Magnolia tree

[onlythe lonely]

We have a free community wifi node about 8-10 block from my house.My son can only get a signal in front of the Magnolia tree near the street. He also has to go 50-75 feet to one side of the tree to get a signal.We mounted an omni directional antenna about 20 feet on the roof of the house, still no go. His house is 3-4 block farther away but in a different direction.

The relay node is farther away than my house but in a different direction.
We come to the conclusion the evergreen shiny leaves on the tree does something to the signal.

Are we off base or is there someting else we can try.

thanks

[purehate]

This has nothing to do with backtrack. Moving to general IT.

[hawaii67]

Well, the best of course is when you have a line-of-sight to the transmitter.
If unobstructed, radio waves will travel in a straight line from the transmitter to the receiver. But if there are obstacles near the path, the radio waves reflecting off those objects may arrive out of phase with the signals that travel directly and reduce the power of the received signal.
So it is best when you have a clear Line-of-sight (LoS) between receiver and transmitter.
In your case, a sector antenna or a yagi will be more effective but if you have too many obstacles in the LoS you are lost.....

[streaker69]

The relay node is farther away than my house but in a different direction.
We come to the conclusion the evergreen shiny leaves on the tree does something to the signal.

Are we off base or is there someting else we can try.

thanks

You really have hit upon the problem, and I'm quite surprised. Most people never stop to think about these kinds of issues. The high water content as well as the sharp edges of pine needles have a scattering effect in the 2.4ghz range.

You'll need to discuss the issue with the Wifi provider to see if they can place a repeater node somewhere closer that is not interfered with by the trees.

Or cut the tree down.

[imported_BaconZombie]

Before you cut down the tree, have you tried Wifi Speed Spray?

You really have hit upon the problem, and I'm quite surprised. Most people never stop to think about these kinds of issues. The high water content as well as the sharp edges of pine needles have a scattering effect in the 2.4ghz range.

You'll need to discuss the issue with the Wifi provider to see if they can place a repeater node somewhere closer that is not interfered with by the trees.

Or cut the tree down.

[Virchanza]

We have a free community wifi node about 8-10 block from my house.

Is there power lines going from your house to the wifi node... ? Two reasons I ask:

1) You could run a really long Ethernet cable alongside the power cables.
2) You could run the Ethernet signal actually on the power wire using one of those yoke-a-ma-jiggy's people use. Only thing though, I hear transformers wreak havoc on signals.

[streaker69]

Is there power lines going from your house to the wifi node... ? Two reasons I ask:

1) You could run a really long Ethernet cable alongside the power cables.
2) You could run the Ethernet signal actually on the power wire using one of those yoke-a-ma-jiggy's people use. Only thing though, I hear transformers wreak havoc on signals.

You should never run CAT5 cable parallel to anything carrying 60hz power. It will cause an inductive interference into the cable. CAT5 cable should always cross power lines at right angles to minimize the possibility of inductive interference.

Also, no one but the power company or authorized leaser's of the power company are string anything on the poles.

Plus, the maximum distance you can run CAT5 is 100M or 328F. Chances are they're further away than that, plus the cost of getting exterior CAT5 cable would make it not so cost effective. Standard indoor CAT5 cable is not UV stabilized and will rot in about a year's worth of exposure to sunlight, plus squirrels just love to chew on the stuff as well.

[onlythe lonely]

Before you cut down the tree, have you tried Wifi Speed Spray[/URL]?

nah; but I have cast salt around the house

[streaker69]

nah; but I have cast salt around the house

I don't think grey slugs are interfering with your Wifi, although they are high in water content so if you have enough of them I guess it could.

[onlythe lonely]

You really have hit upon the problem, and I'm quite surprised. Most people never stop to think about these kinds of issues. The high water content as well as the sharp edges of pine needles have a scattering effect in the 2.4ghz range.

You'll need to discuss the issue with the Wifi provider to see if they can place a repeater node somewhere closer that is not interfered with by the trees.

Or cut the tree down.

Thanks for reply, got caught in noob delay and had to wait .A lot of Deciduous Trees and they do not seem to give as much problem as the evergreen.The way we were to get the signal in front and to the side of the tree sort of narrow it down. we have never been satified as to letting go when something does not work , we usually try to find why it does not work.
cutting is out that was one of the reason wife like the house.

Is there power lines going from your house to the wifi node... ? Two reasons I ask:

1) You could run a really long Ethernet cable alongside the power cables.
2) You could run the Ethernet signal actually on the power wire using one of those yoke-a-ma-jiggy's people use. Only thing though, I hear transformers wreak havoc on signals.

The 25 feet to the outside antennae for the omi directional wireless ; that coax cost more than a roll of rg6 that I have.

I also have a transformers on the back edge of the lot.Looks like a bad location.