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Wireless (Apple) Businesses Wireless Networking Apple Hardware

How To Add An External Antenna To AirPort Base Station 60

An anonymous reader writes "I came across this article yesterday on how to add an external antenna to an airport base station 2.0 in order to extend its range. Takes about 20-30 mins to complete and with the instructions is very easy."
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How To Add An External Antenna To AirPort Base Station

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  • By Airport 2.0, are you referring to the Airport Extreme base station?
    • Re:Hmm (Score:5, Funny)

      by Oculus Habent ( 562837 ) * <(oculus.habent) (at) (gmail.com)> on Monday September 29, 2003 @08:24AM (#7083953) Journal
      The AirPort 802.11b "Snow" as opposed to the "Graphite"

      I like the simplicity of the "one name" naming scheme, but it's a PITA to figure things out when someone says, "It's an iMac."

      What color?

      Blue.

      Bondi, Blueberry, or Indigo?

      It's a light blue.

      Does it have a DVD-ROM drive?

      I dunno.

      Is it slot-loading?

      What does that mean?

      It means I'll come over tomorrow.
      • Re:Hmm (Score:3, Funny)

        by MalleusEBHC ( 597600 )
        Apple used to have an easy solution for this by giving logical names to the different Powermac models such as "Yikes," "Yosemite," and "Sawtooth." However, they abandoned this in favor of non-descript names like "Quicksilver" and "Mirror Drive Door." For the life of me, I can't figure out how people remember model names now.
        • Re:Hmm (Score:1, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward
          Same way when a car pass them, some people can name the Make, Model and Year of a car.
        • Re:Hmm (Score:3, Informative)

          by Phroggy ( 441 ) *
          Actually Yikes, Yosemite and Sawtooth were internal code-names, never intended to be used by the public. The official public names of Yikes and Sawtooth names are "PowerMac G4 (PCI Graphics)" and "PowerMac G4 (AGP Graphics)" respectively, and the systems are distinguished by the orientation of the headphone and microphone jacks on the back (horizontal or vertical, I forget which is which). And, the code-name "Yikes" actually did make sense - Sawtooth was supposed to be the motherboard they used when the G
      • The problem is, Apple used to have lots of confusing model numbers.

        Which is better, a 5400 [lowendmac.com], a 6300 [lowendmac.com], a 7200 [lowendmac.com], or an 8100 [sunrem.com]? Normal people couldn't figure that mess out. The only clear rule seemed to be that three-digit model numbers were m68k and 4-digit model numbers were PowerPC.

        Then they introduced the PowerMac G3, and ditched model numbers entirely. This was around the time Apple acquired NeXT and Steve Jobs; I don't recall whether the naming of the G3 systems was before Jobs' arrival or not. In any c
        • huh? (Score:4, Funny)

          by commodoresloat ( 172735 ) on Tuesday September 30, 2003 @03:52PM (#7097631)
          Which is better, a 5400, a 6300, a 7200, or an 8100? Normal people couldn't figure that mess out.

          What part of "more is better" couldn't "normal people" understand?

      • Re:Hmm (Score:2, Funny)

        by dwightk ( 415372 )
        What kind of PC do you have?

        -uhh... it's greay and has some stickers on the front...

        Does it have USB?

        -whats that?

        Is it a Dell or what?

        -I get email on it...

        don't really see the difference... sure there is an Inspiron 230000000 and a 2300000001, but what is the difference between the two?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 29, 2003 @07:45AM (#7083736)
    Here's a tutorial to get external antenna for the first generation Airport Base station:
    http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/Airpo rt.html
  • by Sillypuddy ( 553215 ) on Monday September 29, 2003 @08:07AM (#7083847)
    http://www.vonwentzel.net/ABS/ExtendedExtreme/ Also tells you the difference between the modem version and the regular version of the airport extreme -joe
  • There are two models of the airport extreme base station, and the other model ships with an antenna port. Of course if you want to save money and invalidate your warranty, then thats your business.
    • by YouHaveSnail ( 202852 ) on Monday September 29, 2003 @11:55AM (#7085987)
      Or if you want to extend the range of the AirPort 802.11b base station that you already own, and whose warrantee has very likely already expired, then that too is your business.

      It's useful to point out that the performance of any 802.11[abg] base station, Bluetooth node, cell phone, cordless phone, or really any RF device depends an awful lot on the environment in which it operates. Obstacles, reflections, and interference from other devices all play a role. So your AirPort base station may work great when you bring it home, but not so great when you move to a different apartment with different walls. Adding an antenna to your existing unit may improve the performance for a lot less money than adding another base station or replacing your entire network with AirPort Extreme.
  • Why not Dr. Bott? (Score:2, Interesting)

    The Dr. Bott antenna (which you just plug in and reboot and it works) isn't much more than the one they recommend.

    Alex.
    • And that would be all well and good if he was using the upper end Airport Extreme base station. He is using an Airport Base Station 2.0, which does not have an external antenna port.
  • by floydigus ( 415917 ) on Monday September 29, 2003 @08:41AM (#7084093)
    Wiping your backside - a howto with easy to follow diagrams.

    I mean - did this really need the photostory treatment?
  • That this guy doesn't know how to spell. You can't drill a whole in anything. You drill a hole.

  • by adelayde ( 185757 ) on Monday September 29, 2003 @09:07AM (#7084292) Homepage

    I already had an article I wrote [flakey.info] regarding pigtailing the Airport on Slashdot [slashdot.org]back in April, so why the same story? I notice that there's a bit of repition here, there was another story published on /. recently [slashdot.org] that was also covered in the same article I wrote [flakey.info].

    I'm not trying to say I did it first here and I appreciate that others may have different or better information, but to be honest, I can't see that this article improves over what I wrote before. My article covers pigtailing the airport and the use of a number of different types of home made antennae with the base station, including range tests as well as disecting both the Aiport and Airport Extreme.

    Perhaps the editors should check a little harder about previous postings when weighing up whether to publish new ones?

  • ...he's only 16 after all.

If you steal from one author it's plagiarism; if you steal from many it's research. -- Wilson Mizner

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