"Wayne" wrote in message
...

"JB" wrote in message
...
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I have need of a directional antenna for a 30 foot path within the
house.
(the microwave oven wipes out the signal).

Yikes! I have never seen that. I would be concerned about leakage.
Sometimes I have torn into things and found stupid stuff like paint over
grounding surfaces or rust in the compartment. There is a critical
ground
around the probe entrance.


The laptop computer is downstairs about 10 feet from the microwave, and
the
wireless router is upstairs about 30 feet away with a desktop(and the path
goes through three walls and the floor. The microwave doesn't wipe out
the
laptop, but slows things down a bit. A directional antenna would solve
the
problem. I'm not trying to increase range at all.

It would certainly be best to remove the interference. If you have 4 bars
now, 5 bars might not do away with the problem. Moving the microwave just
5' more might be enough. You may have to bite the bullet and put in some
wiring to move the router.

Some of these guys are prone to take a practical problem like yours and turn
it into a full-blown engineering problem or a swap meet for their break
through technology or even an opportunity to throw mud. One engineering
problem we faced was how to contain UHF security and housekeeping repeaters
to a high rise building and it's underground structure. The final result
was 99% coverage in the building and the parking structure, but when
security went off the property, the radios went away. Visits to other
buildings showed no coverage there either. We had to do that for both
security and so we could get co-ordinated for licensing in an urban area.
But it was a multi-million dollar system. This is free.

Placing one of those in an upstairs room is an invitation to the neighbors.
I run a combination of wired and wireless. Wired to the desktop and to a
port replicator for the laptop and wireless to a print server with several
printers in a shop area, and the AP is off unless I want to roam around or
do print jobs. There are times I have printed from the laptop, wireless in
the shop to baby-sit print jobs, but it keeps the office clear and quiet.
One of these days I will have to run a cat5 out to the shop. It is simply
faster and more secure. The end result is my router, 1 foot off the floor
with the power set to 50% to do all I need to do.