High Power Access Points?

airbornflght

Is there any advantage to say a 400mw or 600mw wireless access point when the client is not as high power. Because in my reasoning if the host can only receive the signal but can't send back because lack of transmit power then what good is it?

More importantly, if you were in the market for an access point, which one of the two, if any, would you get?
D-Link
EnGenius

If you don't like either, which would you recommend. It is important that it support 802.1x radius authentication. It should also be stable.

kryyst

The point of a high output antenna is that is sends out a stronger signal that will give better coverage and at a longer range. Your client's power is not part of the equation.

airbornflght

Maybe I'm not thinking logically, but lets assume the client is at the point where the ap's signal starts to drop off. If the client is only 25% as powerful as the ap then how can the client successfully transmit back to the ap? Say the ap has a 400mw radio and the client has a 100mw radio (which would be fairly high power iirc)

RWB

airbornflght wrote:

Maybe I'm not thinking logically, but lets assume the client is at the point where the ap's signal starts to drop off. If the client is only 25% as powerful as the ap then how can the client successfully transmit back to the ap? Say the ap has a 400mw radio and the client has a 100mw radio (which would be fairly high power iirc)

I think the high powered antenna is also more sensitive to allow the weaker client to send and receive info just fine despite the weak power of the client.

Missileman

airbornflght wrote:

Maybe I'm not thinking logically, but lets assume the client is at the point where the ap's signal starts to drop off. If the client is only 25% as powerful as the ap then how can the client successfully transmit back to the ap? Say the ap has a 400mw radio and the client has a 100mw radio (which would be fairly high power iirc)

You're right. Good signal and throughput is a two way affair. I tried a power booster on several of my long distance AP with +9 or +15 db antenna. Receive strength was great but couldn't connect. Boost return and all was fine. The USR MAXG stuff is all 100mw output from the box and I have it setup in building to building in several places. Stays up for months and never a problem. Cheap too.