Extending rage of wireless BB dongle..?

C_Mababejive

I was wondering if anyone had done any experimentation with regard to extending the range of USB wireless Broadband dongles?

I'm thinking of two scenarios..

1)get the soldering iron out and attach and antenna to the dongle. This could either be hi gain omnidirectional or a direction antenna to point at localised access point.

2)use a usb extension lead to position the dongle at high level/outside on a tv mast in some kind of weatherpoof box.


Thoughts?

buglawton

The usual advice is first try making a hole at the bottom a Pringles tube, put the cable thru that so the dongle sits at the bottom, then point the tube at the WiFi router. At least this will prove whether there is much to be gained. After that there are options like making a dish to focus the beam, eg an old frying pan. Loads of DIY web pages out there on this.

RobTang

C_Mababejive wrote: »

2)use a usb extension lead to position the dongle at high level/outside on a tv mast in some kind of weatherpoof box.

Given that you're limited to 3m-5m cables, I dont think this is an option, even with repeters I think its a bit silly.

You could try the pringles trick if you know where your closest tower is however if you're at the edge of your cell I think you're pretty much out of luck.

AnonymousForObviousReason

I saw a Youtube video a few months ago, where a (Russian - I think) was boosting his signal by putting it in a saucepan. I was 90% convinced it was fake but don't have a dongle to try it with.

buglawton

Are you actually talking about a 3g dongle? If you are talking about a WiFi dongle only, what is the purpose of placing it high up?

C_Mababejive

buglawton wrote: »

Are you actually talking about a 3g dongle? If you are talking about a WiFi dongle only, what is the purpose of placing it high up?

Apologies..this is by way of experimentation..!

Say for example,there is a wifi hotspot (cloud..whatever..) some distance from my home and i were trying to access it using a 3g dongle..im just thinking about hopefully extending the range of the dongle which cannot receive the hotspot when the dongle is plugged into the laptop and i am just wondering if anyone out there has experimented with usb lead extensions or connecting directional antenna to the dongle and if so,what sort of range extension might be expected via line of sight?

sharkie

wifi only

All depending on your purpose, terrain, distance, area covered and situation, I would look here http://www.alfa.com.tw

taking a guess att your situation I would use something like http://www.alfa.com.tw/in/front/bin/ptdetail.phtml?Part=AWUS050NH&Category=105481 or http://www.alfa.com.tw/in/front/bin/ptdetail.phtml?Part=AWUS050NH&Category=105483

these mostly connect to external antenna such as http://www.alfa.com.tw/in/front/bin/cglist.phtml?Category=106131 or http://www.alfa.com.tw/in/front/bin/ptlist.phtml?Category=106129

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Now the curved metal dish, does work if you get the correct focal point distance (which can be determined by signal strength) - similar to a satellite dish.

To be honest, a dish held with adhock wires may look like a bodge, but it is much easier than a pringles tube. The tube needs precise measurements to make it work and probably special connectors for the coax.

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some diy designs http://binarywolf.com/249/index.htm or http://technetz.com/index.php/2008/05/03/how-to-make-wifi-signal-booster-diy/ http://www.freeantennas.com or my favourite: http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html

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if you have trouble getting the video to be smooth, move your mouse down to the bottom right hand corner of the video box and select low resolution
http://revision3.com/systm/surfer
or the bigger picture of the above http://revision3.com/show/popupPlayer?video_id=908&quality=high&offset=460.46

buglawton

there is a wifi hotspot (cloud..whatever..) some distance from my home and i were trying to access it using a 3g dongle

now, are we talking about a 3g dongle or a WiFi one?

Assuming a WiFi situation, here someone has done the ultimate distance in the UK:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/03/not_spot_no_longer/

Supatramp

I have a '3' dongle which I use on my regular trips away in the caravan. I bought a 5 metre extension cable and this has provided a significant improvement in performance.

The signal/connection is far more stable, and also I can move sitting position etc without moving the dongle which also aids the connection and stability

Hammyman

If its Wifi, build yourself a Cantenna with a pringles tin. The below one claims a 12dB gain which is like increasing the signal over 15 times.

http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/weblog/view/wlg/448

You will need to run the highest quality co-axial cable you can find - LMR400 at a couple of quid a meter as RG58 has too much loss at 2.4GHz - and also N type connectors. In short, the cable run should cost more than 10 times what the wifi dongle does.

C_Mababejive

Hammyman wrote: »

If its Wifi, build yourself a Cantenna with a pringles tin. The below one claims a 12dB gain which is like increasing the signal over 15 times.

http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/weblog/view/wlg/448

You will need to run the highest quality co-axial cable you can find - LMR400 at a couple of quid a meter as RG58 has too much loss at 2.4GHz - and also N type connectors. In short, the cable run should cost more than 10 times what the wifi dongle does.

Thanks all for the input...I'm thinking it would be cheaper to extend the USB lead and you would not then suffer the losses at the microwave RF spectrum end. I wonder how long a usb lead can be before it stops working? I'm thinking long usb lead and at mast top>dongle>yagi antenna..the only issue is,would the returns be worth it? guess theres only one way to find out..!