So I’ve deployed the WRT54GX4 in an undisclosed location in Harriman State Park in upstate New York. We’re getting 100-130 yards access at around 75% strength at that limit. This is WITHOUT mounting the antenna on a rooftop. In fact, the antenna just sits inside an office next to the camp director.
The WRT54GX4 is actually hooked up to a satellite uplink. The connection isn’t spectacularly fast (512 kbps down and 128 kbps up under ideal conditions) and like most satellite hookups has problems with inclement weather, especially lots of rain.
I would love for new firmware to appear that would give it WDS (wireless distribution system) capabilities. This basically would make it fairly easy to string together an ad hoc network that would give us roughly 300 yards of range (1 main AP and 2 daisy chained downstream) in one direction.
I plan to migrate to the next true MIMO product from Linksys and try to start up an adhoc wireless distribution system to further increase the wireless net that covers my non-profit’s camp site. Strangely enough, I haven’t tested transfer speeds over this system as it is primarily for Internet access only. Apparently, we have the distinction of having the only summer camp with some form of broadband access in the park.
This product replaces a really awful 802.11g transmitter we had that barely covered 100 feet. What is truly remarkable about the WRT54GX4 is that it seems to transmit uphill just as well as it does downhill. That wasn’t the case with the old transmitter.
One caveat though: We tried to hook up the WRT54GX4 to a WRE54G (Wireless-G Range Expander). It would sometimes connect to the WRT54GX4 but then it would drop out and require a cold reboot to make it connect again. We still have yet to make the range expander work with this particular AP. Anybody out there have any ideas?
Loading ...
Alan,
I love the range of the WRT54GX4 as well, but all my devices seem to have problems dropping connections with it. XP laptops don’t report a wireless connection failure, but traffic stops, until I do a “repair connection”. A playstation3 does report the network drop, and is offline usually until I cold-boot the router, at which point it reconnects immediately, which points to some problem with the router status, no ?
Love to hear more about your experience since July.
I am trying to setup a hotspot for myself and 4 neighbors, each 1 of them are about 100 yds from me, 1 to the left 1 to the right and 1 directly across the street. I am looking at the linksys wrt54gx4 and a 11 db exterior antena with rptnc connectors is there anyone out there that can point me in the right direction
The WRT54GX4 doesn’t work well in an outdoor environment I’ve found. The darn thing died on us about a month or two after the post (July 2006). That’s not Linksys’s fault. Despite our best efforts, the environmental issues surrounding the summer camp we installed it in usually hurt electrical equipment. It’s hard to isolate a solution when you the environment was too hot, too wet and had unstable power supplies. I think 100 yards is only possible if there isn’t that much foliage and if the WRT54GX4 is mounted on someone’s roof.
Have you considered getting cheaper WRT54GLs and putting them in a mesh network configuration? I believe you’ll have to buy Sveasoft or download it’s opensource competitors to update the firmware so you can do the mesh thing. This will work in your case because you’re only hopping once from the central WRT54GL.
the WRT54GX4 is still a lousy router. drops the wifi signal way too often. i've pulled it out of client use more than once to solve that issue.