Hi all,

I have a WRT54GL (v1.1) running WhiteRussian and the x-wrt interface. I noticed under the Advanced Wireless tab that I could play with the power settings (antenna power?). By default it was set at 28mW and my Mac was detecting the signal strength to be around 62 or 63%(from a distance of 2meters). Testing higher power settings didn't increase the signal strength that much. The max strength I saw was 72% with 250mW power settings. Is this normal? Does anyone get better signal with this setup?

surroundings: there are around 5 or 6 other wireless networks around mine with good enough strength (between 50 and 63%) and I have a 2.4GHz motorola cordless phone (was not working when I was testing the power settings). The noise seems to be about 9% in the surroundings.

What would radio experts say about the signal I am getting? Is it around what I should expect or not?

Thanks for the wonderful openwrt firmware.

The radios in most of the Broadcom based routers suck.  Sure they can increase transmission power, but they can't do it cleanly; as the power increases they flood the spectrum with garbage.  Often times people may notice an increase in signal strength, but a decrease in throughput as they raise the transmission power.  Boosting Tx power on one end also does not help as much as most people think it does; while your computer may be able to "hear" the router since it is "speaking louder", but the router will not be able to "hear" the computer better. If you need a better signal, invest in better antennas, they will aid both Tx and Rx.

Also keep in mind that increased transmission power increases the heat output from the radio; this can adversely effect the life-span of the device.

In regards to the percentages your wireless driver is feeding you, those can be quite arbitrary and can vary from card to card, and driver to driver.  We have no way of knowing what those numbers correspond to with your setup.

Thanks for the reply and clarification. I later remembered that increasing the power of the signal would also result in an increase in noise level too (Analog Comm 101). As for the heat output for increased power, I had anticipated that and put the router in front of the air conditioner just in case.