Will I get signal loss using a 10 foot wifi antenna extension cable? am I better off using a usb wifi + cable

Question

I have a wifi home network set up. two of the PCs (5 total) are getting poor reception. They are only 20 ft away from the router, but there is alot of interference from walls and such. the line of site for these gys are probably like 3-4 walls. I pull the router into a more direct line of site with the pcs and the two pcs to test it and the reults were better, but it is not a place I can normlly leave it. I am using a linksys 54G rev6 with high gain antennas

I have thought of two solutions. buy extention cables for the adapter antennas (10') and move the antenna to the doors frams of the rooms. This would bring the antenna closer to the router, but I am think I will lose any gain in signal with the distance in the cable.

the second idea is to buy a little usb wifi adaper and locate the actual adapter on the door frame using a 10' usb cable.

Which would give me better results?

The linksys i have does not allow the power to be tweaked with.

Answer 1

Your idea of the extended antenna cablesshould give you some increased signal streangth, but For better coverage I would suggest purchasing a range booster. Since you are using a linksys router I would suggest the below product.

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1130267578138&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=7813839789B66

You will not have to have any wires laying around as it does not use any ethernet connection but only wireless. The only cord to it is the power cord.

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Will I get signal loss using a 10 foot wifi antenna extension cable? am I better off using a usb wifi + cable
I have a wifi home network set up. two of the PCs (5 total) are getting poor reception. They are only 20 ft away from the router, but there is alot of interference from walls and such. the line of site for these gys are probably like 3-4 walls. I pull the router into a more direct line of site...

Answer 3

With that many computers running off of a WiFi network, why not just upgrade your router and wireless cards to 802.11N....this will give much better distance and bps.....11g is 100mbps, 11n is upward of 300mbps and it has a much greater distance.....
This way your not having to buy all kinds of antennas and adding more wires for the antennas. The route your going now you might as well run an ethernet cable to all of your computers......

Also so your not losing out on your current setup, you can put all your old WiFi hardware on ebay and recoup some of the cost for the upgrade....

Answer 4

Shielded cable losses on the antenna cable would be enormous, you would need to buy very high gain (very expensive) antenna. The range extender idea is the best, and might work out the same price.

Answer 5

Adding additional wire to the antennas on both receiver and transmitter should help. This BTW also helps to extend the range of cell phones in signal poor areas.. If worst comes to worst, you can also get signal boosters.

Answer 6

highly shielded usb