Wifi Range Booster For Laptop

[nikster]

I often find myself in a situation where my laptop doesn't quite have enough range to get a WiFi signal. For example, right now I am in Hua Hin and bought a Sunshine wireless card for btht 500. Trouble is, the connection from the hotel to the nearest Sunshine hotspot has a signal-to-noise ratio of 12 - 18. That's just not enough for a stable connection - it works sometimes, but lots of drops and so on.

The solution would be a USB WiFI module + external antenna - preferably directional, but I think even a strong omni would do. I once saw these for PowerBooks, the antenna could be attached to the laptop screen, a short stubble sticking out. That would be ideal. Anyone know where I can get these? In Thailand? Anywhere?

I would love to have a little adjustable directional antenna - then I could measure out the location of the hotspot via NetStumbler - it would be excellent.

BTW - my laptop has pretty good WiFi reception compared to others - just not enough sometimes.

thanks a lot!

"wannabe roadwarrior" nikster

[nikster]

Ok I found exactly what I need:

http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-G-USB-Netwo...6410&sr=1-9

It's USB and has a 6dbi detachable antenna. 6dbi is not bad, but because it's detachable you can connect any huge antenna you like. Perfect for me. The only question is where to get this or a similar device in Thailand...

[monty]

Have seen a very similar model just hours ago when strolling in TukCom Pattaya.

First USB model I saw with detachable antenna.

The same shop also stocks external directional patch antenna's, these could really boost your connection when aimed in the direction of the hotspot...

[nikster]

Have seen a very similar model just hours ago when strolling in TukCom Pattaya.

First USB model I saw with detachable antenna.

The same shop also stocks external directional patch antenna's, these could really boost your connection when aimed in the direction of the hotspot...

Where is TuKom? I am not in Pattaya, but a friend is going to be there tomorrow... that would be excellent.

I have a 19dbi flat directional antenna for my house on the mountain, covers 1Km with no problems regardless of smoke or fog and even some light foliage in the way. Cool stuff. Not portable though.

I saw some Hawking directional models that are pretty small; they consist of a USB cable + external device with what looks like a tiny satellite dish on top. Sure to mark you as ubergeek in the local coffeshop

http://www.hawkingtech.com/products/produc...&ProdID=280

[monty]

TukCom is on South Pattaya road, when coming from Sukhumvit driving towards 2nd road, about halfway between third and second road left hand side...

Little shop on the third floor, they have the things in their window...

Lots of TP-Link stuff but also other brands and several smaller external antenna's (the 3 to 7 db range)

[stumonster]

http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/

for the DIY geek in you

[Trevor]

Don't modern laptops have the wifi antenna built in to the screen frame? If so then tilting and orienting the screen towards the signal source could help somewhat.

I too am interested in a highly-portable plug-in USB antenna rod for travelling if anyone can recommend a good one. Maybe one of these?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000ABPK...rd_i=B0000DIET2

[nikster]

Don't modern laptops have the wifi antenna built in to the screen frame? If so then tilting and orienting the screen towards the signal source could help somewhat.

yeah but it's not nearly good enough. for comparison, a normal laptop has a gain of about 2 dbi, whereas even the small antenna rod/dish has 6dbi. should make a huge difference, especially the directional model.

in my experiments with Netstumbler, turning the laptop didn't make any difference. walking around slowly, there certainly are spots where the signal is better and spots where the signal is worse. those spots don't necessarily make sense - e.g. it's not the location closest to the router. when I was measuring this for my homebrew network the spots with the best signal seemed to be random. I think a lot depends on reflections from hard surfaces. WiFi is all about experimentation.

A friend of mine was able to connect to a draft-N router several Kms away. All he had was direct line of sight and a very small home-made directional antenna. I dont' know where he got the antenna bit, but he was able to just stick a normal USB WiFi adapter inside. It was about the same size as the small dish I linked to above.

If you don't have line of sight connectivity drops dramatically, but if the internal laptop antenna gets any signal at all then the small dish should easily be able to keep a steady connection.

[nikster]

http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/

for the DIY geek in you

this is cool, but solid chinese frying pans are not the pinnacle of portability

I already carry lots of weird stuff in my backpack besides the laptop, adding a frying pan to that would definitely get me screened at the airport

[Prasert]

If you want to do it the cheap way, and are a littlebit handy:

-get a decent USB WiFi stick. The SMC ones work fine and are updated by MicrosoftUpdate.

-open the stick and solder the tiny antenna out

-get a tiny connector with pigtail (male reverse polarity sma) and solder it onto the pcb. There's dutch website with pictures of such a thing: http://pe2er.nl/omniusb/index.htm - The connectors and cable are in many shops in BanMoo (near Old Siam)

-get a decent coaxial cable (e.g. RG200 - not RG58!) with a N-male connector on one end and a female reverse polarity sma connector on the other end.

With this set you can use any of-the-shelf antenna.

Antenna's to look for:

12dBi omni directional - 40cm in length so it would just fit into a laptop bag

panel (or bi-quad) antenna - roughly 15x15cm, directional antenna

[Prasert]

By the way, if soldering is no option, check out the auction sites for a PCMCIA WiFi card with an external antenna connector.

The connectors used on these cards are MMCX

[Gary A]

A friend of mine was offered a WiFi connection from his condo. The guy who provided the service sold him a USB box with a small antenna attached to it. As it turned out the signal was too weak. The guy then brought a long USB extension cord and the little box was placed on the window sill. That gave him a good signal. As it turned out the service collapsed after a couple of weeks.