The internet connection and my office is in the upper NW corner of my house. My living room is in the lower SE corner. My media devices and most of my wireless use is in my living room. It’s as far away from the router as possible. An idea I had was to somehow attach an extension cable to the antenna and mount it in a more central location in the house for better wireless coverage.
I can’t move the the router because I have several computers hardwired to the base. I know I can add a wireless extender or add another base unit, but I don’t want to do that because of the wasted electricity. I have tried an omnidirectional antenna but didn’t get much improvement.
So is it possible to have the wireless antenna 30-50 feet away from the base unit? If so, any tips on how to do it?
Any antenna extension cable will introduce signal losses and you may end up with about the same result despite having the antenna closer.
It’s a directional type antenna that you want, not an omnidirectional which is what the standard antenna on the AP is anyway. This will redirect energy toward your living room. A good directional antenna can give you up to 7-10 dB of gain.
An easier solution is add a network switch in your office and use a long CAT 6 Ethernet cable to relocate the AP.
There is no point in trying to use an extension cable on the antenna.
Just turn off the wireless on your router. Buy a dedicated wireless access point (no router functionality required). Run an ethernet cable from the router to the access point.
The wasted electricity will be minimal, approximately $5 / year.
EDIT: Alternatively, this is a better idea - just move the router to your living room, hook your computers up to an ethernet switch in whatever room they’re in, and connect the switch and router with a single ethernet cable. This is the whole point of an ethernet switch. You only need a cheap one like this:
http://www.netgear.com/products/home/wireless-range-extenders/unmanaged-switches/FS605.aspx
one of my customers was able to crimp the same style bnc connectors that his router used onto coax cable and do exactly as you are suggesting. It worked better than just letting the wireless sit as was, but YMMV he already had the tools and cable laying around.