ALFA wifi problems. Expert help please

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Vegable

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me : Pwllheli Boat : Arisaig
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I’m based on a swinging mooring in Arisaig. There are two sources of wifi available but at a very low to non-existent signal strength. After reading posts on this and the Scuttlebutt forums I bought an ALFA AWUS036H signal booster (a much bigger omni direction aerial, but that’s not important at the moment) and because I wanted the wifi to be available all over the boat an ALFA 36 Router. I can get the system working using a laptop but I’m totally stuck trying to get it working using my Nexus 10 tablet. Specifically, getting wifi into the Nexus 10. (The Tablet is much more convenient to use on the boat than the laptop).
For those that don’t know, the AWUS036H booster receives wifi from an outside signal and then transfers data through a USB cable into the Nexus. Going into “settings”, playing with the wifi connections availability doesn’t do anything to the incoming boosted signal.

Ignoring the Router for the moment, I’m just using the signal booster plugged in to the Nexus. I’ve downloaded “Pcap Capture” and that’s giving me lots of “packets”, but I haven’t got a clue how I change packets into working wifi on the tablet. On the Pcap website it says I need to download “Wireshark” but looking at Wireshark’s video guide the stuff it’s showing me is way over my head and I’m totally lost. I’ll worry about the router once I’ve got the tablet wifi reception sorted out.
I tried contacting ALFA and to give them their due they were happy to help, but their command of the English language is so poor that I couldn’t understand any of their instructions!
Can anyone help please? And although it looks like I know what I’m talking about, I’m not really all that sure what I’m doing so any answers in layman’s terms please.
I should add that I’m now back in the comfort of my home and use a BT Broadband router to get my wifi within the house. My thoughts are that if I know what I’m supposed to be looking at by picking up the house wifi signal then I should be able to recognise what I need to look for when I’m on the boat.
Mike
 
I am not a computer expert but from the set up you describe I would expect you to be using the router wifi output for data to your tablet, (USB for charging).

Is there a reason why you can't do that?

Can your tablet see and connect to the router wifi?

Can it maybe see the router but not connect to the Internet through it?

Is the wifi your booster can see connected to the internet?

When you connect your laptop to the router are you using wifi or data cable ?
 
To use any tablet with the alfa you must use the r36 router as there are no drivers for any tablet. I have used it set up like to this and it works well. The instructions are rubbish.
 
Vegable said:
I’m based on a swinging mooring in Arisaig. There are two sources of wifi available but at a very low to non-existent signal strength. After reading posts on this and the Scuttlebutt forums I bought an ALFA AWUS036H signal booster (a much bigger omni direction aerial, but that’s not important at the moment) and because I wanted the wifi to be available all over the boat an ALFA 36 Router. I can get the system working using a laptop but I’m totally stuck trying to get it working using my Nexus 10 tablet. Specifically, getting wifi into the Nexus 10. (The Tablet is much more convenient to use on the boat than the laptop).
For those that don’t know, the AWUS036H booster receives wifi from an outside signal and then transfers data through a USB cable into the Nexus. Going into “settings”, playing with the wifi connections availability doesn’t do anything to the incoming boosted signal.

Ignoring the Router for the moment, I’m just using the signal booster plugged in to the Nexus. I’ve downloaded “Pcap Capture” and that’s giving me lots of “packets”, but I haven’t got a clue how I change packets into working wifi on the tablet. On the Pcap website it says I need to download “Wireshark” but looking at Wireshark’s video guide the stuff it’s showing me is way over my head and I’m totally lost. I’ll worry about the router once I’ve got the tablet wifi reception sorted out.
I tried contacting ALFA and to give them their due they were happy to help, but their command of the English language is so poor that I couldn’t understand any of their instructions!
Can anyone help please? And although it looks like I know what I’m talking about, I’m not really all that sure what I’m doing so any answers in layman’s terms please.
I should add that I’m now back in the comfort of my home and use a BT Broadband router to get my wifi within the house. My thoughts are that if I know what I’m supposed to be looking at by picking up the house wifi signal then I should be able to recognise what I need to look for when I’m on the boat.
Mike
Click to expand...

As JimKing says, you need to attach the tablet wirelessly to the router. I don't quite understand how you got your laptop to talk to the kit ? Did you assign an IP address or go via the router ?

If you ignore the internet to start with, hook the kit together with the USB cable and make contacting the router your first step it should help. So,using your tablet wi-fi, if your router is powered up, can you "see" the wireless signal from the router ?

Imagine where you're moored that you won't have difficulty identifying it :) It looks as though it will be called "R36". If you can see it, connect your Nexus to it via wireless exactly as you do elsewhere. It looks as though it will give you an IP address in the 192.168.2.n range. You can check this by going to Settings / Wi-Fi and then clicking on the signal to which you're connected. It should show you Status, signal strength etc and also the IP address you have been given.

If it's not in the 192.168.2.n range then panic - or post again :) If, as I imagine, you will have an IP address in the correct range, then open a browser and browse to http://192.168.2.1. You should then be presented with a login page and the instructions from this link (suggest you save this page(s) before you get to the boat !) should lead you through. If you have the kit at home you could go through the steps and connectthe boat receiver to your BT wireless router and try it all out there. (Step 8 would be clicking to connect to the BT router signal, whatever that is called.)

http://www.alfa.com.tw/faq_show.php?sn=5

I think it is reasonably self-explanatory until Step 6 which seems rather strange. I would suggest that you ignore the "Prepare an available SSID after Site Survey" bit - just ensure that Network is set to Infrastructure and hit the Site Survey button. That should return the grid with all available SSIDs (transmitters) that can be detected from the boat. I don't think you will need Step 7 - it shouldn't be necessary to Rescan (though you might want to do this if you move your receiver around to optimise signal strength). You should just be able to move onto Step 8.

Step 8 - Having done a Site Survey you will probably only be presented with 2 entries - one for each of the transmitters which you say are locally available. Select the one you want to connect to (prolly the strongest I would imagine). The RSSI column shows signal strength out of a hundred. Typically if you have something better than 50% then you should be able to make a decent connection (but this wifi stuff, can be terribly variable, even if its attached to a house not a boat!). If you test it at home indoors I would expect a very very high signal strength !

Step 9 - the SSID (transmitter name) should be selected by clicking the radio button on the previous screen. If the connection is made then the BSSID field will be filled in by their software - i.e. the unique MAC code for the external wireless device.

If the wi-fi signal to which you want to connect to from your boat is secured you will need to know what form of security (e.g. WPA) and the password. If, say, it is a public pay as you go wi-fi hotspot then it will probably not be secured (you'll get a user id and password from the provider when you pay) so leave the Security Mode as disabled.

If I am teaching my grandmother to suck eggs or I've missed the point completely then apologies. If it helps then I hope you get it all working.

Penny
 
TQA said:
Bite the bullet get an Alfa R36 and futz around with the settings till it works.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's right. I've just installed an R36 with an Alfa external antenna bought as a package for £90 from Crucial Wifi.

These things hardly ever work first time but it did for me.
 
Thanks for all your replies and a special thanks to Penny - it must have taken you some time to compose that.

I'd thought that if I took the router out of the system it would simplify things however from your and JimKing's comments that made things worse. (A little knowledge is a dangerous thing!)
With regard to it all working with the Laptop, that was here in the house and with the driver downloaded and using the router. I then followed ALFA's website instructions, and went through the set-up proceedure and it all went tickety boo! But when I next set it up without the laptop I couldn't get any wifi signal from ALFA on the Nexus. Went through the setup proceedure and it kept failing at step 6 (or 8 - I can't remember now, the one where it tells you to wait for it to lock-on) and just failed to lock on. And that's when things went pear-shaped!
I have a busy weekend ahead but will at sometime follow your instructions Penny and I'll report back early next week. Thanks once again, much appreciated.
Mike
 
Last edited:
If possible I would suggest taking the laptop to the boat and setting the aerial and router up using an ethernet connection between the router and the laptop. It is possible to do the set up using wifi but ALFA recommend using ethernet first time through and I have found it much more reliable.

In particular you must protect your router wifi signal (that your tablet etc will be using) with WPA PSK encryption if you don't want to share your wifi internet with the rest of the mooring. This should only be done using the ethernet connection as the wifi will become unusable until you have the same password on the router and the laptop/tablet.
 
Got it all working yesterday although I'm not a hundred percent sure how it did it. So thank you for all your help.
On a thread on the Scuttlebutt at the moment Old Varnish said that he's connected a 3G dongle to the R36. As I don't have a 3G phone, and my Nexus isn't 3G, can I get a 3G dongle with SIM card - is there such a thing? and, I assume the dongle just plugs in in place of the ALFA signasl booster, is that so? Lastly, thinking of mounting my wifi aerial reception aerial somewhere up the mast, what length of USB extension lead is advised before cable losses negate any signal gain.

Playtime,
"This should only be done using the ethernet connection as the wifi will become unusable until you have the same password on the router and the laptop/tablet."
I'm not sure I understand this. What password on the router and what password on the laptop?
Thanks once again
Mike
 
3G dongles widely available. Choose one which you know gives good coverage where you're most likely to use it. You may need to ask around.
The dongle plugs into the USB on the R36 and you select it when you first go into the R36's setup page.
 
Agree with OldVarnish. I get excellent results with a '3' dongle. You have to buy a data sim and these can be found a bit cheaper on Ebay.

I have had no success trying to connect a phone to the R36 as a modem, even though phone works perfectly that way with a PC ... pity as it's a better tariff.

No problem extending the Alfa wifi adapter via USB. 3m should work with no problem; much longer if you use an active extender. You CAN extend the actual antenna (perhaps you want to use a highly directional yagi) .... but you must keep the feeder quite short (a couple of meters at most) or any gains will simply be lost in the feeder.
 
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