UniFi AP doesn't have enough range

[ShamedGod]

After finding Gargoyle firmware I haven't looked back. It's the easiest, most versatile, and stable third-party firmware to use. Unfortunately the fault is with my Hardware. I have a UniFi AP that's been a quality product. Unfortunately the range isn't long enough for my current needs.

Where it's located the signal strength in distant rooms gets between 54% to (tops) 73% signal strength depending on a persons location on the edges of it's service area. Looking for another good product, like the UniFi AP, that has a wider omnidirectional radius and works well with Gargoyle Firmware. Replacing the Access Point is the simplest solution.

Something that can go 300 meters would be perfect, but 200 -250 meters should be enough. Anything over 300 meters would be exceptional.

Thank You!

[ShamedGod]

I was considering this:

https://www.ubnt.com/airmax/picostationm/

But wasn't sure what firmware was compatible, if any. The description says up to 500 Meters but indoors is probably half that.

[ispyisail]

Based on my experience gargoyle won't give you maximum range, OEM firmware will

this is how i get maximum range

Code: Select all

internet -- Gargoyle router (Gargoyle firmware)-- ubnt unifi (ubnt firmware)

[ShamedGod]

*Duplicate*

[ShamedGod]

That's disappointing.

Does that mean that it's a limitation of the Firmware, or that changing out the hardware won't necessarily increase the range of the Access Point in that area?

[ispyisail]

That's disappointing.

Does that mean that it's a limitation of the Firmware, or that changing out the hardware won't necessarily increase the range of the Access Point in that area?

Its just the way it is.

I don't know why but I suspect wifi drivers are complex and OEM manufactures have money and time to get it right.

I suspect that getting different hardware might improve range but not more that the firmware it came with.

If you just want it to work use my example above. if you have money and time, have a play with different equipment.

[ShamedGod]

Thank You, I'll play around some more and see if that resolves the issue.

Not liking the stock firmware in most routers/access points is what lead me to Gargoyle; I never considered flashing back to stock could extend the range.

[DoesItMatter]

http://www.gargoyle-router.com/phpbb/vi ... =13&t=3231

Read up on that thread

Besides allowing the extra channels, you can also allow increasing
the output power of your router (if the router is capable)

Yours obviously is capable of more power output.

OpenWRT (which Gargoyle is based on) has some output power
limitations (which can be bypassed if you compile yourself)

This is due to Regulatory regulations for different countries/wireless

Obviously they can't satisfy every country/setting so they pick
the one that satisfies most (but can result in lower power settings)

[ShamedGod]

Nice. For anyone else using this thread I have A UniFi AP running Gargoyle 1.8.0 - I used the gargoyle_1.8.0-ar71xx-generic-ubnt-unifi-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin to upgrade the original 1.71 I had installed earlier this year.

The web shell plugin is limited so I just logged in with Putty. For anyone else who finds this thread skip the web shell plugin and just turn on SSH. For Windows I use Putty.

Changed the country code to US:
iw reg set US

I then used the Reg Hack:
cd /tmp/
wget http://luci.subsignal.org/~jow/reghack/reghack.mips.elf
chmod +x reghack.mips.elf
./reghack.mips.elf /lib/modules/*/ath.ko
./reghack.mips.elf /lib/modules/*/cfg80211.ko
reboot

The device only goes up to channel 9 for some reason now and the power output hasn't changed. So the Modification had a negative effect or doesn't work with 1.80. Signal strength remained the same. Considering the devise was set to use channel 1 this hasn't had any real world effects.

My next step is to compile the custom firmware.