On Sun, 28 Dec 2003, Bradley Miller wrote:

> wireless 4-port in it's place.  The problem is, that's in the basement.  
> Ideally I wanted the wireless to be upstairs where I could get a good
> signal through the entire house.  Any suggestions on how I can go

If you want a very strong signal throughout the house from the basement,
you have great options with the antenna.  Lay the antenna flat on its
side.  The beam will radiate strongest upwards throughout the house.

Higher gain dipoles simply have a flatter dispersion, like a pancake.  A
stock dipole antenna is defined as having a gain of 1, or unity.  
Unfortunately, half of the gain will be pointed at the earth and will be
lost.  So, your gain would be negative, but this is better than a vertical
orientation in your basement, which has its field strength laying flat
like a pancake at the bottom of a paint can.  It would be difficult for
anything to chew on that.  Your perceived gain from upstairs for a
vertical dipole would be quite poor.

If you have an antenna jack or don't mind soldering, you have great
options.  Something like a flat patch antenna would work great.  They have
a signal pattern that is like a PA speaker.  Perfect for illuminating your
house in microwaves, and just your house.  Signal is concentrated exactly
where you want it, leaving no dead spots even for the tallest house.  
They are very cheap too.  This one is $27:

http://hyperlinktech.com/web/hg2409p.php

If you do solder, leave your connections very smooth and try to cover the 
exposed junction close to the same radial distance as the cable.  This is 
to eliminate reflections, which will cancel out your signal.  Microwaves 
love to reflect and bounce at every imperfection.

Don't be afraid to experiment.  My brother took one of these routers and
mounted it inside the case of antenna.  It is now an antenna with a single
ethernet jack.  Power is supplied through the ethernet.  You can make your 
own Power Over Ethernet (POE :)

http://www.wireless.org.au/~jhecker/poe/

or buy one from many vendors, but its gonna cost you for that diode and
capacitor:

http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/poe.php