Wireless connection booster

[avx]

D-Link AirPlus 2.4GHz Enhanced Wireless Access Point and Extender...

My friend who just recently built his own PC is using a Wireless Router to share the cable connection int he house h lives in, the only problem is hes 3 floors above the initial connect, and he gets real ppr connection and disconnects, this think costs like 99 bucks at bestbuy, and 72 at newegg, are these things really useful, or useless???

Thanks for the advice

avx

[glc]

The Linksys booster (which is for Linksys wireless units) seems to help.

[Harry]

The only thing I can tell you is that most of those retail wireless
modems have an output of only 30 milliwatts. That seems like the bare minimum to me. If there is any way he can exchange his D-link airplus for an Engenius 200 milliwatt or Demarc 200 milliwatt wireless card he would see an amazing difference. Even a 100 milliwatt card would probably prove to be sufficient for what you describe.

[avx]

Could you tell me what exactly you mean? Get another Wireless Network Card? You see, he is in Mass. and I am in FL. so I cant really see what hes working with, and hes not really good at describing it, but do you basically mean get another card cause the one it came with is poor..correct?

Thanks for the help by the way

[Harry]

Yes, it's not the best he could get and a better one does not require that much more money. And according to the wireless reception ratings chart at

http://freenetworks.org/moin/index.c...iveSensitivity

the Engenius and Demarc 200 milliwatt cards may be up to 30 times as sensitive in picking up signals. The Damarc card is about $150. The Engenius card is about $90 and is probably the best bang for the buck. Probably good to get a a connecting antenna with it too.

You can get the Engenius card from

http://www.surfandsip.com/ps_superchargedcard.htm

or in Austin, Texas at

http://www.netgate.com/


The damarc card is at http://www.demarctech.com

I will probably get the Engenius card myself as I would have access to a free wireless ISP and at least 1 mb per second downloads. That would be about 20 times faster than what I get now. And that would be a miracle come true when you download 200 megabyte files or even just 3 megabyte files. Almost no equipment on a computer is more valuable than saving time.

[jeresimo]

Harry, those Cards you were referring are PC Cards. I don't see any PCI Card. I'm interested too with this 'coz I got one problem Computer I wanted to connect located in the basement.

I am using Airplus 614+ and D-520 PCI Cards. Do you think MIXING different brands of card will not give problem at all?

To avx487: After you solved your friend's connection woes. Kindly post here how you did it.

Thanks.

[avx]

No problem

[glc]

The only problem with mixing brands of cards is it can get tricky trying to set up security.