FAQ, where to place your AP
Halfton
This is a How-to for figuring out the best location & orientation of
your WiFi AP "access point" for best area coverage
It is Agnostic "hardware Non specific" except for Prism chipset WiFi
cards and their Link utility "Neesus" which is Not accurate enough for what
we will do next
more on that here
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/reviews/linksys_wpc11.asp#Neesus
I've tried to keep this as brief as possible
this site http://www.practicallynetworked.com/
has more in-depth Discussions, comparison's, review's, howto's,
troubleshooter's and most importantly User feedback "rant's :-)"
Some basics in simple terms
the maximum aggregate "multiple file transfers at once" throughput you
can expect in real world use will be 6mbits/sec, average will be 3 to
5mbits/sec, and actually compares favorably to 10bt wired Ethernet, the
wired uplink port on most AP's is only 10bt anyway
WiFi, 802.11b is a 2.4ghz 2way Radio "Microwave frequency range" and is
adversely affected by close proximity to Microwave Ovens & other 2.4ghz RF
devices "wireless phones"
Microwave works Best Line of Sight without Obstructions, even a wet
tree, rain or a running shower will adversely affect the signal, and the
more walls there are between client & AP, the worse it will be
also antennas have a tendency to have a dead spot "signal void" directly
below/above them so locating them on a 2nd floor is not always the best idea
if your "LazyBoy" is directly below
this process is called a "Site Survey" and can be accomplished 2 ways
1- with very expensive hardware & software "I'm not going to cover this"
2- on the cheap with what you got, this is what I'll talk about
What you need
an AP or another client card if AdHoc
a client card in portable device "laptop"
and of course it should already be a functioning WiFi LAN "able to see
other computers in Network Neighborhood/Network Places
a Bit/Byte counter, this is a free utility I use
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/nsl.htm
a large zip/compressed file, don't use folders with many small files,
the start/stop won't help, example: and free to download is Windows 2000,
Service Pack 2 at 100+mb
Ok lets begin
1- put the Large file into a shared folder on another client/machine
within your LAN
2- get the Bit counter running "Net Stat Live" or your preference
3- start the file transfer
4- walk away from AP till file transfer Drops completely, if file
finish's transfer before Signal drop just delete it from local folder and
start again
5- repeat in all directions from AP
6- repeat with AP set to different channels "1 to 11 US" clients will
adjust their channel automatically to match the AP's
7- repeat with AP at different Heights, Angles & Compass orientations
8- repeat and tinker till best coverage is obtained for your most used
"favorite surfing" WiFi client locations
for more info start here
http://www.practicallynetworked.com
there are also many links to much more and probably better info also, just
consider this a primer
I will attempt to repost this weekly
updates and additions will be considered, post them to this group
Joe