Wi fi booster ariels

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marilynch

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Hello All
I want to boost my laptop wireless signal (I keep getting booted off /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif,) with an outside ariel that will plug into my laptop usb connection.

Repeatit have been reccommended but the ones I have found so far are out of my price range, so.....I was wondereing what you (mostly /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif) lovely forumites may be able to reccomend around the £50 mark or will I have to dig deeper?
Please, thank you and all that /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Hi,

I got myself one of Buffalo Technologies PCMCI WiFi cards for a recent trip to the states along with their Omni and Directional antennas.

Was fantastic! We were getting 3 mile range at times to hotspots!!

When in the usual locality range (say up to 100m) we had really strong signal so less dropouts than with normal kit.

Unfortunately the micro co-ax connector on the card got a dodgy connection after a few weeks heavy use though - but it was really great while it lasted.

Maybe they've resolved this now.

From what I could gather at the time - the Buffalo products were way better than the next nearest equiv in similar pricerange.

NB. If you get a card with an antenna plug, you can buy or make yourself a "cantenna" which offers fantastic uni-directional power.

Oh also - should mention that although the Buffalo device I had was legal in the US, it was I think overpowered for the UK CE compliance, making it legal to buy in the UK (as I did) but illegal to use... though who's checking I don't know.
 
I had both directional and omni antennas... the omni worked way better than the directional in most situations.

I think on a boat and omni is massively preferable as you're unlikely to be pointing in the exact same direction at all times.
 
One point. Its easier to get gain from a directional aerial so they are cheaper and smaller. If you've got the dosh though, go for omni.

I looked around at the radio performence of some of the USB WiFi units and they vary quite a lot. Its daft to have a remote aerial which gives you 6dB extra if the radio is 6dB lower gain, you're back at square one. I ended up with a Senao SUB362EXT from www.thewifishop@gmail.com Great service.
 
I bought an antenna in UK, (it was from the states) which is USB powered, so the power is at the antenna, not being lost in a coax cable from the card in the computer, to the external antenn. Absolutely brilliant, omni antenna. Mounted atop the mizzen mast, with an active USB connector cable, although it comes with 5 meters of USB. Will get the name, but was told about it here on Liveaboard forum.
 
I've got a USB dongle that you can have, maybe it would be better than your existing PCMCIA card with an extension cable to get some height and therefore LOS to the base station antenna (its not an ariel ;-) )

But can anybody tell me the max specified length of a USB cable?
 
Thanks all, a few things to consider. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
USB cables poor quality the longer the more losses. I used to use a pcmi? card(in the side slot) That i opened and solderd an n connector then used very high quality coax to an external anntena

Its just easy to buy a USB anntena

The thing suggested in the post above mine looks very good,the same company sells VERY powereful systems,the one they use costs about 50€ the others so far are priceless!!And certainly expensive

Have a look at the model in the post above mine
 
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