From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Apr 3 03:04:49 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 34BAE16A4CE for ; Sun, 3 Apr 2005 03:04:49 +0000 (GMT) Received: from cain.gsoft.com.au (cain.gsoft.com.au [203.31.81.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1724543D46 for ; Sun, 3 Apr 2005 03:04:48 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from doconnor@gsoft.com.au) Received: from inchoate.gsoft.com.au (localhost [127.0.0.1]) (authenticated bits=0) by cain.gsoft.com.au (8.12.11/8.12.10) with ESMTP id j3334hKl097657; Sun, 3 Apr 2005 12:34:43 +0930 (CST) (envelope-from doconnor@gsoft.com.au) From: "Daniel O'Connor" To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2005 12:34:39 +0930 User-Agent: KMail/1.8 References: <20050402065052.GT44514@numachi.com> <20050402162842.GU44514@numachi.com> <20050402173304.GX44514@numachi.com> In-Reply-To: <20050402173304.GX44514@numachi.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="nextPart1120269.4cmybxb3xJ"; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; micalg=pgp-sha1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <200504031234.39665.doconnor@gsoft.com.au> X-Spam-Score: -1.9 () IN_REP_TO,MIME_LONG_LINE_QP,PGP_SIGNATURE_2,QUOTED_EMAIL_TEXT,REFERENCES,SPAM_PHRASE_03_05,USER_AGENT X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.16 (www . roaringpenguin . com / mimedefang) Subject: Re: which Wifi cards can be used for a WAP? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 03 Apr 2005 03:04:49 -0000 --nextPart1120269.4cmybxb3xJ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline On Sun, 3 Apr 2005 03:03, Brian Reichert wrote: > Some cards have an antenna built right onto the card, and others > seem to come with a remote antenna that hangs off of a six-foot (or > so) cable. > > The vendors' arguments for the cable arrangment is that it allows > for a more optimal placement of the antenna, but other lore suggests > that the cable itself introduces loss of signal. > > Does anyone have a concrete opinion on this, or can point me in the > right direction for some research? An onboard antenna will suck - if it's a Cardbus card it will be some dinky= =20 PCB dipole with minimal gain (which you can't reorient for your environment= ).=20 If it's a PCI/mini-PCI card then it will be inside your PC and suck even mo= re=20 so they need an external antenna. (And I've never seen a [mini-]PCI wireles= s=20 card without an antenna connector). Lots of cards have a diversity arrangement where they have 2 RF paths, 1 is= on=20 the PCB and the other goes to an external antenna port. If you plug in an=20 external antenna it will almost certainly get more gain and be used in=20 preference.=20 While cable loss can be an important factor it is usually not an issue if y= ou=20 choose appropriate cabling and antennas. It may be a problem if you need to= =20 do a long run (>20m) but that is pretty rare, and in that case you might wa= nt=20 to consider relocating the box to be closer to the antenna (or using a USB= =20 wireless interface :) I would guess most vendors reasoning for not putting an external antenna=20 connector on a card is cost. Most people don't use them on Cardbus interfac= es=20 and they cost a reasonable amount. On my (terribly ancient) DWL-650 card it= =20 has PCB pads for a connector but it isn't used (the shell prevents it) but = it=20 was fairly easy to modify the card to have an external connector. (YMMV,=20 fire/smoke warning etc) =2D-=20 Daniel O'Connor software and network engineer for Genesis Software - http://www.gsoft.com.au "The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from." -- Andrew Tanenbaum GPG Fingerprint - 5596 B766 97C0 0E94 4347 295E E593 DC20 7B3F CE8C --nextPart1120269.4cmybxb3xJ Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQBCT11H5ZPcIHs/zowRAp7aAJ90HQ2tafK07hBb8OMMPj5mwjFF2gCdFwYw ol4xBQ1wE9+odGyv3OuUPO4= =4W9o -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --nextPart1120269.4cmybxb3xJ--