Tips: Increase WLAN range

Network access throughout the house via WLAN is a practical thing. It allows laptops, smartphones or Webradios to have wireless data access and has now reached speed ranges which often do not allow the desire for a cable solution – and that in the house. Or almost everywhere.


Spread


Because already in an average row house or a sprawling dwelling can one or other Funkloch open. A single-family house from the cellar to the attic or to provide a whole company with a single WLAN access point is usually a hopeless undertaking.


MIMO makes it possible


How to set up a home network


Even more difficult is the situation when longer distances - e.g. With a citizen network or a network connection to the next company building around the corner. Even under optimal conditions - ie with an unobstructed visual connection in open terrain - standard WLAN equipment is only a few hundred meters possible. A laubbaum or brick wall becomes an insurmountable obstacle.


The problem is the high radio frequencies that use WLAN. At 2.4 or even 5 GHz, the propagation of the radio waves more and more resembles that of the light. Each obstacle between the transmitter and the receiver therefore leads to a significant attenuation - the message technician speaks of attenuation - of the signal.


Although the WLAN radio waves penetrate massive barriers like walls and ceilings in contrast to light, the strength of the signal decreases and thus also the quality of the connection. This again results in a drop in the data rate. Gypsum and brick walls penetrate WLAN waves quite well - at least as long as they are dry.


Buying advice: Wireless router


Due to the inevitable residual moisture of the natural material, wooden walls can already constitute a major obstacle. Concrete, or the steel reinforcement in it, is even more detrimental. Correspondingly, reinforced concrete ceilings, as are commonly used in house construction, are serious obstacles to a usable WLAN connection.


Within their own four walls, reflections also occur on walls, furniture or persons that spontaneously lead to the amplification or attenuation up to the complete extinction of the signal.


WLAN routers or access points with MIMO antenna technology are far less sensitive to disturbing reflections. MIMO (Multiple In Multiple Out) can even use the different propagation paths of the radio waves caused by reflections to increase the data rate. To do this, the devices use several antennas at the same time.


MIMO antenna technology has already been established since the 802.11g standard for some WLAN routers and access points (APs), but it is only standardized since the WLAN standard 802.11n. In the case of difficult reception conditions in the own four walls, the switch from an older router, which is still working with 802.11b / g, to a modern MIMO device with 802.11n can be the decisive improvement. In our experience, the WLAN gaps in the domestic environment are thus closing.


Unfortunately MIMO is not everywhere MIMO, where MIMO is in it. On the other hand, 802.11n WLAN devices do not necessarily have to support MIMO. Thus, e.g. In compact USB WLAN sticks simply and effortlessly no room for the complex antenna technology. Also, various low-cost routers, APs, repeaters and notebooks are not able to handle more than one data stream due to a lack of two or more antennas.


Here, the data transfer rate is indicated. If 150 MBit / s is on the pack, there is probably no MIMO in it. 300 MBit / s can only be achieved with two antennas (2x2 MIMO), for 450 MBit / s the three and 600 Bit / s are only possible with four parallel data streams and thus four antennas. The mere antenna counting helps only conditionally. Devices with two antennas can be restricted to simple diversity.