The Wi-Fi Experience: Everyone’s Guide to 802.11b Wireless Networking

Chapter 6. Putting an Antenna on Your Roof and Elsewhere

<feature><title></title>

In this chapter

• Types of Antennas 92

• What Antennas Do 94

• Wi-Fi Problems and Cures 94

• Improving Communication 97

• Mr. Techno Talks Science 97

• Getting Connected 101

• Tuning Your Antenna 102

• Where to Go from Here 103

</feature>

Antenna installation is both an art and a science. There’s plenty of theory—fat books on the subject. But this chapter, like this book, will focus on practical solutions to Wi-Fi installation issues. We’ll keep the technical details to a minimum.

Before getting into the problems in Wi-Fi LANs that antennas can solve, let’s first establish a ground rule: There are no absolute rules when it comes to antenna design or placement, just as there will never be ...