[OT] -- Wireless Access Points with Signal Strength Indication?

I made the basic indicator of the field strength (diode + peak detector

• meter) and discovered that the actual transmit power is very different for the different WiFi devices. No wonder that the devices with the higher power are working better.

In short: dLink sucks, 2Wire rules, Belkin and LinkSys mediocre.

Vladimir Vassilevsky DSP and Mixed Signal Design Consultant

Tim Wescott hath wroth:

Do you have a WET11 v1 or v2? They're quite different including different software.

V1

The v1 version does NOT have a signal level or quality indicator.

V2

The signal quality is on the Status page at:

You can extract the signal strengths from the management packets flying back and forth using Netstumbler (Windows) or Kismet (Linux) using a seperate computer. If you are stuck with Vista, see:

I considered that, but unless the receivers suck big time that's not going to help me on the receive end, which is where I really need it -- the underlying technical problem is that the RF has to get through a 8 inch thick concrete wall, then to an access point that's inside a metal building with some inconveniently located windows.

I had used a Cantenna before, which was great until it corroded, but even then pointing it was b'guess and b'gosh.

V nothing, which I assume means V1.

I'll try one or the other. Thankfully I'm _not_ stuck with Vista.

Tim Wescott hath wroth:

Yep. No signal indication. Perhaps it's time to retire this 802.11b only device?

You might find this hack of interest:

Kinda drastic just to get a signal strength indication, but might be worth trying.

So far, I've done 6 downgrades from Vista to XP for customers that fail to appreciate the alleged benifits of Vista. I've got one more scheduled this week. However, there are some nifty built in wireless diagnostics in Vista:

The command: netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid will show all the SSID's it can hear including the corresponding signal strengths.

, it

ment,

g has a

The problem might not be signal strength, but signal interference. For 802.11b, the more 2.4 GHz wireless stuff you have around (cordless phones, wireless audio systems, even some microwave ovens), the more "cluttered" the environment gets.

And obviously, this same situation manifests if your neighbors are close enough and also congest the 802.11b spectrum.

As for antenna swaps, I assume you're aware that changing out the antennas would violate the low power Part-15 rules for field strength, so I won't harp any more on that.

One of my networks is also 802.11(b) only. Works fine and has pretty good range. However, the laptop card (Linksys something...) "hates" to work un-elevated off the desktop. I assume there is metal or ?? in the desktop? Propping up the laptop about a half inch makes a MAJOR difference. (It's an HP with side-mounted PCMCIA slots). Anyway, just a thought to check out potential near-field obstructions. Good luck.

-mpm