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Propagating a Signal Through Old Walls?
avjewe asks: "I have a wireless (802.11) network in my 100 year old house. The walls are thick plaster, with enough metal in them to block the signal quite effectively. The floors, however, pass the signal just fine. Does anyone have any experience or suggestions as to how one can propagate a signal through a maze of faraday cages? I recently added an omni-directional antenna which, as one would expect, boosted the signal where I already had one, but didn't help the dead spots."
I realize it has some downsides from the aesthetic point of view, but, really, what's more important?
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If the antenna isn't properly matched to the radio you can end up with high SWR (standing wave ratio), which could potentially damage the radio. The energy, instead of being transmitted out the antenna, gets reflected back to the transmitter, which can cause it to overheat. That's my understanding, at least. If someone else knows better, feel free to correct me.
-jim
My house is old, real old. We have wires running inside old gas light tubes for conduit and lots of knob and tube to mess with signals. The radiators don't seem to be much trouble, unless you're tx/rx ing right in front of one, course they are by the windows so it's never a problem. And yes, we have the old old plaster - very think stuff. Can't even nail in it. Still I managed to find a central location for my little netgear mr814v2 with a stock antenna to do its thing, after some trying. My perfect spot was at the VERY top (9ft up from 1st floor level - we have high ceilings) of the basement steps - attached to the ceiling. From this location it was: a) in the center of the house (very little signal leakage to outside world) b) in between the first and second floors c) hidden away where I could forget it was there and just use it. My advice is - mount it up a wall in the center of your home. Higher the better. For me... this was enough. I still have dead spots where the oversized central 19th century chimney simply refuses to pass a signal. That just means you have to sit on the OTHER sofa to check your email.
Your problem is that you want to get network access to all parts of your home with a minimum of fuss, ideally wireless.
The walls prevent a single wireless access point from working throughout your home.
Your implicit question is: How can I, without investing in more equipment, get wireless throughout the home?
The answer is: You cannot.
Solutions:
1) Place multiple access points throughout the home. Honestly, you can get one for $19 now - why are you so worried about it?
2) Wire passive repeaters throughout the home. Get two 802.11 antennas, put one on each side of the various offending walls, and connect them with their very short cables through the wall. Not great, causes other small problems, but recent radios and APs can sort those out with some loss in quality and speed.
3) Use APs with two antennas, and mount an antenna on each side of one wall. Means you don't have to have an AP for each section, one AP can serve two sections.
4) Use wireless bridges and repeaters - again, one antenna on each side of a wall.
5) Use an amplifier with your AP. DLink, Linksys, etc - they all have amps. Mount the AP and both antennas in the attic. Spread the antennas out, 20-30 feet apart to get the largest cover area.
6) Use a powerline to wireless adaptor, and place them all over the place. Should be able to buy these very cheaply online now.
There are many other solutions, but these are the ones that come to mind readily and should be easily implementable by even the most technophobic individual.
Hopefully you know how to repair cracks and holes in plaster.
-Adam