Cisco E4200 Antenna Mod (no solder)

Cisco E4200 Antenna Mod (no solder)

I have an e4200 dualband a/b/g/n from Cisco (linksys).

Frankly, its reception in a medium/large home sucks. I have it on a bookshelf in my living room on the south side of the house, while my son's Roku is on the north side of the home. I ended up buying a signal booster just so we could reach the bedroom. I also tried a PowerLine Adapter but I have an older model that was maxing out at 9mbps.

I went ahead an purchased this, that includes 2 7dbi high gain antennas with the proper connectors for the board.

It was really a snap to install, considering all of the antennas on this model have a connector (as opposed to being soldered on).

Here are some pics.

The end result? About a 10 dbi gain in the office when the antennas are aimed properly!

My Workbench Project Part II

My Workbench Project

Ok so I made a couple of on the fly decisions when I went to the hardware store. I opted to purchase 2x3s instead of 2x4s - I purchased 10 total (the previous quote + 4 for the legs).

Total cost: was $19.50 (I think it was actually $16 but I lost the receipt, it isnt showing up on MyLowes, and the online price was $1.95 / 2x3 so I just did the math)

I also updated the design on the fly to remove the center 4 angle braces. Here are the updated drawings

I made the legs out of 2 - 2x3s butted up against each other. I'm a tall guy so I made the leg height 3.5' - Here is a side profile with the measurements.

When I was at the hardware store I tried to pick the straightest wood I could, but I did end up with one piece that through me out of square, but it was only by about 1/8th of an inch - so no big deal. Here is the other side:

I have that much built now, but the garage is a mess so I dont have much room to take pictures. I'll get those uploaded tomorrow.

Thats all for now - Time to go watch some Game of Thrones!

My Workbench Project

My Workbench Project

So today I decided to start my work bench project. Hopefully in a week or so I will have a very sturdy, adjustable height workbench. Once this bench is finished I plan to start the remainder of my shelves in the garage. The overall goal here is to get everything of of the floor, organized, and the floor painted to prevent further wear.

To start I downloaded sketchup.

Once it was downloaded and installed I set out designing my Workbench. When I first began I had not yet decided to make this table adjustable. Here is the design of the top, fairly basic, should be sturdy.

You'll have to forgive my lack of sketchup-foo here.... I remembered this being easier when it was a Google project.

This is intended to be made out of standard 2x4s

corner braces = 2 (2x4)

long sides = 2 (2x4)

short sides = 1 (2x4)

cross beams= 1 (2x4)

I checked Lowes' website and the 2x4s were going for $2.64 so the total so far is: $15.84

I'll be headed out here in a few to buy the wood and construct the top - Updates to follow

Continued in Part II