Higher powered wireless router?

Question

I have seen several articles and advertisements for "high powered" wireless routers. I thought the output power of wireless routers was standard and specified by regulation. Are some routers higher powered? Maybe a better question is can a standard router be hacked to raise the power output?

Thanks

Guess I wasn't very clear. I was referring to the broadcast power of the radio part of the router. I woudl assume that this would translate to more range

Answer 1

Yes, there are "high powered" wireless routers. I am assuming you are in the U.S. and yes, you are correct, there are limitations placed on the maximum output power and maximum antenna gain by the FCC. They call the radio itself the "intentional radiator" and they call the power radiated by the antenna the EIRP, or equivalent isotropically radiated power which also takes the antenna gain into account.

In the 2.4GHz band from 2.4 to 2.4835 GHz the intentional radiator is limited to 30dBm (1 Watt) and the EIRP to 36dBm (4 Watts). So if you have a radio output power of 1 watt, the highest antenna gain you can use is 6dBi for example. If one goes up by 3dB (double the power) then the other must drop by 3dB (half the power) so you cannot exceed 36dBm or 4 watts.

Important point now! Doubling the power will NOT double your range. If you double your power you will increase your range by 1.414 (square root of 2). So outdoors, every increase of 6dB about doubles your range, because 1.414 squared = 1.999. Indoors, an increase of about 9dB doubles your range on average.

By the way, if you're talking 802.11a in the 5GHz UNII bands, the FCC rules are a little different, 22dBm max EIRP in UNII-1 and 29dBm max EIRP in UNII-2.

Many access point radios might max out at 100mW output power for example, which is 20dBm. That allows for a high gain antenna with up to 16dBi of gain to be attached before you break the 4 watt limit. Most typical "rubber ducky" antennas on most consumer wireless gear are 2.2dBi dipoles. So some vendors jack up the output power of the radio to, say, 1 watt. Then with a 2.2dBi dipole, you are approaching 2 watts EIRP.

As far as hacking a standard AP to jack up the output power, sure that's possible, but not without detailed schematic diagrams from the vendor, a good amount of electronics knowledge and patience, and the extra cash to possibly replace a few blown up wireless routers!

Hope this isn't confusing. Just in case you haven't seen the terminology, a "dBm" is the logarithmic decibel (dB) scale, and dBm means it's referenced to 1 milliwatt. So 0 dBm = 1mW. It's logarithmic, so every 3dB is a doubling of power, and every 10dB is 10X the power. So 3dBm=2mW, 6dBm=4mW, and 10dBm=10mW and 20dBm=100mW and 30dBm = 1000mW or 1Watt. Do a Google search on "RF Math" for more info.

Answer 2

Well Netgear's wireless router is pretty good and is compact and simple. Though, Linksys is well known and has speed booster yet it is pretty bulky. i Think that they're both Wireless G routers

Answer 3

if you are talking about getting more power to have faster speed then the answer is no you cant, anyways you are already robbing yourself of speed by using wireless, sure it is more convenient but at the cost of speed, the best connection is to have your pc directly connected to the modem via Ethernet

Answer 4

linksys all way's has 85.0 mbs, so when your seachinh the web it,go to the page when your click it. (it vary on the website you are on)