Re: WiFi range ...

On 7/31/26 19:00, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
> On Sun, 31 May 2026 21:19:08 -0700, Lars Poulsen wrote:
> 
>> My company's high reliability radios use essentially 20 year old WiFi
>> technology, and we have customers than routinely run them over distances
>> of 5-10 km.
> 
> In the early days of wi-fi, when many people were using it to set up
> point-to-point links to extend access to those limited early broadband
> deployments, it was common to use an empty Pringles chip can as a
> high-gain antenna.

   Saw an article where somebody spliced in a REAL antenna
   to a RPi - and got a HUGE range increase. Probably illegal
   but, really, nobody's checking.

   WiFi has pretty shitty range. The 2ghz band tends to
   work better - 5ghz is more blocked by obstacles.

   I have a big enough property where I had to buy
   an 'extender' to improve coverage to out-buildings.
   Not expensive, several makers have them, work OK.
   Had best success with TP-Link. Setup can be a bit
   weird, counter-intuitive, but you'll get it.

   Some of the older data links - 400 or 900mhz band -
   do have kilometer+ range. However the data rate
   might not meet modern needs. Ya ain't gonna be
   streaming 8K over them.