Improve range on antenna-equipped Base Stations

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Thu, Jul 17 2008 at 7:30AM PDT • Contributed by: danieleprocida

If you have an external antenna on your AirPort Base Station, you may be able to extend the range somewhat, depending on how you originally connected the antenna. Here's how to make sure you're getting the maximum range possible:

Power down the Base Station.
Unlug your external antenna.
Power up the Base Station.
Plug in the external antenna.

The improved signal can easily be measured in AP Grapher or MacStumbler. It's not a huge difference, but it made a marginal connection reliable again. Be aware that if you ever reboot the Base Station, you'll need to be sure that the external antenna is unplugged while it reboots, otherwise the signal will drop back down to the "normal" level. This works on my white AirPort Extreme Base Station.

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Improve range on antenna-equipped Base Stations
Authored by: Gnarlodious on Wed, Jul 23 2008 at 4:43PM PDT

I would be very suspicious of this "hint". The Airport apparently has a software system to detect adjacent-channel noise and select the channel with the least interference. Adding an external antenna after booting up defeats this system. You may see increased range, but at the expense of reliability. A better solution would be to reduce the power level to the least noisy S/R ratio. Most people who are running WiFi do not realize that too much power equals a poor quality signal.

Improve range on antenna-equipped Base Stations
Authored by: danieleprocida on Tue, Jul 29 2008 at 3:48AM PDT

The Airport apparently has a software system to detect adjacent-channel noise and select the channel with the least interference. Adding an external antenna after booting up defeats this system. You may see increased range, but at the expense of reliability. A better solution would be to reduce the power level to the least noisy S/R ratio.

This is not the case.

The white Airport Extreme basestation does not have such a "software system". The channel is set by the administrator.

This technique increases range, and in doing so makes it possible for wireless clients to connect to the basestation that would otherwise be out of range. Reliability is of course wholly dependent upon being able to connect to the basestation at all...

Reducing the power level might in some rather peculiar circumstances procure an improvement in reliability, but not in most.

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