This past Wednesday (after work), I experimented with a wireless distribution system (WDS) installation at a local cafe.
What makes this WDS installation unique is that there’s a thick concrete wall, metal rafters and a big neon sign that I have to work around. Can you say, ‘i-n-t-e-r-f-e-r-e-n-c-e’? Yes, good times that started with stock Linksys routers.
On one end, I have a Linksys WRT54GL v1.1 router running the DD-WRT v23 SP1 firmware, with a set of Linksys 7 dBi antennas. The other end has a Linksys WRT54G v2.0 router running the same firmware with a set of generic 9 dBi antennas. The former is the host (office), with the latter being the client (cafe). Output transmission power is set to 200 mW (stock is 28 mW) for both. Yes, I tried lower transmission power, but to no avail (going from 28 mW to 100 mW yielded less than a ten percent increase in signal strength).
The distance between the two routers is a mere 100 feet (two floors though). Signal strength you ask? It’s less than ten percent! Yes. Pathetic. Hey! It works, until…
The neon sign turns on! Turn on the neon sign and the wireless signal is non-existant. Seriously, while testing, I was making a simple request to Google.ca and the second the neon sign went on, the wireless connection (router was ~40 feet away in line of sight) dropped. Cold booting the router didn’t help either. Note to self: 2.4 GHz wireless signals and neon signs do not mix.
So, my next course of action is to relocate the router so that it’s farther away from the neon sign, and still high enough so that it picks up the signal from the host router.
Update:
I neglected to mention that I had tried different channels as well, but to no avail. I plan on replacing the WRT54G v2.0 router with a new WRT54GL v1.1 router to take advantage of the Broadcom BroadRange technology (boosts coverage by up to 50%).