Wifi range extender coupled to a router help please

O

Oscarpop

Well-Known Member
Joined
31 Jul 2011
Messages
1,053
Location
Kent
Visit site
We are looking into picking up faint wifi signals on our boat and amplifiying them before allowing us to connect through a wireless network on board.
Despite being computer savvy, I am still struggling to get my head around what is required.

Digital yacht do a system
http://www.digitalyacht.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=11708

Which is the booster and aerial.

and..
http://www.digitalyacht.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=11680

Which is the router.

From what I can gather you just connect the 2 bits together and add a 12v supply.

However, the cost of this is huge ( IMHO). You can pick up a decent 12v router for £30 and the booster aerial for about £40. So all in all about 20% of digital yachts system.

What am I missing here? I do want an aerial that mounts outside and understand the weatherproofing needs. However are all boosters and routers compatible? Or am I missing a trick?


Many thanks.
 
Not sure if it'll meet your needs but have you looked at an Alfa router? I had a similar issue with the router in my laptop showing 1 bar. With this it shows 5 bars and I have no connection problems. They're sold by a small company and the guy is helpful. Cant recall the name but they sell on Ebay and Amazon.
 
Have the alfa router on my amazon wish list. I just wanted an external mounted aerial .

Just want to see how compatible the 2 components need to be.

Can you add any aerial booster to any router? Is there an industry standard? Or will I be arsing about for months trying to get one talk to another?
 
Oscarpop said:
Can you add any aerial booster to any router? Is there an industry standard? Or will I be arsing about for months trying to get one talk to another?
Click to expand...

As I'm sure has been discussed here before, there are three main categories of things people might refer to as aerial booster thingies. One is actual antennae which are connected to an existing radio device. What are more commonly discussed here are more sophisticated devices. One class are super-duper USB dongles but in big aerial housings with long USB cables (like the mailasail WiFi bat). Although most computers will have the drivers for these, you'd need to be very picky about routers: most won't even support any kind of USB WAN connections and those that do often limit support to certain 3G devices.

The last class, and what you've mentioned here, are actually little self contained computers in an aerial housing. They talk to other devices using completely standard network protocols: TCP/IP UDP/IP, DHCP etc. Cables are standard RJ45 network cables although you may need a little adapter if the "aerial" is powered by Power over Ethernet (as many are). That category you should be fine with using with a wide range of routers. You may have to do some fiddling with settings to get an optimum set up (e.g. you don't have two devices trying to hand out DHCP leases on the same network and you can reach initial default addresses to do configuration) but that's not rocket science. Scanning the installation manual for the Digital Yacht products mentioned their instructions seem a bit over-complex for set-up of two products from the same manufacturer: I wouldn't say it would be any harder with two (similar) products from entirely unrelated manufacturers.
 
We have a Rocket outdoor antenna that will pull a weak signal at least 500 meters works well on our Lap Top on the boat we bought ours from SOLWISE.CO.UK
 
Oscarpop said:
We are looking into picking up faint wifi signals on our boat and amplifiying them before allowing us to connect through a wireless network on board.
Despite being computer savvy, I am still struggling to get my head around what is required.

Digital yacht do a system
http://www.digitalyacht.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=11708

Which is the booster and aerial.

and..
http://www.digitalyacht.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=11680

Which is the router.

From what I can gather you just connect the 2 bits together and add a 12v supply.

However, the cost of this is huge ( IMHO). You can pick up a decent 12v router for £30 and the booster aerial for about £40. So all in all about 20% of digital yachts system.

What am I missing here? I do want an aerial that mounts outside and understand the weatherproofing needs. However are all boosters and routers compatible? Or am I missing a trick?


Many thanks.
Click to expand...

My solution to the same problem was to use a Picostation 2MHP external wifi adaptor which is connected by ethernet cable to the wan input on a TP Link wifi router. The 2HP has a range of upto several kms and if the signal is very weak an higher gain antenna can be connected.

Both can operated from 12v or mains via an invertor.

http://www.wifigear.co.uk/ubiquiti-picostation-m2-hp

The wifi router was about £25 (- its a TL-WR740N - now £16 from Amazon)

With this setup, I have full speed (depending on signal strength) throughout the boat for 2-3 laptops and a Freeview set top box (for I-player). I can also transmit nmea data over the wifi from nav laptop to the others.

The usb type adaptors such as the Alfa ones mentioned, are okay especially with with an external antenna but connect by usb so not really suitable for networking several laptops.

Ian

I've used the above setup in two marinas where the laptops own wifi has not even picked up the marinas wifi. I had full speed (7-8Mb depending on the number of users)
and have also picked up my home wifi from 4 miles. Its a cost effective, flexible and easy to install system - highly recommended and I am happy to assist setting it up via email.
 
Last edited:
ianj99 said:
The usb type adaptors such as the Alfa ones mentioned, are okay especially with with an external antenna but connect by usb so not really suitable for networking several laptops.
Click to expand...
Yes they are! If you read the post I linked to, you would see that the Alfa I recommend is capable of receiving a weak signal and broadcasting a local signal from a single unit when connected to a Windows 7/8 PC.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...rs-from-one-wifi-signal&p=4088870#post4088870
 
nigelmercier said:
Yes they are! If you read the post I linked to, you would see that the Alfa I recommend is capable of receiving a weak signal and broadcasting a local signal from a single unit when connected to a Windows 7/8 PC.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...rs-from-one-wifi-signal&p=4088870#post4088870
Click to expand...

The OP did mention router and onboard network.

I am well aware of ICS but it means that the laptop that the ALfa is plugged into must be powered up. Fine if you only have one laptop. But if you have other wifi devices you may not want to power up that particular laptop.

The Picostation + TP Link router works extremely well for me, uses little power (less than a notebook let alone a laptop), and has been tested for over 12months in a variety of situations. Its a fit & forget solution but the OP can make his own mind up which way to go, but either way, there is no need to spend a fortune.

Ian
 
ianj99 said:
I have full speed (depending on signal strength)
Click to expand...

This is one of the often misunderstood things with wifi links. Speed has nothing to do with signal strength and everything to do with signal quality. Adding power can make it worse, removing a microwave can make it better. A very feint signal can give full speed if it's clean. Some routers have a power setting (which often allows illegal settings for UK use), and this usually achieves little more than reducing connection throughput for you and your neighbors.
 
lustyd said:
This is one of the often misunderstood things with wifi links. Speed has nothing to do with signal strength and everything to do with signal quality. Adding power can make it worse, removing a microwave can make it better. A very feint signal can give full speed if it's clean. Some routers have a power setting (which often allows illegal settings for UK use), and this usually achieves little more than reducing connection throughput for you and your neighbors.
Click to expand...

Not misunderstood in my case but simply that the Picostation has 5 signal strength leds on it so that's what I was referring to. You can check the quality by logging into it.

It also requires the country to be chosen during the initial setup so the power remains in the legal range for each country and can be adjusted down from this limit as well.

When connecting to my home network (using another Picostation) I used a fixed channel (13) after scanning for all the other networks and seeing that none were on 13.

So, yes there are other considerations, but if you went through life worried about all the 'cons' you'd never leave the house.

In the case of my router which supplies the onboard network, it is left on its default power settings so will not interfere with nearby vessels any more than it would on land.
 
Last edited:
nigelmercier said:
Yes they are! If you read the post I linked to, you would see that the Alfa I recommend is capable of receiving a weak signal and broadcasting a local signal from a single unit when connected to a Windows 7/8 PC.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...rs-from-one-wifi-signal&p=4088870#post4088870
Click to expand...

I've just re read this and you are not correct in saying the ALFA is broadcasting the local signal to other devices.

It is the laptop/pc that is connected to the Alfa that shares the connection with other devices, via that Laptop/pc's wifi or wired connection and not via the Alfa.
 
Sorry didn't mean you were wrong, just pointing out strength is not the best word in this instance.
 
If you're still running XP or don't want to mess about with Command Prompt then you need an Alfa 36H as a booster aerial and an Alfa R36 as the wifi router. £80 or so for the pair including a 9db omni antenna.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alfa-R36-Repeater-Extender-Awus036H/dp/B004ZF0I3U/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1382986716&sr=1-1&keywords=alfa+r36

The booster plugs into the router and the router needs 12V. The first time you use the router you need to connect it to the laptop with an ethernet cable to set-up. Thereafter everything can be done using wifi.

I use this set-up (on an old XP laptop) to provide wifi on board to 2 tablets plus a netbook. Works very well.
 
ianj99 said:
The OP did mention router and onboard network.

I am well aware of ICS but it means that the laptop that the ALfa is plugged into must be powered up. Fine if you only have one laptop. But if you have other wifi devices you may not want to power up that particular laptop.
The Picostation + TP Link router works extremely well for me, uses little power (less than a notebook let alone a laptop), and has been tested for over 12months in a variety of situations. Its a fit & forget solution but the OP can make his own mind up which way to go, but either way, there is no need to spend a fortune.

Ian
Click to expand...
Hi Ian
Have been following this with great interest as the requirement closely mirrors mine. That is using a weak wifi signal and rebroadcasting so that my Ipad can then connect there apparently being no other way of getting an Ipad connected in here circumstances.
Could you advise how complex it might be to set up the components you have been using. I am reasonably capable with computers but definitely not an IT expert or anywhere near!
 
Hi Simon

As Ian hasn't replied I will. I have a ubiquiti bullet, which is identical to the Pico station, but has a seperate antenna, linked into a standard domestic router, in my case a Cisco, but the TP link is also good.

The thing to realise is that you have 2 routers, the Pico Station/Bullet and the domestic router. The first connects to the external wifi. The second is actually just a switch, but you are using the wifi of this to broacast a separate wifi network around the boat, just as your router does at home.

Set up is fine and should be within most patient peoples capablilities, but worth doing at home. Things to note are:
1 - The Pico/Bullet needs to be set as DHCP, so this hands out IP addresses etc. If you don't do this you won't be able to get onto these devices later to select your network
2 - Both routers need to be on the same subnet. Usually 255.255.255.0,
3 - I set the bullet to hand out IP addresses in the range 192.168.1.21-192.168.1.99, with the bullet as 192.168.1.20 and the local router as 192.168.1.1
4 - The bullet/pico needs to be powered via a POE injector, but they are really cheap.
5 - The bullet /pico needs to be plugged into the LAN port of the router NOT the WLAN port.

Then you should be ready to go.

You'll need to get onto the bullet/pico to configure it first, which is a bit of a pain as it has a static IP address. There is a great step by step guide to how to do all of this here:
http://www.boatinghowto.com/content...o-ubiquiti-bullet-2hp-installation-setup-202/

You'll also need to log into your router to turn DHCP off, check the subnet is the same as the pico's and set your own ssid/password

It sounds daunting but is very easy, I get a btopenzone hotspot from any marina in the Uk I've ever visited for free, and you can connect multiple devices, so even if you are paying (in France for instance) you only pay once as the system only "sees" the pico.

Good luck.
 
SimonJ said:
Hi Ian
Have been following this with great interest as the requirement closely mirrors mine. That is using a weak wifi signal and rebroadcasting so that my Ipad can then connect there apparently being no other way of getting an Ipad connected in here circumstances.
Could you advise how complex it might be to set up the components you have been using. I am reasonably capable with computers but definitely not an IT expert or anywhere near!
Click to expand...

Briefly, you plug the Picostation into a laptop or pc to configure it first. (I can pm you the settings I use if you go down this route). Its default management IP is 192.168.1.20 so you need to make sure the laptop or pc's ethernet port is on the same 192.168.1.x subnet.
After setting the wifi and lan modes, you then do a site survery which will list the SSIDs of the APs in range and then lock it to the one you want.
Then you connect the Picostation to the wan input on the router.

Next, plug the laptop into one of the router's lan ports to configure it. You will need to reconfigure the laptop's IP to the routers subnet range 192.168.0.x
You need to set the lan and wifi to a different subnet to the wan port (I use the routers default address of 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.10x for the onboard lan and wifi devices)
On the wan page of the router setup, set the wan connection type to dynamic and let it detect a connection. It will then ask the shore side dhcp server for an IP address (hence the router 'see the shore side AP directly - the Picostation being transparent) and show the default gateway.

You should now be online.

If the shoreside connection is your own, you can fit a Picostation at this end of the link as well for even better performance.

Ian
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top