Nearly a year ago I bough a portable wifi router to take with me when I go to conferences etc. When I am in a hotel or at a friend’s house, it is very handy to use secure wifi instead of having to drag around a long ethernet cable to connect my laptop to the Internet. I bought a little Linksys WRT54GC “Compact Wireless-G Broadband Router” for that purpose.
I was disappointed when I could find no place to attach an external antenna. I have a couple of 7db antenna and a directional antenna that I can use the boast the range of wifi, but I couldn’t not find any place to plug it in. Well, the morning I was staring at my WRT54GC and noticed a weird plastic thing that looked out of place. After a few minutes of picking at it, I discovered a secret antenna socket underneath!
If you are looking at the lights on the front of the WRT54GC and holding it horizontally (laying it flat), the plastic cover for the antenna connector is on the right-hand side. If you pry up on the rounded edge of that plastic cover, it will open like a door, and reveal a connector that will pop out. It is a mini-BNC style connector.
Now you can attach the antenna of your choice!
I have posted a complete set of photos on flickr showing in more detail how to reveal the hidden antenna connector.
In my mind this makes the WRT54GC twice as value able as I thought it was. It was a good value for a good price, but now that I know I can put an antenna on it… its an absolute bargain!