New Antenna

rygar1234 · ‎12-16-2008

Hi guys we thinking of buying a Cisco 5.5 dBi 2.4Ghz and 6.0 dBi 5GHz Dual Band Wall-mount Patch Antenna to try to increase the signal strength to reach the other side of our office.

What changes do I have to make to the router to tell it we are using a higher db antenna antenna and do I remove both old antennas and just connect this one?

Any suggestions for increasing the range of our wireless besides new antennas are welcomed.

Thank you

scottmac · ‎12-16-2008

You can just swap the new antenna in. You should power off the AP before the swap, and follow anti-static handling procedures.

If you are using a monitoring / management software system, you should edit the antenna parameters so you get the right heat maps and coverage diagrams.

From a pure hardware standpoint, the transceiver is seeing the same load in either case.

Good Luck

Scott

AlekseyAndrosov · ‎12-17-2008

I think you need to tweak the configuration of AP itself.

There is an option called "allow external antenna" and a field for giving dBm measurements near it. It will adjust slot times, i guess, so your WLAN will function properly. Can't remember the exact location of this configuration in web-interface, and can't get to CLI to investigate which command launches it.

And yeah, you have to remove both antennae.

About other ways to expand range.. try breaking some walls))

rygar1234 · ‎12-18-2008

Thank you guys

This is an 1811 Router so I will try to find the commands online.

I should be gettting the antenna soon and will also try breaking some walls too :)