Long Range Wifi

Faster speeds and fewer dropouts for your wireless network!

Broadband wifi networking is an aspect of radio that I find quite fascinating. With the right equipment, a low power signal can not only travel far but also provide high data rates. Antenna projects shown in on this site offer advantages to anyone seeking better performance of their 802.11 wireless network.

Site Navigation:

ATS-909 HF Receiver:: ATS-909 Modifications; ATS-909 Alignment Procedure; ATS-909 Alignment Spectrograms

Aeronautical Radio:: Oceanic Communications; Doomsday Planes; Aviation Photo Gallery 1; Aviation Photo Gallery 2; Aviation Photo Gallery 3; Aviation Photo Gallery 4

Enhanced Single Sideband:: What is ESSB?; ESSB Spectrograms; Basic ESSB Setup

Very Low Frequency Radio:: VLF Radio Listening - Streaming Audio

Software Defined Radio:: Software Defined Radio

Computing in Linux:: Flash Drive Linux - Installation; Flash Drive Knoppix 5.3; Flash Drive Linux - Customization; SLAX Customization - 3 Techniques

Operating System Virtualization:: OS Virtualization Intro; QEMU: x86 Virtualization; Virtualbox: Powerful and Intuitive; WINE: Windows within Linux

Wireless Networking:: Long Range WiFi Intro; Linear Focus Parabolic WiFi Antenna; Helical Wifi Antenna on Parabolic Reflector; High Gain Yagi WiFi Antenna; High Power WiFi Interfaces; WiFi Security-1; WiFi Security-2; Belkin F5D7050 External Antenna; Linksys WUSB54G External Antenna; Linux WiFi Drivers; RT73 WiFi Drivers & Linux Kernel 2.6.27; RT2860 WiFi Drivers & Linux Kernel 2.6.27

Other Topics:: Current Space Weather; Global Lightning Map; About Me; Links; Sitemap

Any of the antenna projects shown here will provide longer range, lower required power for any data rate, and increased privacy (lower sidelobe radiation). My suggestion, if your network must penetrate concrete walls, runs from one building to another, or covers a large outdoor area, is to use a biquad or long helical antenna at both ends: access points and clients must both support their ends of the communications link.

For very long range, use a short helical or biquad antenna mounted at the focus of a parabolic reflector.

Bear in mind that beyond a distance of 3 km, throughput may begin to decrease due to the ACK timeout setting of the access point. ACK timing must be optimized for longer distances - especially over links covering dozens of kilometers.

Some articles to read that will raise your expectations of wifi performance: