Wi-fi external antenna for laptop?

[Sea Farmer]

I'm looking to boost the speed and reliability of a wi-fi connection from my base station to my laptop over ranges of less than 500 feet, but sometimes through several walls.

Present setup is a DSL modem/router in my house, with a range extender against an external wall. Both are omnidirectional, 802.11n, less than 6 months old. I use my laptop both in my yard and in my shop, and this arrangement is adequate to reach most of my yard (3 acres). It's a little weak when I'm in the shop. Then it's kind of intermittent, depending upon wind, weather and whimsy of unknown forces. Sometimes OK, sometimes not.

Security is adequate, and the neighbors are far enough away not to create interference.

There are some external antennas that can be mounted to a window and attached to a laptop through various ports. Wondering if anyone has ever used one, and if they can recommend a good brand.

I'm just looking for a small boost in speed and strength. I know a pair of directional antennas would work well, and running a cat5e would be even better, but since I only need a small kickup in signal I'm hoping for something easier/cheaper than either of those alternatives.

 

[Bentworker]

Laugh if you wish, buy try an external USB wi-fi inside of a metal collinder. Aim it at your wireless router/hub.

 

[atty]

There are several ways to go at this problem. One is to boost the signal of your router at the source. To that end I highly recommend an Engenius 3500. It's not the cheapest router, but it works very well. I have one installed at the local airport, and it solved a multitude of signal level problems through commercial construction walls.

ECB3500

The next approach is as suggested by Bentworker....improve the antenna at the laptop. A cheaper solution, but sometimes cumbersome as it requires an adapter and a large antenna, such as an Alfa USB adapter + antenna.

Alfa AWUS036H 1W Wireless G USB WLAN Network Adapter | eBay

Then, of course, there's the move the extender method until you find the sweet spot. Be prepared to fix one area while darkening another. It's the cheapest and worth a shot first.

 

[RC99]

If your laptop is situated on the one place in the shop I wonder if one of those broadband over power lines devices would work...

Essentially it works like this... You plug one device into a power point and that plugs into an ethernet port on your broadband router...

The other goes into the power point at your laptop and plugs into the lap top ethernet port.

 

[MichaelP]

I use Alfa AWUS036H adapter/amplifier and it works VERY well. A real lifesaver when you're far from hotspots (all those hotels without Internet in the rooms, etc.). It has its own small program that you'll use to search and connect to networks. Plug the device into a USB port of your laptop, and you're in business.

Amazon.com: Alfa AWUS036H Upgraded to 1000mW 1W 802.11b/g High Gain USB Wireless Long-Rang WiFi network Adapter with 5dBi Antenna - for Wardriving & Range Extension: Electronics

I bought it in this configuration (adapter with regular 6.5" antenna, USB cable and mount): Alfa AWUS036H 1W Wireless G USB WLAN Network Adapter | eBay

 

[APD]

Well apparently I type too slowly....I was going to recommend an ALFA usb adapter. I had good success with mine for long range wireless.
I have also used EnGenius, which also worked well. But the ALFA was better if I remember correctly.

 

[SAG 180]

I've had good results with a biquad antenna, they're small and easy to make and have a 12dB signal gain (16x). You don't need the dish unless it's for super long range. I used one to boost a bluetooth modem from 80 metres to 3000 metres range which was an unofficial reocrd at the time in 2005.

TREVOR MARSHALL - Biquad feed for primestar dish

 

[gmatov]

What does all this really mean? That you an go from200 to 300 metres, or that you can get reception from distances you could not before? For instance, not IN a Wifi area, but still able to get reception.

3G, I guess, wish I had it on my Lenovo tablet.

It is utile, but strictly within range of an outlet., and, dependent on the wireless router, range can be limited.

Not to say that I don't LIKE it. 50 feet away, my reception, at home, is excellent, walls and all. Cousin's house, excellent, Belkin, daughter's house, Netgear device, piss poor reception, piss poor connection.

I just opened my networking, and I have access to 3 networks other than my own, and they are more than 200 feet from me. I have NO idea who 2 of them are. Did I, I would tell them to firewall their network.

 

[deanfranks]

Monoprice has good deals on USB WiFi adapters with external antennas, either of these will do the job inexpensively.


Dual Antenna adapter

Single antenna adapter

 

[FranH]

You said 'cheaper'

Myself, I prefer 'frugal'. Anyway try this:

How to Build a WiFi Antenna Out of Cans | eHow.com

If the caffeine is too much, there is a 'Pringle' set up that is also quite strong.

 

[Sea Farmer]

Well, rather embarrasingly, the solution turned out to be simple.

I replaced the battery in the laptop.

I've been using it with the power cord plugged in, and therefore assumed that the battery condition didn't matter. I was wrong.

It's an elderly Apple Powerbook G4, on its second battery anyways. Battery no longer holds much of a charge, various diagnostic tweaks were no help--it was way past its expected hourly life. Just for fun I removed the battery and discovered it was cracked wide open. Well, I have dropped the thing a few times

So new battery, receiving full signal. It is pokier than a hardwired connection, but that's acceptable for my purposes in the shop.

Thanks all for your help. I learned stuff

 

[atty]

Occam's Razor strikes again.

 

[AlexBanich]

I would say if you're going from scratch I would agree with the big boss. Run hard wire and then put a wireless router where ever you want it. Personally what I would do, but only cause I have the option and stuff to do it, is take an old desktop with pci wireless card and put it where the signal starts to top off. Bridge the connections, run wire to wireless router and there you go sweet signal. If that is not an option I would hard wire to the far reaches of every where and put ok decent routers at the end points. You have to face that if you're going to be over a large area you have to use hard wire. Interference is too much of a PITA when you start hooking wireless device to wireless device to wireless device.

 

[adama]

I got so fed up with issues i went back to cat 5 in the end for my application here. Problem is with only some 14 channels and living in a built up area i just could never maintain a reliable connection. Far cheaper to just run a 50m length of cat5e. I'm sure if i got a better router and a better USB eventually i would get a 100% solution. Cat 5e for the length was under £15 and works faultlessly. But then im not running a laptop. Hence wireless is not much of a gain!

 

[wb2vsj]

...

It's an elderly Apple Powerbook G4, ...

Shouldn't this post be moved to the"Antique Machinery and History" forum?

If you still had the problem, I would vote for the hard wire solution of running some CAT 5 cable to a Wireless Access Point. But you are limited to 300 feet w/o some sort of intermediate switch gear.

 

[Hopefuldave]

Shouldn't this post be moved to the"Antique Machinery and History" forum?

If you still had the problem, I would vote for the hard wire solution of running some CAT 5 cable to a Wireless Access Point. But you are limited to 300 feet w/o some sort of intermediate switch gear.

I lucked into some (a few hundred yards of) 2-core multimode fibre patch cable (figure-8 in a plastic jacket), a couple of RJ45 - SC fibre interface adaptors off Eb** and for a total of £20 had a solid, secure, electrically-isolated 100Mbit link for the Shed of Danger... All Antique Machinery too!

Dave H.

 

[bigbore577500]

I tried one of these
Alfa 1000mW Outdoor Wireless G USB 12dBi Antenna Kit | eBay
My signal went from 2 bars and seeing only 3 hotspots in my area to 15 hotspots and 5 bars. My shop is made of alum clad deep freezer panels 10 feet tall. I put the antenna in the attic and it works very well. I got mine from Tiger Direct.
Check it out
Chuck

 

[moonlight machine]

What a POS, spamming a dead man.

 

[EPAIII]

The first rule for RF range is power. You can't control that.

The second rule is height. The higher the antennae, the longer the range. Put your base station (wireless router) on the top shelf of a bookcase. Ditto for the extender in your shop. With all the metal in one of our shops, the higher the better. Wifi will have a heck of a time going through a milling machine or a bunch of sheet metal stock.

Next is line of sight. Locate the base station and the extender with as little between them as possible. The height thing helps here because most furniture is close to the floor while the upper two or three feet in any room are mostly empty. Through a window is better than through a wall. Etc.

The buzz word today is "mesh". A mesh system is better than the older, simple extenders. One set of credentials gets your device into any of the mesh devices while the older extenders required different sign-ins for each one. So with a mesh system you can move around and get reception with different devices at different locations.

 

[DDoug]

https://www.eatspamanddied.com

Excellent, The Op has passed away, and spammers are feeding....Klassy move.