TR Forums

I've got a Netgear MR814v2 right now, and it's a nice router... but besides my itching to upgrade from b to g, I need something with a removable antenna so I can boost the range on this thing (even one of those relatively cheap 6db omni antennas would work), and this thing's antenna is, well, not removable (without some hacking beyond my sk1llz )

The only Netgear 11g stuff that I see that has a removable antenna is their expensive "prosafe" stuff, and, well, I've never used a non-Netgear WAP before. I've also been burned on Linksys and D-Link before, so I'm hesitant to go there again, unless people are willing to vouch for them now...

What are my best choices for "cheap" + "removable antenna" in the 11g world?

All the LinkSys stuff I've seen has the antennas on standard BNC connectors so you can run bog-standard coax to them. You might want to have a look through these reviews.

Linksys uses RP-TNC connectors, and D-Link (and some Netgear) use RP-SMA.

I recently bought my 8th D-Link AP, and haven't had any problems. When it comes to routers, I find that Linksys has more flexible configuration info, so I go with them whenever I need more than wireless bridging capability (my primary use of access points).

One thing you have to consider with extending range is this: communication is two-way. Just because your router's signal can reach your client, doesn't mean the client can reach the router.

http://www.netgear.com/products/details/WG602.php

--SS

SecretSquirrel wrote:

http://www.netgear.com/products/details/WG602.php

--SS

Umm.. hello.. what part of "removable antenna" did you not understand?

danazar wrote:

SecretSquirrel wrote:

http://www.netgear.com/products/details/WG602.php

--SS

Umm.. hello.. what part of "removable antenna" did you not understand?

Having never owned one, I can't verify, but according to the specs pdf, it has a "Single detachable 2dBi antenna".

Link: http://www.netgear.com/pdf_docs/WG602_ds_23Nov04.pdf

Mirage wrote:

Having never owned one, I can't verify, but according to the specs pdf, it has a "Single detachable 2dBi antenna".

Link: http://www.netgear.com/pdf_docs/WG602_ds_23Nov04.pdf

Yeah, I have a couple of these and the antenna does come off. It uses a reverse SMA connector instead of the larger type N connector that the older Linksys APs have.

EDIT: Keep in mind the WG602 is just an access point, not a router.

danazar wrote:

SecretSquirrel wrote:

http://www.netgear.com/products/details/WG602.php

--SS

Umm.. hello.. what part of "removable antenna" did you not understand?

Hrm, looks pretty removable to me.

http://www.supersecret.org/TR_Threads/wg602_ant.jpg

And no need to worry about the h4x0r skills either. This one gave up it's miniPCI card for my laptop and is being used as an embedded linux development platform, hence the reason it's taken apart. The antenna simply unscrews from the back of the AP. As Steel pointed out though , it is only a AP, not a router.

--SS

SecretSquirrel wrote:

danazar wrote:

SecretSquirrel wrote:

http://www.netgear.com/products/details/WG602.php

--SS

Umm.. hello.. what part of "removable antenna" did you not understand?

Hrm, looks pretty removable to me.

http://www.supersecret.org/TR_Threads/wg602_ant.jpg

Apologies... I mistook it for the router in that class I looked at, the WGR614 (which, at least the version I looked at, had a non-detachable antenna... however, there's no real details on that on the website, and they seem to be up to a "v5" now on it, so maybe there's a version floating around out there with one.. know anything about that?)

EDIT: It's so frustrating, on a number of the Netgear router info sheets, it simply lists the antenna as "2db", they don't even say fixed OR removable...

danazar wrote:

Apologies... I mistook it for the router in that class I looked at, the WGR614 (which, at least the version I looked at, had a non-detachable antenna... however, there's no real details on that on the website, and they seem to be up to a "v5" now on it, so maybe there's a version floating around out there with one.. know anything about that?)

EDIT: It's so frustrating, on a number of the Netgear router info sheets, it simply lists the antenna as "2db", they don't even say fixed OR removable...

Yeah, I went looking after I took that pic. Best I can tell, the WGR614 doesn't have a removable antenna in any version. From the few datasheets I have read on the Netgear site, it it doesn't explicitly say "detachable" or "removable", it's probably not.

--SS

danazar wrote:

Apologies... I mistook it for the router in that class I looked at, the WGR614 (which, at least the version I looked at, had a non-detachable antenna... however, there's no real details on that on the website, and they seem to be up to a "v5" now on it, so maybe there's a version floating around out there with one.. know anything about that?)

EDIT: It's so frustrating, on a number of the Netgear router info sheets, it simply lists the antenna as "2db", they don't even say fixed OR removable...

I have one of those as well and the antenna definitely does not come off.