Question : Options for improving wireless signal strength & range

I'll first describe my setup and then what I would like to achieve. If further info is needed to assist, I will provide it.

I have a Dlink DI-804HV broadband router in my basement where my cable modem and core wiring infrastructure is all setup essentially. I have a Dlink DWL-2100AP access point sitting in my kitchen and connected via the network port I have installed there. When sitting in the kitchen or in the general vicinity of the AP, my signal strength is pretty much at its full capacity. However, when I'm upstairs, my signal strength drops down by a 1/3 or even more than half at times. I replaced the original antenna (2dbi) that came with the AP with a 5 dbi omni-directional antenna and that hasn't really helped much. I'd like to boost my signal such that my signal is pretty comparable to what I get in the kitchen area

Some options I see are adding another AP(probably 2100AP) upstairs and configuring it as a repeater and replacing it with the 2nd 5 dbi antenna that I have. I've also looked at the Hawking Tech Higain Directional Corner 15DBi and
Hawking Tech Omni Directional 6DB Antenna. However, will the increase of 1 dbi make that much of a difference? The 15 dbi antenna would seem ideal except the manual indicates that you would want two of us in direct line of sight which would be a problem. Aside from boosting the signal strength, it probably makes sense to extend my range as well now since I could foresee this need in the near future. ARe the options I suggested logical ones or are there some better alternatives? Open to any / all suggestions

TIA

Answer : Options for improving wireless signal strength & range

No matter how good your signal is, connecting over a wired port will always be faster (assuming your wired port is running the very standard 100mbps).  As you indicate that you are copying very large files, I can see now why the signal degradation is important, as opposed to a standard home user who is just interested in browsing the internet over their 2mbps cable modem.  

The second AP is definetly the way to go in your situation.  You always want to go to wired as quickly as possible, so going right from an AP to wire is what you want.  I wouldn't try to mess around with a repeater, there is no reason to deal with an additional wireless link as you have an ethernet port already upstairs.  

As for antennas, the layout of your house has alot to do with the best way to go.  I wouldn't think you would get much of a noticeable jump form 5 dbi to 6 dbi, however going to 15 might be noticeable.  Be aware that with a directional antenna, it will generally have a 10-30 degree field and you will have to point it in the general vicinity where you will be working.  If you get on the other side of it, you will not get a very good signal.  This might make sense if the AP is installed in the corner of you home.

The problems I spoke about have to do with routing.  I looked up the Dlink AP you are using, and if you get another one of those you won't run into the problems I am talking about.  If you still interested in what I meant, read on.

A true access point will not have any routing built into it.  You may have to assign it an IP address to configure it, but beyond that it doesn't care what IP addresses are flowing over it.  It is just a link back to your wired network, where your DHCP and Router and other devices reside.  

With a "wireless router" (AP and router build in the same unit), which are the more common devices you will run into at Best Buy, are really meant to only have 1 per network.  They are meant to bring an internet connection in the WAN port, and serve private network IP's out the other ports (including their wireless).  Now if you put 1 in the kitchen, it will work fine.  It will get an IP address from your network (say 10.0.0.100) or cable modem (depending on how you set it up).  When you connect to it wirelessly, it will serve you a private IP (say 192.168.0.5).    It will use NAT so you can access the rest of you network.  

If you add a second wireless router, it will get an IP address from your network (say 10.0.0.101), and, depending on how you configure it, it will server up another private IP address (say 192.168.1.5) when you connect to it.  Now lets say you walk with your laptop from one wireless zone to the other.  You now have an IP address (192.168.1.5) that will not talk to the other router (which is on a 192.168.0.x subnet).  Even if you configured each wireless router to hand out IP's on the same subnet, you could run into IP address conflicts.  You could configure both wireless routers to hand out IP's on the same subnet, but not with overlapping ranges (i.e. the first hands out 192.168.0.2-100 and the second 192.168.0.101-200), but as you can see this setup has already gotten very messy.

So, after this very long explaination, and second one of those Dlink DWL-2100AP, plugged into your upstairs ethernet connections, set to the same SSID and encryption you have on the kitchen AP, should do the trick for you.  If it is still not fast enough, you really are going to need to be wired.