Airport Extreme and External Antenna

[Gnomo]

So, I am looking at getting an apartment that is just outside the range of my college's wireless network. I would like to use wireless bridging to extend the network to include the apartment.

I am looking into getting a Airport Extreme base station and a directional antenna, but I want to make sure it will do what I want/expect it to before I spend $300 for the equipment (I know there may be cheaper alternatives, but they do not seem as functional as Airport).

What I am wondering is: What happens when an external antenna (omni-directional, directional, etc) is plugged in? Does the base station only use the external antenna? Does the base station automatically use both? Does the Airport Admin Utility give you options to choose the antenna to use (i.e. Both or external only)?

I need to be able to use the directional antenna to connect to the schools access point and the internal antenna to connect my iBook and eMac to the network. So, I would appreciate your input. Experiences from people with Airport Extreme base stations would also be helpful.

Thanks in advance.

 

[theed]

While I don't own an extreme version, I'm gonna hafta say ... no.

The external antenna is not an additional transceiver, it's just an antenna, and you either plug it in and use it or you don't. Extending the network through wireless retransmission is sketchy on a good day, and I suspect that it won't work, and in terms of network security it shouldn't work.

The Airport I have, and the documentation I have seen makes no mention of using the wireless connection as the upstream connection. Though it could be used to bridge I believe, that does not make it a client to an established wireless network.

What you're talking about is completely outside the realm of the airport base station. It may be outside the realm of possibility, but more likely it's just outside the realm of reasonable security. In order to do this properly you'd need a modified antenna on another base station within the existing network, you may be able to swing it cheap like and get it to work poorly, but I'd kick you off of my network for pulling a stunt like that. Wireless networking is shared and doing things with high bandwidth and a crappy connection degrade the performance of the network for everyone in that area.

 

[symphonix]

I wouldn't be too sure about that, Theed. I remember reading that the new Airport Extreme base stations added the ability to work as standalone wireless bridges in a way that the previous Airport stations don't.
Besides, as I remember, the previous Airport stations didn't have external antenna ports at all. And with Extreme, they also introduced an add-on directional antenna.
While I don't know if the external antenna can work in tandem with the built-in one, it would not surprise me if it did.

 

[theed]

I will certainly bow to anyone with an actual station that can confirm or deny any of this; but even with the ability to do standalone wireless to wireless bridging, the base station would have to be a client to an existing network. I'm not sure that's going to happen without the cooperation of the guys running the existing wireless network. Either that or the base station would need to be able to designate wireless as the upstream connection to be shared by NAT, which introduces so much complexity for a normal consumer and walks deep into the gray area of wireless security that I doubt Apple would do it. I know for certain they COULD do it, it would just go against everything I know about their consumer product lineup.

If someone can prove me wrong ... I'd go and buy an Airport Extreme immediately, and revise my interpretation of the Airport base station as a consumer oriented product. I read the propaganda on the airport extreme before posting, and it mentioned nothing of wireless to wireless bridging. There has to be someone in here who has one and could say yay or nay to this whole deal.

Speaking of throwing socks at the wall ... my apartment right now is all rough cut lumber with a heavy coat varnish. You can scrape yourself up on it pretty easily, and you can hang clothes from the rafters like they're velcro. This is cool with cotton, not at all recommended for silkier fabrics. ;-)