Wifi booster aerial

Pete7 said:
For the money the little Alfa wifi ones are hard to beat. Ours the 2000w version has done sterling work for the past 4 years. Make sure you buy a genuine one.
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I'd agree that the genuine Alfa kit is excellent value for money. You can get better if you don't mind spending a lot more. I used to meet people who had fitted boxes costing a few hundred only to find it was an Alfa inside. So you can also spend a lot and not get anything better. That was a few years ago so probable doesn't happen now.

AWUS036H used to come in 500mW and now 1000mW variety, Alfa Tube U/G is 500mW. These all share the same chipset and give best range on older b/g access points. No doubt about that from a technical angle but so much depends on local conditions. I've had 5nm from AWUS036H several times and 12-14nm once from Alfa Tube U/G. I've also failed to connect to marina Wifi 200m from boat (their router was behind a cabinet and window with metal bars plus ant. at 45 deg. angle, so not a big surprise).

The "N" versions obviously work better with "n" only access points (in so far as older Alfas won't work with them at all :D). However, I still don't see many public APs limited to "n" only devices.

You can buy a variety of antennae for small Alfa kit. I've found that the standard ones are good enough and others gave no significant improvement. One person told me he had to go to 12dBi as 8,9dBi didn't improve matters. I have found the Tube U/G with 8dBi works quite well but the 9dBi model would not tighten properly.

Try http://www.crucialwifi.co.uk/ as prices seem reasonable, items are genuine and service is good. I've bought several items there and only had one problem. I emailed for help late at night and found a reply the next morning. It didn't solve the problem but he responded to my next emails very quickly and suggested a fit which did work. No connection with the company and think it is a one man band type of operation. I intend to continue buying from him as service has been so good.
 
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theoldsalt said:
I have also used the Alfa and it is excellent. I purchased the version that included the panel aerial but this can be purchased separately. The panel aerial gives even better results than the standard di-pole. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/3810...1=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108&ff19=0
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I bought the same directional panel antenna to test. It only managed to get a signal once when the standard 5dBm Omni-directional antenna failed to connect. I did try it several times before giving up. Perhaps I had a dud as it did stop working entirely not long afterwards.

I opened it up for repair and resoldered a broken connection. However, the connection didn't like being moved around and crumbled a few weeks later. Nothing much inside the casing, just wires from the connection leading to a thin metal plate sitting between front & rear plastic body panels.
 
Errrrr......... I know I'm a bit thick but what does that all mean? Can I use it with Android and Mac? Does it use a lot of power? Will it work of a 12v supply or does it have to be 240v. When it picks up the signal from the router does it have to plug into the computer with a USB?
Cheers
 
Champagne Murphy said:
Errrrr......... I know I'm a bit thick but what does that all mean? Can I use it with Android and Mac? Does it use a lot of power? Will it work of a 12v supply or does it have to be 240v. When it picks up the signal from the router does it have to plug into the computer with a USB?
Cheers
Click to expand...

You've got a couple of major options and a minor one. The minor one is a fancy *aerial* on its own which many people ask about but few people actually want. Very few laptops have a place to connect an external antenna (fancy hugely expensive ruggedised ones being a notable exception).

What most people buy is one of two things. A USB device for receiving wireless (which you then plug into some sort of computer) or a thingy which functions a bit like a domestic wireless router but instead of connecting to the telephone line broadband on the "Internet side" connects to a remote wifi hotspot. Either of those will tend to have a (possibly changeable) fancy aerial connected to/integrated with it.

The Alfa is an example of the former sort. I own the mailasail "wifi bat" which as TQA says is an Alfa
repackaged into pretty colored boxes allegedly waterproof and sold for 10+ times the price
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Well, it's white, wasn't quite 10x and actually does seem to be waterproof but he's roughly right.

They take their power over USB from the thing you plug them into.

The disadvantage of these types are twofold. Firstly it's got a USB plug on the end. If you want to permanently mount one outside you have to feed that through to the inside of the boat because USB plugs aren't as easy as ethernet cables to re-attach. Secondly unless you plug it into a router or something which can re-broadcast the signal, it only helps one computer and won't be much cop for iOS/android. My device gets hoist up the mast or propped up outside as needed and it's plugged into a raspberry pi which acts as an access point/router so neither is a problem for me. Other people will variously do other bits of trickery to re-broadcast remote signals. There are drivers available for the wifi bat (so presumably for the alfa) for OS X but you have to add them.

Things like the ubiquiti bullet are a different class of device and possibly your easiest option if you want to use them with wireless tablety things. They get power via an ethernet cable (which you can lop the end off and re-crimp to feed through the deck) and can be set up to create their own little access point. They can be set up to work in a few different ways but a common easy one is to have them function like a domestic broadband router. It creates a boat hotspot and you connect to it via a browser to configure it, which includes telling it which remote wireless access point to connect to for your Internet connectivity.

You can ultimately power the ubiquiti or the alfa-type solutions from the boat 12v supply.
 
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Champagne Murphy said:
Errrrr......... I know I'm a bit thick but what does that all mean? Can I use it with Android and Mac? Does it use a lot of power? Will it work of a 12v supply or does it have to be 240v. When it picks up the signal from the router does it have to plug into the computer with a USB?
Cheers
Click to expand...

The Alfa plugs into a computer via USB (which powers it) and is an alternative to the WiFi receiver that is built into the computer which will need to be temporarily disabled while the external aerial is used. The panel aerial improves the boosted signal (over the di-pole) but is directional.

Your computer can be turned into a hotspot for other devices to latch onto the incoming WiFi signal simply by installing software such as "VitualRouter"
 
Border Terrier said:
At the end of the day you can only "suck in" what is available. Whatever your receiver,
it's down to the transmitter>
Click to expand...

..and having found a few areas with no WiFi during our travels we have just invested in a MiFi with a local data sim so as to get an onboard hotspot whenever we have a mobile signal. It works for us, but we still use the Alfa booster when free WiFi is available
 
theoldsalt said:
The Alfa plugs into a computer via USB (which powers it) and is an alternative to the WiFi receiver that is built into the computer which will need to be temporarily disabled while the external aerial is used. The panel aerial improves the boosted signal (over the di-pole) but is directional.

Your computer can be turned into a hotspot for other devices to latch onto the incoming WiFi signal simply by installing software such as "VitualRouter"
Click to expand...
Thanks for the recommendation. Brilliant bit of software. Just does what it does, no hassle no fuss. Superb.
 
Look on Ebay . The cheapy Chinese ones do work . No worse than the expensive MESltd arial we bought . One problem we found in some out of the way places was a tendency to pick up viruses when accessing free wifi-be warned . We also tend to buy a local data sim for our dongle and this works very well
 
I have a WIFI - BAT that no longer runs on the mac as the latest update ( Yosemitie) blocks it , tried going around it to no avail .... mailasail "support" just want to sell me a "red box" ... more money... Im back to sitting in coffee shops .. mail a sail are off my christmas card list and Id look to other options.
 
Hi, MailASail here (maker of Wifi Bat).

Just to address the comment above: You will have the precise same issue with Yosemite with nearly all the devices listed earlier in this thread. I have responded previously by email, but the issue is that *Apple* have chosen to block the owner of the computer installing drivers which aren't "signed". You are therefore blocked from using certain drivers until the manufacturer updates their drivers (Note the manufacturer isn't "Alfa", et al, but Realtek or Ralink).

Note for example that the silver Alfa mentioned earlier in this thread is a great (non-external) device but its a struggle to use it with Mac since OSX10.6 (ie quite some years back). Now, whilst I understand its a problem when multi-billion dollar companies change the rules and your immediate temptation is to blame us (not a multi-billion dollar company), please understand we did make conscious choices to choose this chipset some years back *because* it had above average Mac compatibility....

Note also we have not "wanted to sell you a red box". I have suggested several options to you, for example you can choose to revert these new "protections" on OSX and then the unsigned driver will continue to work as it did on 10.9. Also you can revert your machine to 10.9 (arguably OSX upgrades are quite small and incremental, so you don't miss so much by jumping a step, I personally completely missed 10.7 for example and cut from 10.6 to 10.8. There are a lot of wifi issues with 10.9/10.10, so skipping these is actually quite a good idea...)

However, you are playing right into our hands with regards to the Red Box. We built it *because* in one form or another we get these exact same endless questions and groans about compatibility of 3G datacards, satellite devices, wifi boosters, NMEA adaptors, etc, etc. So our goal with the Red Box was literally to eliminate this headache. We ship it will lots and lots of drivers installed out of the box. Its otherwise something like a home broadband router. But the whole idea is now you can sidestep nearly all these upgrade headaches, driver install challenges, etc. Just connect your shiny new device to the Red Box router (doesn't have to be bought from us, we try to support every manufacturers products) and it works! (OK, or it doesn't work, we will surely fail to support "something" on the market, but bring those problems to our attention and you have a promise we will do our best to add support ASAP!)

Unfortunately if you are looking for direct to OSX attachment right now, I don't have a solution... We test lots and lots of devices, but right now the older chipsets still significantly outperform the latest devices entering the market. Unfortunately though the drivers are lagging on the older devices and I don't believe any of the "very long range" USB devices now have OSX10.10 support... However, please remember this situation has come about because of changes *Apple* have made, so please direct your anger appropriately... The rest of us are doing our best to work around Apple, but remember our hands are somewhat tied...

Safe adventuring and do please get in touch if you want to take us up on the offer we made of a heavily discounted Red Box router as compensation for your troubles with OSX10.10?
 
nigelmercier said:
Twaddle.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify what is possible and what is american TV drama:

- All wifi networks which do *not* require a password to join (by that I mean the very first association, ie not like your home broadband access point needs a password to even associate with it), are being broadcast in clear and any boat that can "hear you" can potentially listen in to all the traffic you transmit. Note these types of wifi include most public wifi access points, ie where you can join the wifi network, but you then need to be redirected to a login page to get access. Lets call the wifi systems (like your home) where you need a password to even associate: "encrypted networks"

- Many wifi networks, encrypted or not will allow all users to "see" each other, eg on your home network you would expect two laptops to be able to see each other and share files, this setup is also often the case on public wifi, ie your laptop is visible to every other user on the wifi network (this can be good or bad...)

- There is little security on the basic way networking works. With some small amount of skill its possible to have a computer you own, *announce*, that it's the wifi network gateway. The effect of this is that all wifi traffic will now be directed to your computer, obviously this will be immediately detected if you don't forward it on to the correct gateway, but that's fairly easily do-able.

- In practice I think the option above whilst not requiring that much skill is tricky to pull off. So whilst the option above allows you to actually tamper with the incoming data, it's likely also rare. BUT, most of the time it's not necessary, your data is all in the clear on the wifi network in general, so if you aren't using SSL encryption to your target server, I can see all your data in the clear anyway (login passwords to your email server, etc).

- However, fortunately there is a massive shift to using encryption on login pages, email, etc. Once you are encrypted end to end then largely redirection attacks are impossible or at least VERY highly sophisticated (well beyond even most sophisticated geeks).


a) So actually, by and large its quite difficult (but do-able) to redirect your web page and send unwanted data to your boat if you are simply another client on the network. It is near impossible though to intercept login pages and any website using https, ie encryption (SSL is the common term, although TLS is actually the correct term...)

b) Interception is dramatically easier if you own the network equipment. So ensure you trust the owner of the wifi network... However, you STILL CAN'T intercept encrypted traffic, nor monitor it

c) Even if I manage to redirect your web page somewhere, ie you try and visit a web page and I instead redirect you to some virus infected thing instead, that doesn't automatically let me "infect" your computer. Browsers realise that web pages are hostile and you are sandboxed fairly effectively. So for example I will need to find a way to trick you to click the Yes to "do you want to open dubious_file.exe" in general. There are however, some exceptions:
- Adobe Flash, Adobe Acrobat and Internet Explorer (the browser) have regularly been discovered in recent periods to have critical flaws which allow someone to escape out of the sandbox. Gulp.
- So if you visit some website with a carefully crafted Flash advert or you visit a normal looking page with Internet Explorer that isn't bang up to date, then I can probably make some code run on your computer without you knowing or needing to click anything...
- Therefore whilst such sandbox breakouts have been discovered elsewhere, I would suggest that recent top targets of exploitation mean you should: switch away from Internet Explorer (use Chrome/Safari/Firefox, they do the same kind of thing with on average better security), uninstall Flash player (if you REALLY need it then keep it updated weekly or better), keep your Adobe Reader bang up to date and be very cautious about opening any attachments that are unsolicited


Finally, if I can recommend
http://virustotal.com
Its a website you can scan any untrusted file using nearly EVERY virus scanner on the market. Its not going to help with driveby attacks as above, but for example it can help with emailed attachments that kinda look real, but you just have a nagging doubt about. Or files you find from some grubby looking website which kinda look tempting. Upload them here before you click on them...


In summary, it's really very difficult to pickup viruses from simply using wifi access points, *if* you keep your software up to date, avoid Internet Explorer and practice safe opening of file attachments. However, you have a potentially scarier risk that what you are doing is relatively trivial to observe and so you should ensure you use https (secure) websites if you have the option

Good luck

Ed
 
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