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Pox
07-11-2005, 10:03
Lo all,

I've decided to spend some money this week and see what who I can connect to. Having never worked with wifi (except for a standard office AP) I have some questions about what to get.

Consensus seems to be that the Linksys WRT54G is the best AP, so I'll probably get that.
My big question is towards antennaes. Flat panel or Yagi? Looking thru Miro's catalog the yagi's offer slightly better dbi (20 against 18 etc) but they have a much narrower beam. From that it looks the flat panel will be easier to use as much less moving is going to be needed to connect to another AP. Plus with the much larger beam I could maybe connect to more than 1 AP at a time. I'm guessing the downside is that the flat panels cost a lot more? I'm going to try get some prices from Miro and I'll take it from there...

comments welcome :)
Mufasa
07-11-2005, 12:10
the linksys is a very good ap(one of the best) I was at uniterm this morning, they have version 2 wrt54g's. the flat panel is a good choice if you plan to have other ppl connecting to it because of the beam width. the yagi is perfect for the client connecting to the flat panel. so make your choice.
LispWarez
07-11-2005, 13:57
i would think the more ppl with a wider beam would be better for future connection. am i right or am i right?
Mufasa
07-11-2005, 14:34
a more direct link, is less prone to interference. but for the meshing purpose the more ppl connected the better :)
Pox
07-11-2005, 15:18
I'll decide on the price then: if the yagi is a lot cheaper I'll go with it.
Eben
09-11-2005, 00:55
flat panel is ok for point to point links but if you want to scan the airwaves for different ap's i would suggest a sector - if you decide to go for a sector, just remember to get a vertical polarised one because 90% of the ap's out there use vertical pol.
Pox
09-11-2005, 08:07
What would be the difference? The flat panel (which I bought yesterday btw) has a higher dbi than the highest dbi sector panel i could have gotten at the same place.
Mufasa
09-11-2005, 08:24
the flat panel beam width is not as big as the sector. the sector will cover a larger area than the flat panel but the flat panel will give you more distance.
sector: cover large area without using omni
flat panel: covers a smaller area but will give you more distance.
Pox
09-11-2005, 11:57
thx Mufasa
next step is to put together a little POE kit, then organise a mast/pole, a looong ladder, and permission to drill into the building :)