WiFi Extenders

Bigpeetee said:
There has been a number of threads on WiFi extenders.

Just bought this from ebay:

41dBm Mini Desktop WiFi USB Booster Planar Antenna Set | eBay UK

It's a USB wifi booster that comes with two antenna, the first a rubber antenna that gives omni direction (all around) and a flat planar antenna that is directional, a bit like a dish.

For £23.99 inc p+p I think it's great value and took 8 days to arrive from Hong Kong.

For example, in my dining room I went from 4 wifi base stations to 12, one going from very poor to excellent. The Planar antenna gave even more.

So how does it work in the van?

I parked up in Llandudno, using the laptop I got a couple of signals, when I used the booster with the omni I got loads of signals, including Bt Openzone, the cloud and Mc Donalds.

With clear line of site from the top of the Great Orme, I used the planar antenna on my dashboard, I could get signals from Anglesey if I pointed the antenna at Anglesey or Loads from Llandudno itself if pointed there.

The planar antenna could do with a plastic box if it's to be left outside for any time, it comes with a mount and I just fixed that to a piece of ply.

One word of caution, the booster uses a lot more power than the internal wifi so the battery of the laptop won't last as long.

Looking around the internet, there are conflicting reports as to the maximum power output a wifi should be, these boosters are between 5-10 times the recommended power. Not a problem if you are away from anything, but use them at home and you could start to cause problems with other wifi users locally.

Rule is: only use it if you need to, anyway, it flattens your battery quicker when in use.
Click to expand...

+1....I just bought the same booster, waiting for it to arrive, sounds like I'm getting a good buy.
-
 
This is an unlicenced band where as you quite rightly state the power should be restricted.

2.4 GHz 2.4 – 2.4835 Hz Licence exempt Spread spectrum modulation allows operation across the band.
Commercial public services allowed since July 2002.
Limited power at 100mW eirp restricting range.

Therefore as it is unlicenced, people can't complain about interference from video senders, microwave ovens etc.

However the chance of being found out is minimal as Ofcom have bigger problems.

As I've stated, if these are used in remote areas, then there's very little interferance caused by the increase in power. Only use what you need.

Now as I've got a full Amateur Radio licence, this allows me to operate in most of the WiFi band, so running the powers that we're discussing is completely legal for me!!.

Of note, when looking around the wifi band, most BT routers default to Channel 1, therfore reducing the throughput to your laptop if it's any distance away.

So consider using the software BT gave with the router and move channel to a lesser used one
 
Bigpeetee said:
Now as I've got a full Amateur Radio licence, this allows me to operate in most of the WiFi band, so running the powers that we're discussing is completely legal for me!!.
Click to expand...

And, of course, you would ID once every 10 minutes, perhaps using CW.

And restrict your communications to routers operated by other licensed amateurs, right?;)

Peter
G0RZJ VE3SUN AB6WM C31LJ
 
.... . . .... . .

Of course I do, mind you I usually use this power on HF, but the antenna hasn't got the gain.

Still VK & ZL with 1watt output aint bad!!

Sorry for those not in the Ham World, this has very little to do with WiFi!!
 
So mine arrived today. Ordered on the 12th so that's 8 days.

Looks pretty good, but I haven't tried yet.

Instruction manual also included a wireless network WEP password hacking package!

I'm not sure if that is on the CD or not, but I don't intend to use that feature, just connect to legally available open networks or BT FON etc

I'll let you know how I get on with it!
 
Quote One word of caution, the booster uses a lot more power than the internal wifi so the battery of the laptop won't last as long

could you not use a powered usb hub to run it then it would save power on laptop
 
France has some Departmentes with fairly low power thresholds for Wireless Transmission with Maximum Indoor Power being 100mW and Maximum Outdoor Power 10mW.
My laptop WLAN operates at something within these extremes, so I could sometimes be in contravention. Powerful boosters even more likely to be in breach,and perhaps easy to detect?
I don't know how strictly the French apply these Standards, but I've never met anybody that have had problems with the authorities.
Anyway it could be the reason why I suspect have to get close to McDonalds France to connect, or buy a coffee and get close to the chip fryer where they hide the router.
 
Had trouble in connecting to McDonalds in Belgium & France, but didn't realy try hard. Probably the language barrier and in too much of a rush.

Any tips for future use?
 
So I tried to install the device and first off the CD doesn't autorun like the instructions.

Then I manually browse the CD and find setup.exe in the windows 7 folder, tried to run it and got the D://rutime error. So I looked through the other folders on the CD and found some more setup.exes, Non of those worked either.

Then I am stuck with "unknown device" so I go to control panel and after some fiddling around manage to download drivers for "Realtek RTL8187 Wireless 802.11b/g 54Mbps USB 2.0 Network Adapter" and install it as that.

It now seems to work fine apart from it only displays the 8 strongest networks via the windows network icon in the task bar. These are displayed under "wireless network connection 3" and are the same 8 networks displayed under "wireless network connection" in the same icon, albeit they all have 4 or 5 bar signals whereas they only get 1 or 2 bars using the normal lap top internal WIFI card.

Since I couldn't install the "configuration utility" from the CD I only seem to be able to display the 8-10 strongest signals as standard under windows 7. Everything else seems to come under "other network" (also 5 bars signal)

Does anyone know how to alter this so I can browse all the signals. I knew how to do this with XP I think, but they keep changing the locations where you configure things.

Incidentally 1/10 to the manufacturers for a really crappy driver disc which contains things like hacking utilities and Linux, but the software I actually need doesn't work under windows 7. Maybe they should have spent more time on that rather than hacking software!

10/10 for the modem and ariel, I am getting 4 or 5 bars on everything in sight, I just need to configure it better.
 
See if the Alfa software works. I linked to it earlier in this thread. It is very impressive and should work with any RTL8187 device unless they have something proprietary to their unit.

I am connected to BT-FON right now from the middle of Dartmoor.

I can't see anywhere that signal could come from.

I'm a happy camper...

Peter
 
I got my Wi-fi Extender from eBay yesterday, fixed it up and picked up loads of extra Wi-fi accounts, including three Bt Openzone ones requiring passwords, that was the goodish news, the bad news.... I just came to start up my laptop again and it won't start, luckily my Pal is a software engineer, I've emailed him to call over. Also luckily, I've got this net-book so's I don't have to go cold turkey.

Edit: 25/04/11 When my laptop wouldn't fire up it gave me two options "Start windows normally" or "Windows Repair", I chose the latter, the screen just died but the HDD was working, I left it on over night an this A.M. all is well. Could be a coincidence or something dodgy on the CD Driver disk.
 
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Help.. Wifi Extender

We bought one of these wifi extenders, tried to load it on two laptops one windows xp one windows 2000, no go I left it in mine when I turned the computor off when I turned it on the next day the screen came up with aload of what we think was chinease but anyway a load of goggle-gook. we haven`t tried to load it again as we faer what might happen. we went to the web site on the box G Sky & they say they haven`t made this modee for over a year due to copies coming in from china which is where our was made. Can anyone help, is there something we`re not doing ? Cheers Trevor & Rachel
 
I've used the software suggested by Geonomad:

"I notice that this uses the same chipset as the Alfa AWUS036H that I have been using and am very happy with.

ALFA Network – WLAN, WiFi phone, ADSL, KVM, Bluetooth, PoE Products -- Driver

Go to this website and find the AWUS036H download, download and run. When you insert the external device you get a prompt, do you want to use the external device, click yes. Works a treat.

I'm using this on Windows 7 and XP with absolutely no issues.

Any problems and I'll call you to fix.
 
I have been very interested in this thread and have decided to go over to BT to get the wifi away from home. Nobody has mentioned what wireless card they use. Presumably N has a greater range than b or g or is it just faster? My laptop does not have an N so would it be worth getting an adaptor? BT shop does one for around £15.

TP LINK 300Mbps Wireless N USB Adapter (TL-WN822N) - BT Shop
Pete
 
802.11n is the latest version of WiFi protocol

If you use BT Fon as a means of accessing the internet, you are using someones connectivity through their router, (totaly legitimately as you will have agreed to do this when you join BT Fon) you get approximately 0.5 Mb of bandwidth so downloads on Fon are not as quick as at home, but much better than none!!

The link speed is not as important, the system automatically adjusts the link speed to suit the signal strength ie the "Size of pipe" between the router and the laptop, however on Fon the amount of information you can send down the pipe is limited, just as at home you are limited by the broadband connection speed.

What is most important to us when we are away from home is getting the signal in the first place.

Your average laptop has a built in wifi system, buried away on the circuit board, only really designed for very local use, if you want to get further away, you need to improve your signal.

Similar to a TV that many of us have in our MH. If you are close to the transmitter, a short length of wire will get a good enough signal, further away an omnidirectional antenna (Flying saucer type) will suffice, the advantage of this is it picks up signals equally bad in all directions.

Get further away and you need a small Yagi antenna (like on the roof of your house) much better in reception but has to be pointed at the transmitter, get further away again and you need an amplifier.

This is the same for WiFi, you can use the inbuilt antenna for short range, but to have greater range a remote unit with a proper antenna will receive signals at greater strength, even if just plugged into the USB socket.

Move the unit into the clear away from metal using a USB extender lead and you improve the signal strength even more, therefore the range (mine is hidden in a cupboard using velcro)

You could move it outside for better reception, but most times you probably couldn't be bothered. Finally you could get a high gain antenna if your WiFi unit will accept these. As with the TV, you have to point in the right direction, easier with a TV as the transmitter is fixed so all you need to do is look at every one else's antenna, with WiFi you dont know where the Fon is, so it's point and try, move direction and try again etc

Usually in most urban areas I can pick upto 25 signals using the external unit.

Interestingly, although BT routers search for a clear channel, most seem to pick channel 1 (because they cannot hear the other routers in the locality) If your remote unit allows you to scan the channel numbers, put your own on an unused one, helps you at home.
 
Thanks for help with wifi extender

Our thanks especially to Pete for help with wifi extender. Loaded AWUSO36H as sugested first time wasn`t so good as we thought we had to put the cd in but uninstalled it & tried again just plugging in the device & it seems to work, haven`t been out anywhere to try it , so it`s only a home try but it connected to a BT open zone. Thanks again Trevor & Rachel
 
Been out in the middle of the Yorkshire dales this weekend. Few cottages over 1/3mile away got connectivity at 54 Mb,able to watch ITV player with virtually no problems. Better than Eurovision!

Used the bigger antenna, the rubber duck worked but not as well. The laptop built in system couldn't find any signal.

The 12v laptop charger kept me going all weekend.

Weather rough!
 
Ok, you men have got my head spinning again!

BTFon -
buy the FON adaptor.....it will work with any router and any ISP
Click to expand...

Is this the Foneron we are talking about? I thought it was a router in its own right and was one of the things putting me off it.

BTFon -
in france NEUF/SFR have joined and you can use NEUF WIFI FON or SFR WIFI FON
Click to expand...

You mean that if I am a member of Fon in UK, I can use Fon over there if users have opted in. I see Neuf a lot, but I am guessing (because I can't remember) that this is not all Neuf hotspots, only Neuf Fon? Do I have that right?

And finally - I am still stuck in the maze of techie language. So...what I want is something I can plug into my USB socket and extend the range of being able to use wifi (not 3G) hotspots. I don't want to keep having to aim it (so I need omnidirectional, which will be a bit weaker?). I acknowledge the extra power drain and the signal blocking qualities of trees, etc. I don't mind sticking an antenna on the roof or on a pole fixed to my ladder. I don't really want to pay more than £30 ish. And I want something that I know someone is please with it - the only review of the Solwise Rocket I can find was pretty negative.

What would be my best options, do you think?

Oh, and it has to be pink.


Polly
 
I'm with you Polly, but mine can be any colour, so long as its not pink ;)

Cheers

:rolleyes2:
 
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