WIFI antenna

[Paolaa]

Hello everybody!!

I am looking for an internet antenna .
I found this one on internet

Buy Wireless antenna,WiFi Antenna,2.4Ghz 5Ghz Wlan Antenna,RF connector,RF pigtail cable,Lightning Protector,802.11 a/b/g, Omni ,panel ,yagi ,Grid antenna

Do you know it?
Can you give me any advice?

Thanks

Paola

[artbyjody]

Atheros brings 802.11n to cellphones with AR6003, is one antenna short of a pair

[Paul_L]

The AR6003 isn't shipping yet.

The WIFI-Link system pointed to is too high a gain to be practical on a boat unless the boat is tied to a slip.

Check here. Separate antennas are at the bottom of th epage:
Alfa AWUS036H 1000mW (formerly 500mW) Long-distance USB Wireless Adapter + Antenna

Paul L

[osirissail]

For receiving and transmitting WiFi from you boat you need an amplified antenna. Your computer can receive the very powerful transmitted wifi signal from shore and show lots of "bars". But unless your computer can send out a signal that will reach all the way to the shore antenna you will not be able to use the wifi connection. It is a two-way transmission - so your power must be sufficient to get all the way back to the shore-side antenna. The few milliwatts put out by the computer cannot reach very far. So the "amplified Wifi antennas" have a powered signal booster in them to increase your transmitted signals many hundreds of times. Now "your half of the conversation" can reach the shore-side antenna and voila - wifi onboard in an anchorage or marina.

[jephotog]

I looked at this info in the past and a google search and a search of this site will bring a number of suggestions. I know Sailingdog has made a few posts here about recommendations and elsewhere, "everythingsailing" maybe.

In that post he said stay away from USB antennas and recommended another antenna. I did a search for said antenna and came up with the Data Alliance company which is the company selling the antenna Paul_L recommends. They had a lot of different ones to choose from. I asked them for recommendations for my needs given my situation, figuring with so many to choose from there may be a newer better one than SD suggested.

They recommended one that is USB based and I bought it. I should have listened to SD's suggestion, it is a disappointment. Or at least it does not get any better signal than my laptop. Granted my laptop is very new and gets better signal than I have seen from my previous computer. Just for reference though, I am not using mine on the water. Let me know if you find something that works well.

[Paul_L]

Jordon,
Sorry your purchase was not any better than the laptop version. I don't think the fact that it uses a USB interface is all that relevant. For an external device that is used on a boat, there aren't that many choices of interfaces: ethernet, analog extender cable, USB, and USB is a pretty good one and very common. The power output of the WiFi device is important and the antenna and cabling is also. Since these are used in constantly varying conditions, especially on a boat, it is really hard to make comparisons between one persons experience and anothers. If you are on land then the antenna can be high gain and kept pointed in the direction you need. If you are on a boat at anchor or you are on a boat and need to have the antenna in a fixed mount, then you cannot use a highly directional high gain antenna. It needs to be medium (low) gain and omni-directional.

Paul L

[JimMcGee]

I went through this last spring. Our marina installed WiFi that only reached the "expensive" boats on A-dock, so all we saw was reflected signals over on D-dock as we were in the shadow of a building.

I wanted something that would give me a strong signal, not cost a fortune, and wouldn't be a hassle everytime we left the slip (raising-lowering an antenna on the mast).

After a lot of research I decided to re-purpose an old Linksys router using DD-WRT to turn it into a repeater. The software is free (available free online).

The repeater amplifies the incoming signal, and using a router gives you a much stronger outgoing signal. My total cost was $29 for a cheap Costco router that plugs into the repeater and gives me WiFi anywhere on the boat. Right now both run off 110v, but I'm going to convert them over to 12vdc. It worked well as long as I saw a signal strength above 7% (1 bar is 20%).

We just moved to a new marina with no WiFi, but playing around I found a decent signal from the marina next door. A few properly applied beers should get me a password and I'll be good to go .

The downside to this approach is that you have to do some reading and get a little techie to reload and repurpose the router. Do it wrong and your router is a paperweight.

Here's a picture of the setup in the aft bunk. When I convert to 12v I'll permanantly mount it on a shelf.



Jim

[Architeuthis]

Originally Posted by JimMcGee

After a lot of research I decided to re-purpose an old Linksys router using DD-WRT to turn it into a repeater. The software is free (available free online).

Ditto, works better than most solutions. I really like the fact that our single account can then be used for all the laptops. Much better than the days when we had to keep asking if the other computer was logged on to the account.

Now if only we could get affordable internet when away from the dock.....

[tager]

Really, you shouldn't need any beers. Aircrack-ng my friend. It will get you a WEP key relatively quick. I would go anchor your boat nearby, where the signal is strong, and get the WEP key. It should take a couple of hours to figure out how to do it. The actual haxking takes only ten minutes.

[Paolaa]

Originally Posted by tager

Really, you shouldn't need any beers. Aircrack-ng my friend. It will get you a WEP key relatively quick. I would go anchor your boat nearby, where the signal is strong, and get the WEP key. It should take a couple of hours to figure out how to do it. The actual haxking takes only ten minutes.

Could you tell me how?