Radio Power settings

[gusto_nl]

For all users who want to make the transmission power of the Asus wl-500g more powerfull but don't no if they should or how to use the option "Radio Power" in the wireless setting menu.
The standard setting "19" can't be nothing else than "dBm value" (i think).
Here is a link to a website with worldwide regulations and a online "dBm to mW" calculator.

http://www.retro-city.co.uk/bovistech/wireless/help.htm

I've set it to "20" dBm what is the same as 100 mW. The maximum alowed in Europe. And it works fine.

I don't think it is wise to make it run 84 dBm mentioned somewhere else in this forum.

Good luck,

gusto_NL (wl-500g fw 1.7.5.6)

[Technik]

Originally posted by gusto_nl

The standard setting "19" can't be nothing else than "dBm value"

No, you are wrong!
The TX power value is in mW!

BTW the calculator is nice.

[Antiloop]

Originally posted by Technik
No, you are wrong!
The TX power value is in mW!

BTW the calculator is nice.

to support your answer..

at the calc page it's also declared 'why'

Maximum Output Power - Geographic Region - Compliance Document
100 mW (EIRP) - Europe - ETS 300-328

Within Europe the maximum transmission power for any Wireless 802.11b system is 100mW (EIRP) which is equivalent to +20dBm. This is NOT a great deal of power to play with but should be sufficient for most systems and significant distances can be achieved especially if the Receiver sensitivity is sufficiently high.

EIRP is Effective Isotropic Radiated Power, which is the power transmitted from the antenna. Use the Transmit power calculator for this. EIRP is the resultant power from Transmitter Power - Cable Loss + Antenna Gain.

[copycat]

I think the main question here is if I turn it up to 84, will my hair fall out?

[Antiloop]

no, according to the specs of the wireless device the maximum it can 'send' is 84

but because off FCC/CE regulations etc.. they are not allowed to set the cards at this value from factory

in fact, if you change this value you could be violating the law because of the FCC/CE rules that MAY apply in your country.

[gusto_nl]

Hmmm.
I can't find variable Tx-power settings anywhere in the setup page (fw 1.7.5.6). But the range of the wl-500g seems to be better with the "20" setting.
The only explanation for the "Radio Power" setting i found was that it is for power-users. So if anyone can tell me what the "Radio Power" setting is used for, i would be very happy.
Can't stand not knowing what a option is used for in something i have paid money for.

Thank's for the reply's.

gusto_NL

[Antiloop]

FYI, asus is violating the FCC/CE regulations by adding this function to the WL500g as the user should not be able to do this.

[gusto_nl]

That is why I can't find anything at http://usa.asus.com/products/communi...g/overview.HTM

However the firmware 1.7.5.6:
1. Add: Tx Power adjustment.(Only for power user)
2. Add: "Tx Only" for Idle Disconnect Time of PPPoE in seconds
3. Add: PPPoE connection status in detail
4. Add: "Protocol Number" in Virtual Server(for example GRE, OTHER 47, for PPTP server in LAN)
5. Add: DHCP Server that allows fixed MAC address
6. Add: "ZoneEdit" for DDNS
7. Add: WAN Status report when wan connection is disconnected
8. Add: Redirect to Quick Setup when first time access
9. Add: Allow Filter rules into DMZ(ok)
10. Add: Enable NAT Firewall when Internet Firewall is enabled.
11. Fix: DDNS bug when dhcp release/renew is performed.(DDNS abuse)
12. Fix: Printer support for HP1210 psc
13. Fix: PPTP server behind WL500g/b passthrough

I'll do some more tests. Later.

[joep]

My signal strength in in NetworkStumbler changed slighty when setting radio power to 20. First, it was -45dbM, now it is -42dbM. All this is measured sitting next to the AP. Setting it to 84 (max value) got me a strength of -38dNm... These dBm values don't work on the calculator stuff... Can any1 explain if turning radio power higher is usefull ?

[Stevio]

I am wondering what different radio power every user have on the Asus Wl500g. Feel free to reply, with comments.

btw: my settings are 49. I can connect to my neighbour 4 houses beside mine. (24 meter) Decent speed. Average of 577 ms. With settings 19 i had an Average of (dont laugh) 1800 ms

[brubber]

I have only tried 19 and max, did'nt see any difference, currently 19. Does anyone know what factors determine the optimum setting or is it just trial and error?

[Stevio]

I have only tried 19 and max, did'nt see any difference, currently 19. Does anyone know what factors determine the optimum setting or is it just trial and error?

I think that depends on the situation and the distance of the stations. In my situation i have 2 Asus WL500G in wireless bridging mode. While pinging to them i had with 19 mw - 100 ms. But with 49 mw - 5 to 10 ms. But i will try more, for testing and getting the best results. The same situation i tried with ping packets of 65000 bytes (max op the ping protol).

with 19 i had ping 2000 ms average
with 49 i had ping 500 ms average

[brubber]

I think that depends on the situation and the distance of the stations. In my situation i have 2 Asus WL500G in wireless bridging mode. While pinging to them i had with 19 mw - 100 ms. But with 49 mw - 5 to 10 ms.

Ok, my pings from wireless A or B to router or from wireless A through router to wireless B are always 1 ms or less (average of 10). I've only been comparing max connection speed; 24 -36 Mbps (WL-138g) and 54 Mbps (WL-160g) and actual transfer speeds when copying the total contents of one windows system hd (~ 5GB)to another hd trough wireless using MS the backup utility (actual throughput ~ 0.9 MB/s; 7 Mbps)
Distance between router and both wireless stations approx. 9 m, concrete floors and walls inbetween, router on top floor, both wireless stations on ground floor (when testing).

[EddieZ]

I'm maxed out on 1400 Mw, corrected that is about 127 Mw I guess (thats what txpwr & txpwr1 tell me). Got the full 31 dB.

Don't know if that's the real power, but it connects me great to my mediaplayer (one floor and a wall in between) with 93%

[-=thrasher=-]

Hello all
I have lurked on this forum for some time but had nothing worthwhile to contribute.
Thanks for the efforts of all involved to open up the WL-500g and family, especially Oleg for making it easy for people like me

I have been working on a few 500G's today and after gaining access to console using WL500g-1.9.2.7-3c,
some interesting things have come to light.
My basic aim has been to try and master the radio. Controlling country/domain and power, mainly.

My first 'hack' was of the Aironet/Arlan BR-2000E in 1997 (pre-Cisco, pre 802.11)... we had a radio link across town instead of our expensive 64k ISDN to our ISP. 2.4Ghz phones started to crop up and incur too many errors in the NLOS link. So I spent days working on it, trying to find hidden commands as I knew other vendors had them.
I worked alphabetically, and found the "zz" menu! Turns out years later I wasn't the first but I thought it was great. So I promptly set output power to 150mw and channel 14. Problems solved, no worries.
This has spurred me on to work on Cisco's Aironet series - I have almost got the AP1200 broken I think. Anyhow.
Back to the story.

I have heard the rumours of the l33t power hack, and was a little skeptical. Changing a register doesn't always mean an equivalent response from the hardware.
So I started with the web interface - Radio Power.

"OLEG:
There was a change of DEFAULT output power, ASUS firmware treats 19mW as default, and does not change output power unless you specify something different than 19mW.
I've removed this check, so output power is ALWAYS in sync with one specified in the web interface.
So, I'm suggesting to measure it with both firmwares."

I tested using a Cisco A350 card and the Cisco site survey tools. Here are the results.
Testing the power mod on the Asus 1.8.2.4, and oleg's 1.9.2.7-3c. Oleg's firmware showed the same results.
Also is a Cisco AP in exactly the same location and antenna for comparison, it is 100mw output.

CISCO ACU SITE SURVEY
Asus AP, A WL500g_1.8.2.4_EN.trx, 90 power Vagi - -67, -95 (standing)
Asus AP, A WL500g_1.8.2.4_EN.trx, 84 power Vagi - -67, -95 (standing)
Asus AP, A WL500g_1.8.2.4_EN.trx, 70 power Vagi - -67, -95 (standing)
Asus AP, A WL500g_1.8.2.4_EN.trx, 50 power Vagi - -67, -95 (standing)
Asus AP, A WL500g_1.8.2.4_EN.trx, 30 power Vagi - -66, -95 (standing)
Asus AP, A WL500g_1.8.2.4_EN.trx, 25 power Vagi - -67, -95 (standing)
Asus AP, A WL500g_1.8.2.4_EN.trx, 19 power Vagi - -67, -95 (standing)
Asus AP, A WL500g_1.8.2.4_EN.trx, 15 power Vagi - -67, -95 (standing)
Asus AP, A WL500g_1.8.2.4_EN.trx, 10 power Vagi - -69, -95 (standing)
Asus AP, A WL500g_1.8.2.4_EN.trx, 05 power Vagi - -75, -95 (standing)
Asus AP, A WL500g_1.8.2.4_EN.trx, 01 power Vagi - -92, -95 (standing)
CiscoAP, , 100mw power v - -62, -95

Okay so that showed the ceiling of 15mw in my rough test.
I looked at the Broadcom datasheet and checked the specs. It says 19dbm/79mw is the peak output power of the 2050.

So I started with ./wl txpwr to find that it had been replaced by ./wl txpwr1. Using txpwr1 I was granted control of the internal power controls of the BCM2050 radio. Apparently.
Further testing showed I still did not have access to the ~80mw of output power. Maybe an internal governor was still controlling the peak output. So I chased the regulatory info. And any other commands that might help.
./wl

country
channels
pwr_percent - Get/Set power output percentage
txpwrlimit - Return current tx power limit
txpwr - Set tx power in milliwatts. Range [1, 84]. Deprecated: Use txpwr1 instead
txpwr1 - Set tx power in in various units.
txpathpwr 1 - tx path power on or off on 2050 radios (This cuts output to nil!! What is it for?)
curpower - Return current tx power settings

Checking the outputs I wasn't happy. I couldn't control the Regulatory settings.
I tried setting country codes but was denied.

Next, onto the nvram! I unset the following and committed:

wl0_country_code=
wl_country_code=
wl0_country_code=
regulation_domain=
nvram commit

This took the country from DE/GERMANY (0x30DE) to ALL/unknown!
Now the maxpower is 30dbm, and I can access channel 14 (no interference from 2.4GHZ phones!).

However I wonder, am I actually seeing max output this box is capable of?


Question:
Does anyone know if there is a separate power amp chip on the radio card? Photos?
I did take one of ours to bits to look but didn't have a camera.




thanks again for your works on the 500G platform.
(btw no rants about "illegalllll power hacker1111 OMG!!!", I am doing it for the fun of hacking mainly. Technically by reverse-engineering I am breaking the law here (now thanks to USA and FTA). It's being done, just be able to do it. I live in in the country anyway, nobody has wireless for miles except us here. I don't see a problem, so you shouldn't lose any sleep over it. thanks.)