Seeking Wifi cable vendors ...

November 7, 2009 1:23 PM

Help me find a good WiFi 'cable extender' vendor ...

Point me in the direction of a good (cheap) vendor for WiFi 'extension' cables? They need to ship to the US.

I have several situations where I'm looking to extend the distance between a Wifi device and its antenna by adding a 5 or 10 foot extension cable where the antenna screws into the device.

I.e. I need a cable 'extender' for a Linksys WMP54GS PCI card, a Linksys WRT54G, and some various Netgear devices -- all of which seem to have different screw-type connectors and plastic antenna connector thingies.

(Bonus points if you have already done business with the company and would recommend them to others.)

posted by bhance to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

I believe what you want is a coaxial cable. Here's a chart of the sizes vendors use for their wifi adapters. Ideally, Radio Shack will sell the right size, but failing that, you can buy a crimper and the right jacks from the store. You could even hook it up to a larger wifi antenna or one meant for outdoors if your application would be better served by that.

For the Linksys WMP54GS, you'll want a RP-SMA plug, according to the chart. A male RP-TNC plug will work with the WRT54G (assuming it's the type with removable antennas, but I assume you've checked that).

Buy.com and Amazon both sell adapters (to use with standard TV coaxial cables) and cables. Just search for the size of the jack you want.
posted by mccarty.tim at 1:38 PM on November 7, 2009

I recommend against making the cable yourself. It is difficult to make good microwave cables without practice and it is not obvious when you've done it incorrectly.

I also recommend you do not purchase adapters and use TV coax. TV coax is 75 ohm, but your WiFi antenna will have a 50 ohm impedance. Not good.

Don't bother looking for this stuff at a brick-and-mortar retail store like Radio Shack. There are plenty of online stores that sell WiFI antennas and cables. Buy a cable from one of them.
posted by ryanrs at 4:27 PM on November 7, 2009

These are often called "pigtails", so you may have luck using that as a search term.
posted by hattifattener at 6:48 PM on November 7, 2009

You might want to look in to a repeater like this one http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/WRE54G from Linksys. I set this up in my Mom's house last summer due to microwave oven interference and it did a good job till it magically stopped connecting last month--and I live in Japan so I can't just go back to fix it. Bleh. Anyhow, when it was working it did a good job and might be what you are looking for. Warning. It's a pain to set up.
posted by sleepytako at 5:57 AM on November 8, 2009