July 14, 2008 8:29 PM
I just like DD-WRT, of course YMMV. :) I run my wireless at 70 and have no problems reaching the second story far bedroom.
The idea was to put netstumbler on your computer in the basement and then tuning your antennas on your router to get the best signal.
But, using an USB lan driver I don't think you can.
There might be something included in the USB software that could read signal strength. Might want to check that.
ACK timiming...
Adjusts the ACK timing in Atheros typical way based on the maximum distance in meters:
* 0 disables ACK timing completely
* 1 - 999999 adjusts ACK timing
The default is 2000 meters.
When a packet is sent out from the router, it waits for an "ACKnowledgement" frame from the other end. The router will wait for a response until a certain amount of time has elapsed, called the "ACK timeout" (or "window").
Conventional wisdom holds that should be set to the maximum distance in meters x 2 (doubled to account for round-trip). For example, if you roam with your laptop up to 50 meters from your AP, the setting would be 100.
Under nominal conditions (obstructions, power limitations, in-band interference, etc), the usable range of 802.11b/g is perhaps less than 100 meters, so it might seem that this setting should never exceed 200. However, if using a directional antenna that boosts range, timing needs would increase. Maximum theoretical ACK timeouts are approximately 744µs (11 km) for 802.11b, and 372µs (55 km) for 802.11g. There have been reports of experimental, assisted WiFi connections in excess of 40 kilometers plus.
Another use for ACK might be for restricting the distance at which people can connect. This could be useful for WDS access points or for minimizing the zone of connectivity.
Keep in mind, the higher the ACK timing, the lower the throughput will be. If set too high, packets could be lost as the router waits for the ACK window to timeout. Conversely, if ACK is set too low, the window will expire too soon and returning packets could be dropped, also lowering throughput.
WDS:
WDS (Wireless Distribution Service) creates a wireless backbone link between multiple access points that are part of the same wireless network. This allows a wireless network to be expanded using multiple access points without the need for a wired backbone to link them, as is traditionally required. The WDS-enabled access points can accept wireless clients (e.g. wireless laptop users) just as traditional APs would.
Also take note of the fact that all repeaters, including this WDS Repeater mode, will sacrifice half of the bandwidth available from the primary router for clients wirelessly connected to the repeater. This is a result of the repeater taking turns talking to not just one partner, but to two, and having to relay the traffic between them. As long as your bandwidth requirements are within this halved bandwidth amount there will be little or no reduction in "speed".
But my recommendation is to use a wireless bridge.
Wireless Bridging is used to connect two LAN segments via a wireless link. The two segments will be in the same subnet and look like two Ethernet switches connected by a cable to all computers on the subnet. Since the computers are on the same subnet, broadcasts will reach all machines, allowing DHCP clients in one segment to get their addresses from a DHCP server in a different segment. You could use a Wireless Bridge to transparently connect computer(s) in one room to computer(s) in a different room when you could not, or did not want to run an Ethernet cable between the rooms. Contrast this with Client Mode Wireless, where the local wireless device running DD-WRT connects to the remote router as a client, creating two separate subnets. Since the computers within the different subnets cannot see each other directly, this requires the enabling of NAT between the wireless and the wired ports, and setting up port forwarding for the computers behind the local wireless device. Segments connected via Client Mode Wireless cannot share a DHCP server.
I use 2 modified WRT54G, running DD-WRT and put one into bridged mode. Connect it wired to the desktop and then it connects wirelessly to the other router. Gets me great speeds and distance.
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