Long Range WiFi

P

Pat Anderson

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I know this product has been discussed before, but if it works as advertised, this sure looks like the cat's meow! Fairly pricey, until you think about mobile broadband / data plans / phones, cards, usb adapters, etc. Anybody own one of these guys? How well does it really work?

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I also know some other range extenders have been discussed, but I would really like to hear about people's real-world experience with these things.

I am still thinking the ultimate solution for access will be when iPhone comes to Verizon, AND it can be tethered...
 
Thanks Pat for putting out the query. I will be monitoring the results with interest.

It would be very cool to put something like this on our laptop, and have a dramatic increase in available internet while on the boat.

Dan
 
Pat;

We purchased an extender last year from Radio Labs, a local company, and have had good success. The following link is to the product that we have. At our marina, without the antenna, we can't get wifi service. With the booster I get 5 networks that are public. It helps a lot. I wish that we had it last year in Petersberg. There was a hot spot but, the connection was very weak. I am convinced that the booster would have made it much better. They also have the booster that you asked about.
http://www.radiolabs.com/products/wirel ... ntenna.php

Hope this helps, the folks at Radio Labs are great to do business with.

Gene Morris
 
Hey there little nephew, I went to the site and the only real caveat that came to mind was that the site was very strong on marketing and extremely weak on actual specifications. How many milliwatts output? What's the antenna gain?

Before I'd part with $400, I'd probably spend $50 evaluating this item coupled with this antenna and see what results. Lord I would love some side by side comparisons. 5 miles? Sorry, young man, I would probably believe 5 blocks for useable signals on the water before I'd ever believe the advertised 5 miles.... Oh maybe if you drove the boat and trailer to the top of a 10 story parking garage, but at those frequencies and power levels your limit is driven by the line of sight horizon and Effective Radiated Power not the salesman's rhetoric.

No, this little combo isn't "Marine Grade", then again you can buy about 8 of them for redundant backups.... :wink

Don
 
Gene,

Could the unit you have be attached to the VHF radio antenna to get it higher up in the air or would they not get along together?
 
For a lot less than $400 you could get a air card for $50 and a extra $50 a month on your plan get unlimited use. My broker has it and likes it a lot. No matter where you are You get service as long as you get a cell, which is everywhere these days. Most times I do get a wifi it’s secure anyhow and now of these products help with that.

Funny story, my folks are in a large canoe type thing in a canyon outside Hong Kong being pulled by monks with rope on shore going to see their temple. Tourist thing right, but no roads in and no motor boats. Well the folks are kicking back enjoying the ride when they hear a cell phone ring?? its one of the guys on the bank pulling the canoe up river??? Cell is everywhere.
 
Ahh yes, sorry Phil, I forgot my nephew owns a MAC.. OK, then here's another $40 device with 700mw of power that works with OS X and, incidentally, the PC.

Just click here and be transported to McLover Land. This one also works with the mag base antenna I mentioned earlier AND the site runs a comparison between the Alpha I also mentioned earlier. The Rokland/external antenna system looks to be a better choice, especially in the el cheapo category.

Interestingly I did find some data on the unit 5mile WiFi is selling. If it's the same as this one, it has a whopping 2 watts output and illegal for sale in the US.

Don Anderson
 
This thread elicited a response from our friend Jeffrey Siegel of ActiveCaptain. He linked to an article entitled "Simple and Inexpensive WIFI". This article described a cheap wifi setup using the EnGenius EUB-362 EXT . I subsequently purchased one and can report that it dramatically improved the reception of my laptops. I use it simply as a portable Wlan adapter but Engenius also offers dedicated marine "fixed mount" WIFI Antenna Packages. Fortunately, I've always gotten good connections tethering my cell-phone for long range internet so I've never needed one of these outfits. If I ever decide I require a more capable wifi setup I'll start my search there.
 
A quick first impression of the Rokland N3 $40 wireless USB adapter. Received mine today.

Sony Viao laptop with internal B/G wireless. Inside the house I detected 8 separate hot spots, mostly my neighbors.

Sony Viao with the Rokland N3, and the stubby included antenna it jumped to 17 hot spots, only one with no security and that one (a Linksys) only had 1 bar.

In the RV in our driveway with an 8 db gain rooftop antenna about 11 ft. off the ground, it jumped again, showing 26 hot spots and that weak Linksys became useable at 4 bars.

This was not using netstumbler software, btw, just the included M$ Vista network sharing software.

5 mile range? No. Knowing the neighborhood, I would guess the best range under those conditions was about a mile for useable signals. Caveat: There were no 802.11n wireless routers within range. I would definitely expect another range surge with 802.11n.

Interesting note: We were one of the first to adopt ATT U-Verse for TV and internet access and users were few and far between. Not so now. Those distinctive Motorola wireless routers are all around us and are far more powerful than any of the other neighborhood routers. Cable and satellite now have real competition....

For marine use, I would probably look for a high gain marine quality antenna but the ease of use and quality of the Rokland would have me carrying it between home, boat, and RV without any worries.

More as I spend more time with it.

Don
 
Adeline":1ypue0pl said:
This thread elicited a response from our friend Jeffrey Siegel of ActiveCaptain. He linked to an article entitled "Simple and Inexpensive WIFI". This article described a cheap wifi setup using the EnGenius EUB-362 EXT . I subsequently purchased one and can report that it dramatically improved the reception of my laptops. I use it simply as a portable Wlan adapter but Engenius also offers dedicated marine "fixed mount" WIFI Antenna Packages. Fortunately, I've always gotten good connections tethering my cell-phone for long range internet so I've never needed one of these outfits. If I ever decide I require a more capable wifi setup I'll start my search there.
Click to expand...

I have ordered all the pieces and parts mentioned in the above links. I actually got the EUB 9107 EX2 USB wifi unit. Just using that I have doubled the A's that I am picking up. I have not gotten the cable that I need to connect the EUB 9701 to the external antenna so have not been able to test that.

Today I broke down and got an iphone. It only took about 2 mins to set it up to teather to the laptop. I did a speed test on the connection and got 5 megabits download and 3 up. That's just about what I get from COX.
 
flrockytop: I thought ATT had not yet allowed tethering iPhone? Did you purchase a jail broken iPhone? Inquiring minds want to know.
 
Roger - want to explain, or point to resources, on how to tether an iPhone to a laptop? The official line is "it can't be done." I know it can because Patty's newphew has his iPhone tethered to his little eee netbook via Bluetooth, and uses it while riding the bus to work. I'm sure Bill Fiero would love to tether his iPhone to his laptop. Is your tether Bluetooth or USB?

Ironically, the official line on tethering the BlackBerry to a Mac at the Verizon store is "no problem, there is a CD in the box to let you do it." It is easy to tether to the Mac via Bluetooth, and there is a ton of information on the web how to do it. But there is no way to tether via USB, that is the word on all the BlackBerry sites, and my experience mirrors that. Bluetooth works great but is a major battery hog, so I am hoping USB tethering will be along soon (RIM, the manufacturer of the BlackBerry says it is "coming in September" - I'll believe it when I see it).

Anyway, since getting the Blackberry, I am way less interested in extending WiFi range.




flrockytop":168qqoyr said:
Today I broke down and got an iphone. It only took about 2 mins to set it up to teather to the laptop. I did a speed test on the connection and got 5 megabits download and 3 up. That's just about what I get from COX.
Click to expand...
 
ccflyer":10outfqq said:
flrockytop: I thought ATT had not yet allowed tethering iPhone? Did you purchase a jail broken iPhone? Inquiring minds want to know.
Click to expand...

There are several ways to do it around on the net. Some do require the jail broken phone. The one I found involves iPhone running iPhone OS 3.0 is to download a .ipcc, which is carrier specific and update the iphone with it. I using bluetooth to connect to my little Eee.
 
I don't have an I-Phone but a brother does so I'd bookmarked this link for him. Hope this helps !
 
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