Has anyone tried to use an external antenna to extend the range of their wifi router? I live in a three story house now, and for a few reasons my wireless G router needs to be on the floor of my first floor under my big screen TV. Needless to say, that's a bit less than ideal for signal strength and I get a pretty poor signal on the third floor. If I try to use my laptop in the master bedroom I can get a really weak signal in some locations, but if I so much as look at it wrong it will disconnect.
The router I have is a pretty cheap Trendnet one (but hey... I got it for free after a rebate and it supports WPA2, so I can't complain too much), so I went to CompUSA (They reopened like 20 stores in FL and a couple of other states) thinking I'd get one of the extended range routers. The cheapest extended range one was like $50 or $60 and it wasn't clear to me if I'd get any benefit of the extended range feature if I didn't use one of the same brand's extended range network adapters in my laptop... and there are three laptops in the household and I wasn't about to get a new adapter for each of them (plus I hate having the antenna stick out of the pc card slot with an external adapter in a laptop).
So instead I picked up this remote antenna for $20 (after rebate) - http://www.compusa.com/applications/Search...1&CatId=374 I won't have a chance to hook it up until after work and CompUSA charges their stupid 15% restocking fee on opened items, so I don't want to bother to try it if it's not going to work. Have any of you guys used an antenna like this and gotten a better signal? I figure at the least I'll be able to put the antenna closer to the ceiling of the first level of the house instead of on the floor under the TV, so I'm hoping that should count for something.
Thanks,
Brett
The router I have is a pretty cheap Trendnet one (but hey... I got it for free after a rebate and it supports WPA2, so I can't complain too much), so I went to CompUSA (They reopened like 20 stores in FL and a couple of other states) thinking I'd get one of the extended range routers. The cheapest extended range one was like $50 or $60 and it wasn't clear to me if I'd get any benefit of the extended range feature if I didn't use one of the same brand's extended range network adapters in my laptop... and there are three laptops in the household and I wasn't about to get a new adapter for each of them (plus I hate having the antenna stick out of the pc card slot with an external adapter in a laptop).
So instead I picked up this remote antenna for $20 (after rebate) - http://www.compusa.com/applications/Search...1&CatId=374 I won't have a chance to hook it up until after work and CompUSA charges their stupid 15% restocking fee on opened items, so I don't want to bother to try it if it's not going to work. Have any of you guys used an antenna like this and gotten a better signal? I figure at the least I'll be able to put the antenna closer to the ceiling of the first level of the house instead of on the floor under the TV, so I'm hoping that should count for something.
Thanks,
Brett
