WiFi woes

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Gwylan

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Have an Alfa r36 and a WifiSKY wireless USB adaptor.

I can get the WiFiSKY to do quite reasonable things on the laptop and find my home wireless router signals and those that my neighbours never thought I might be able to see.

I can use the WiFiSKY to access the home wireless, gives better range and the speed difference is not that important to me.

I can 'see' the R36 on my wireless stuff, but that's about it.

The end game is to use the system on the boat. The WiFiSKY to receive and send WiFi signals in marina etc and the Alfa R36 to provide wireless access for tablets, phones around the boat.

How do I get the Alfa and SKY to talk to each other, without using a laptop?

I know, now, that I should have bought an Alfa wireless usb adaptor, but that's another story.
 
I read that the R36 only supports USB network adapters with certain chipsets. That suggests to me that the USB driver is part of the firmware. So if your WiFiSKY adapter has another chipset it just won't work.
 
DaveRo said:
I read that the R36 only supports USB network adapters with certain chipsets. That suggests to me that the USB driver is part of the firmware. So if your WiFiSKY adapter has another chipset it just won't work.
Click to expand...

Whilst I can connect to the R36 over the WiFi I just can't get any success with having it connected directly to the laptop via a USB port. Maybe that explains why. I have tried the drivers many times but with no success and have given up. The trouble is you really want to be able to connect via the USB for diagnosing problems.
Recently I could not connect to the R36 over the WiFi even after pressing the reset button. (I could see the Alpha WiFi but connection was always unsuccessful.) In the end I was able to connect via a patch cable and do a restore of the factory defaults. Once I did that I had WiFi connectivity again.
 
Talulah said:
Whilst I can connect to the R36 over the WiFi I just can't get any success with having it connected directly to the laptop via a USB port. Maybe that explains why.
Click to expand...
I was referring to using the R36 as a wireless repeater. Connecting it to a laptop is a different case.
 
Talulah said:
Whilst I can connect to the R36 over the WiFi I just can't get any success with having it connected directly to the laptop via a USB port.
Click to expand...

I think there is some confusion here (or maybe I have misunderstood?).

The R36 is a wireless router that connects to a USB wifi antenna on one side (also 3G is possible) and to any laptop/PC/tablet/phone using wifi on the other side. It does not need any special drivers in the laptop/PC/tablet/phone; it just uses the standard wifi drivers.

To set it up initially, particularly to set up a password for wifi encrytion, it connects to a laptop or PC using ethernet and a standard browser (e.g. IE, Chrome etc.). It does NOT connect to a laptop or PC using USB. The USB socket is for connection to a wifi antenna as previosuly stated. To avoid incompatibilities it is best to use the Alfa USB antenna.

I can't comment on the WiFiSky unit but, if the R36 works OK with some other antenna and then doesn't work with the WiFISky plugged in, I think you have answered your own question.
 
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