pc antenna

[RTicUL8]

My daughter just moved into a dorm (high school).
She has a Dell e1505 notebook with an internal Intel wireless card.
There is no wireless access in the dorm. However, there is at the library - which is about 150 yards away.

What antenna could be used to boost the reception in her dorm room - so she can pick up the signal at the library?

I know they call this a wardriving antenna, but I've never seen one in use.
Does anyone use one?
Any suggestions?
What would work with a notebook pc?

 

[DaJudge]

What kind of connections does it have? Does it even haven a PCMCIA (PC CARD) alot?

 

[RTicUL8]

4 USB ports
1 firewire 1394 port
1 PCI Expresscard slot


.

 

[sjkimmel99]

Check out this site:

http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/antennas_2400.php

look in the "in building wifi antennas" or "outdooor directional" section.

Here's your basic war driving type:
http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/hg2415y.php

You'll need to either get a wireless bridge. Similar to a wireless router but it's intended to be a lobe off of an existing wireless network. Should have a removable antenna with a plug that allows the directional antenna above to connect. Then use a wired hub in the room to connect the wireless bridge and the laptop.

The other alternative is to find a pcmica wirelsss adapter that has a connector that works with the directional antenna. Look around that site and you'll see the different types, kind of a pita to match the two. Avoid "adapter"thingies because the more connections the more signal loss of what's already going to be a weak signal.

Make sure you can return the stuff when it turns out that the signal is too weak to be usable - you'll be lucky to get as high as 11mbit/sec. 150 yards is a pretty good jump for consumer grade wifi.

 

[imma honky]

I would imagine the campus already has "router" functions through the LAN. If so, it should be as simple as using a WAP (wireless access point). WAPS are PnP. It's what I use at home. DSL line > modem (built in router) > hub > WAP. I have a hub for my desktop, which is still wired, and use WiFi for the two laptops.

 

[Stihl029]

Check out a Cantenna, it is a directional antenna that is sweet. I have picked up connections, good connections a half mile a way. One of my friends got one since he was going to travel and was at the coast guard base in Ketchikan on the fantail of the ship he was on using a connection from a coffee shop which was well over a mile a way, with nothing in between the line of site. be careful though I was pumping too strong of a signal back when I borrowed a connection one time and his computers were being jammed by my signal and could not connect. http://www.cantenna.com/laptop.html

Yeah I'm nerdy like that

 

[Beej]

x2 on the Cantenna. My neighbor across the street and down about six lots uses his Cantenna to get on my wireless network. He runs a B&B and I'm the only wireless network in the neighborhood. Since he's a cheap bastid he asked if he could leach off mine for a small fee. He bought the Cantenna at Circuit City for about 80.00 CDN. The only downside is its very focused, so you have to aim it right at the source...

 

[WaXJ_Skier]

you can make a home made cantenna with a pringles can I don't remember the website but there is a good one out there.

 

[Boxil]

yes she can use a cantenna til she's blue in the face but she can't use it with an internal card. you are pretty much screwed unless you want to disect the laptop (not recomended). get an external card either usb or one that pops into the PCMCIA slot and connect the antennae to that. make sure the card will accept an external antennae. some do not have the connection. orinoco usually makes them with the connection. otherwise you have to solder connectors. http://www.wardriving.com its an old website but a ton of great info.

 

[WaXJ_Skier]

can't use pcmcia its an express card notebook, and fiding express cards is a PITA

 

[sjkimmel99]

What Imma_honky said. Does the dorm room have a wired connection? Get a wireless access point that connects to the room network jack. If the PC does not have an ethernet jack just get an inexpensive USB wireless adapter.

if neither of those options are good (network admins don't like DIY wireless?) the Cantenna site looked like it had a complete package with a USB wireless adapter option to avoid the issues with finding an appropriate express pcmcia card.

 

[woody]

Good thread...I believe I'll hijack it :cheers:

We're stuck on dialup here out in the sticks, far enough out that cable won't come, and neither will the telco with DSL. However the regional newspaper is in the process of setting up WiFi on the cell towers up here in the rural end of the county.

The two nearest towers are maybe 1.5-2 miles in opposite directions. We can get a cell voice signal, but it's not the best.

Assuming they follow through with their rural wireless network as planned (it was to be free for subscribers to the paper) is there a way to jack an external wireless antenna into a desktop PC? Since the above posts mention USB connections, that is an option... I also have one firewire port and a couple PCI slots open. I 'could' mount that antenna atop a 75' pine tree, but if precise directional aiming is required, the natural oscillation of the tree in the wind would defy that.

Also on a tangent... my dialup is normally a 12.0kbps connection. Back in the day, I used to get hooked at 28 or sometimes 21.6kbps... not so anymore.

The phone line I'm using is semi-old (maybe 10 years old, and runs outside/exposed to the elements)... would I see an improvement by replacing the copper between the telco box outside the house? How about a new modem? Or am I just pissing into the wind, trying to optimize things at my end, when it's probably a telco/ISP infrastructure overload issue?

Thanks!

 

[RichP]

I find it hard to believe that a college does not have network connectivity in their dorms. As for the internal wireless card, it has an antenna, they usually go round the LCD screen in the cover, at least my IBM does. Have you asked the network people at school ?
You could setup a wireless access point and put it in repeater mode, then plug it into a switch and use the lan rj45 connection but that range is pretty far for that, even with a cisco flat panel antenna and an aeronet I've gotten at the most 200ft and both antennas needed to be aimed at each other, granted that was 802.11A and the newer aeronets running B/G do much better.
At the house I have Linksys WAP in the cellar and that does all three floors with no problem and at the furthest distance it may be 75 feet.
I would ask though, they may have ssid turned off and encoding turn on which may be why it's not showing up on the wireless interface.

 

[XJ Dreamin']

Good thread...I believe I'll hijack it :cheers:

We're stuck on dialup here out in the sticks, far enough out that cable won't come, and neither will the telco with DSL. However the regional newspaper is in the process of setting up WiFi on the cell towers up here in the rural end of the county.

The two nearest towers are maybe 1.5-2 miles in opposite directions. We can get a cell voice signal, but it's not the best.

Assuming they follow through with their rural wireless network as planned (it was to be free for subscribers to the paper) is there a way to jack an external wireless antenna into a desktop PC? Since the above posts mention USB connections, that is an option... I also have one firewire port and a couple PCI slots open. I 'could' mount that antenna atop a 75' pine tree, but if precise directional aiming is required, the natural oscillation of the tree in the wind would defy that.

Also on a tangent... my dialup is normally a 12.0kbps connection. Back in the day, I used to get hooked at 28 or sometimes 21.6kbps... not so anymore.

The phone line I'm using is semi-old (maybe 10 years old, and runs outside/exposed to the elements)... would I see an improvement by replacing the copper between the telco box outside the house? How about a new modem? Or am I just pissing into the wind, trying to optimize things at my end, when it's probably a telco/ISP infrastructure overload issue?

Thanks!

Ha! 12kbps. Our box is so wet and corroded we're getting 3kbps. Keeps the kids from wandering around the internet. Plus, no on-line gaming. No worries that the boys will turn into WoW junkies. Everytime the wife complains about some web site page loading slowly I remind her that we could pay the satelite folks for a broadband connection. Thats' a no-go so far. I don't know anything about wifi.

hijacker#2

 

[Beej]

I find it hard to believe that a college does not have network connectivity in their dorms. As for the internal wireless card, it has an antenna, they usually go round the LCD screen in the cover, at least my IBM does. Have you asked the network people at school ?
You could setup a wireless access point and put it in repeater mode, then plug it into a switch and use the lan rj45 connection but that range is pretty far for that, even with a cisco flat panel antenna and an aeronet I've gotten at the most 200ft and both antennas needed to be aimed at each other, granted that was 802.11A and the newer aeronets running B/G do much better.
At the house I have Linksys WAP in the cellar and that does all three floors with no problem and at the furthest distance it may be 75 feet.
I would ask though, they may have ssid turned off and encoding turn on which may be why it's not showing up on the wireless interface.

 

[RTicUL8]

Rich,

Read the first post - this is a "high school," not college.
She is in the 11th grade.

The dorm has a pc room where she can take the notebook for a wired connection.
However, they do not have wireless access in the dorm, and there is no wired connection in the rooms.

So that she does not have to wait in line to hook up to the wired connection, I was trying to see if there was a way to reach the library wireless.

Note: I had loaded a net sniffer program that shows both broadcast and non-broadcasting networks, but it picked up nothing.

===

WaXJ_Skier is right.
Trying to find PCI Express cards is a PITA!
I'll probably try to hook to a USB port.


.

 

[RichP]

Rich,

Read the first post - this is a "high school," not college.
She is in the 11th grade.

The dorm has a pc room where she can take the notebook for a wired connection.
However, they do not have wireless access in the dorm, and there is no wired connection in the rooms.

So that she does not have to wait in line to hook up to the wired connection, I was trying to see if there was a way to reach the library wireless.

Note: I had loaded a net sniffer program that shows both broadcast and non-broadcasting networks, but it picked up nothing.

===

WaXJ_Skier is right.
Trying to find PCI Express cards is a PITA!
I'll probably try to hook to a USB port.


.

High school !?!?!?! she does not need high speed in high school

Did you put that sniffer near a window or were you trying to go thru walls ?
Could be also that the school does not want their students to have in the dorms, staying up all nite on myspace, games, surfing.

 

[RichP]

Yup, I was born that way....cept for the handheld, don't like them, pictures are too small..

 

[sjkimmel99]

"We're stuck on dialup here out in the sticks, far enough out that cable won't come, and neither will the telco with DSL. However the regional newspaper is in the process of setting up WiFi on the cell towers up here in the rural end of the county.

The two nearest towers are maybe 1.5-2 miles in opposite directions. We can get a cell voice signal, but it's not the best. "

look for articles / sites about "wifi repeater"

The first thing that comes up on Google is about a solar powered wifi repeater. One claim is that with a suitable antenna it can cover 6-18 miles with the right antenna. If you subtract 80% for marketing content it might do what you want if you can put it or something like it about half way to the nearest cell tower and have a clean line of sight each way.

That's just one product but the idea is the same even if you get all the parts yourself.

If you put a directional antenna on top of a pine it doesn't have to be aimed like a rifle, the signal pattern is kind of a cone so as long as the center is pointed toward the target it should be OK.

This site has a number of Yagi / "can" or waveguide type / flat panel antennas.
http://www.wifi-link.com/product.php?class1_id=1&class2_id=56&gclid=CMTQnr7vj44CFRvrYAodqRT13Q

This would be the antenna to hook to a wifi repeater to. 20db of gain. You'd need at least 3. 2 for the repeater station and one for your house.
http://www.wifi-link.com/product.ph...id=1&class2_id=56&class3_id=162&product_id=21

If you were to attempt this you'd also want lightning arrestors in the cable with a good connection to a ground rod.


This might do it for the dorm room as well, just have to get the right connectors. Don't forget, at 2.4ghz thicker cables tend to have less loss than thin ones. They'll usually state a loss per foot And the fewer connectors the better.


Here's another complete kit for the dorm room - "can" shaped antenna, cable and USB adapter. It boasts 12 dbi of gain. $76.39. made by our allies in Taiwan.
http://www.wifi-link.com/product.ph...1&class2_id=411&class3_id=412&product_id=1169

If the antenna by itself doesn't do it, you can also add an amplifier: The high Db antenna would let you pick up the signal from the library (cause they're probably not putting out that strong or focused of a signal) and the amp would boost your signal to reach their short range / omni directional antenna.

Several kits on this page with the USB adapter, amp and an omni-directional antenna. Replace the antenna with one of the directional ones - either the "can" type or the Yagi type and you might/should be able to reach the library.
http://www.wifi-link.com/product.php?class1_id=13&class2_id=392