Aironet 1310 and external Omni 5.2dbi antenna

[Burgal]

Hi there.

I have two AIR-ANT2506 antenna on a mast with an aironet 1310g access point. I have this mounted to the roof of my building. I recently installed this, trying to get wireless phone coverage of our parking lot.

The problem is that, even when the ap is on its own channel, I can only go about 30m with line of site to the antenna and then the signal drops off to a point where its not usuable to carry on a conversation. The signal strength is very low and in fact I can get better reception using inour APs with rubber ducky antennae than I can with this omni directional antenna.

I wondering if there is anything I need to do to get the AP to work better with these antenna.

So far I have unpacked and installed AP with antenna. Configured AP with IP, default radio settings with long preamble. QoS settings and vlans/encrption and mbssids.

Any advice?

Thanks

 

[apishko]

Burgal,

Are there any obstructions in the parking lot, metal poles, trees, etc that could be reflecting the signal. Keep in mind that visual line of site and RF line of site are two very different things. Also, using a 5.2 dbi antenna focuses the RF beam, decreasing your vertical beamwidth. So since this is mounted on top of a building using the higher dbi antenna would give you a longer range but may not allow users on the ground to receive adequate signal since it's more focused and may actually be above them. I'd recommend either decreasing the dbi or using multiple directional antennas pointed at various spots to increase the coverage.

Hope this helps,

Alex