop...)."

Comments

Lets see some real test data

[draziw]

There is no magic here. In Amateur radio, and in radio, every now and then someone will announce they have a magic way to get 6db more signal with the same amount of metal, and in the same amount of space... Not gonna happen. It's RF. You can get more distance in exchange for not getting uniform coverage. The more you are willing to bias towards distance, the more of a narrow rf beam you get.

Re:Lets see some real test data

[Anonymous Coward]

Having just the article on wired.com about what I assume is the same technology... they're not claiming to squeeze more signal out of the same bit of metal or anything magical like that. They're using a computer to monitor and track the signal direction of clients and beaming the signal directly towards them. By making it more efficient in where the signals are being sent they get more distance.

I think it's a great idea, but obviously there's quite a bit more complexity involved so the cost is sure to be much higher and might warrant comparisons between installing a single example of this new tech vs 10 of the older wi-fi base stations to get the same result.

Re:Sign me up

[Technician]

The outdoor range could replace my current ISP.


This could be a bad thing. If all the people in the suburbs drop their ISP's and leach on the fewer open ports they can now reach, the owners may clamp down on free access to get their bandwidth back. When it was short range, there were more points as more people would pay for bandwidth and would share with the few that could reach them. Now many users will consider dropping paid access and leaching the open ports. This may kill them just as it killed free dial-up ISP's. Sharing works only if enough users provide bandwidth to the system to prevent overloading access points. It does not work if most users drop their current ISP to leech off the generous few. The generous few will be hit with excess bandwidth demands and will have to re-think their generosity. Most ISP's already prohibit sharing the bandwidth. High usage may entice cable companies and DSL providers to start wardriving and shutting of offenders sharing bandwidth via wireless.