I am so frustrated. My wife has my old Dell and gets 2 bars on her Wi-Fi signal. My latest & greatest Mac OS 10.4 gets ZERO bars. She gets online and I just get more frustrated.

Turns out Mac have a Titanium case and it blocks part of the signal. So if there is a weak signal, no luck.

We camped next to a couple that have been full-timing for 10 years. I asked him how he gets online. He said, see that antenna next to my A/C on top of my rig? It brings in anything in range and gives me 5 bars. “Also, I have an amplifier” he said.

I didn’t get a chance to pursue it further as he was leaving.

I have been searching for the best solution I can find. I bought a “Wi-Fi D-Link Range Extender” day before yesterday. Didn’t work. After spending several hours and talking to their tech support, it is a Repeater and needs to be married to one router.

I took it back.

I have an appointment Monday with RadioLabs in Fortuna, CA. Monday. They have some awesome claims on their website. They have one antenna they claim picks up a Wi-Fi signal from 4 miles away. (I’ll believe it when I see it. )

I hope we can come up with a GREAT solution.

When I was talking to RadioLabs this morning, they recommended http://www.radiolabs.com/products/wireless/waverv.php

We’ll be taking a look.

Mike
If you have a G4 Titanium you also have a PC Card slot?
You can install a few different Wi-Fi cards into that slot that will have antenna outside the Ti case area.
You can also use some USB Wi-Fi adapters and get the same or better results as you can put an external antenna on some of those.

I use one program while "Roaming" that helps locate and get into hotspots also. It is called iStumbler.

PM me if you want/need more info.

Ed

Don't plan on spending a lot on getting a better wifi signal...it's easy to homebrew a antenna that can boost your recieve and transmit signal. I built a reflector that fits around my router antenna that boosted my signal from 5% to 75% using a plastic 2 liter soda bottle, some tinfoil and one page size sheet of thin cardboard. Took all of 10 minutes and a pair of scizzors to make.
Check out this link...it might give you some ideas...
http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/has.html

Here's a link to the template I used...
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template/
ConwayBob

I use NetworkStumbler (free on the internet) to find open access points.

My Dell will connect to any signal that is above -95 dbm.

I just execute NetworkStumbler and pick an un-encrypyed access point and go on line.

Mike, it's quite possible that the guy with the active repeater (two antennas with an amplifier in between) wasn't using WiFi but was using cell phone.

Also, bear in mind that 'poaching' on someone else's WiFi and internet connection is less than cool and even illegal in some jurisdictions. Some have likened it to "If they didn't bother to lock the door, it's OK for me to walk inside the house and use the bathroom". Folks are very split on this and can get quite passionate about it.

OTOH, it's not at all unusual to find CGs with WiFi, or with other RVers with an internet connection that they openly share with fellow campers.


Here's another WiFi antenna made from a salvaged sat tv dish.

http://www.geocities.com/ab9il_worldwide/wifi3.html

BTW, there are three good Yahoo groups, Internet by Data Card, Internet by Cell Phone and Internet by WiFi from which to glean lots of info regarding On The Road Internet.

Here's a quote from an Internet by WiFi post:

QUOTE
RE: [IBWiFi] Neighbor's Wifi and YAGI Antenna??


Mike,

That's a good question. You don't mention distances, signal strengths (if
you've measured them), a "nice to know" is where the 15ft high mast will be
(roof, etc.). So, I'll give you a general shot in the dark answer as to
what I'd do in your shoes.

(Note - Any CAPITALIZATION is intended for those readers that might require
some additional emphasis on a particular point, prior to their sending an
e-mail with a contrary position.)

1) Measure the signal strength of your neighbors' signal in different areas
in which you could mount the antenna. Remember, there are things in your
home that can affect the reception - passively (i.e. water) and actively
(i.e. microwave oven; cordless phone). I'd be sure to have the active
devices in use when doing this.

2) It would be ideal if you were able to minimize the length of antenna
coax. You'll get significant loss there, certainly more than with USB. If
necessary, you could use an adapter to make the USB signal an Ethernet
signal, insert WiFi repeater or an Ethernet duplex switch (not a hub) and
run the CAT5 to your router, if that makes sense. Then you can situate the
LAN (as opposed to your YAGI WAN) antenna at the best location. ALL THINGS
BEING EQUAL, I'd run the CAT5 (depending upon the switch, you might have to
use a crossover configuration - the Auto MDIX - feature would eliminate this
concern). I think (I haven't had an opportunity to compare) you'll get less
noise and higher overall performance, assuming the switch is ok).

3) You might need to put a similar antenna etc. at your neighbors' house as
well. Since the signal is TYPICALLY good for @300 feet, don't be surprised
if you need something in addition to the Yagi. You might find a need to
place a repeater in the signal path. If that's impractical, another option
is to add signal amplifiers on both ends of the WAN.

4) At some point you'll need a router, even if you have a repeater
someplace in between you and your neighbors' antenna. I suggest a router,
as opposed to a bridge, because:
a) Some routers can be configured as bridges
They're often less expensive than bridges by the same
manufacturer (economies of scale)
c) Router allows you to configure settings for your own LAN

5) So you can take advantage of whatever proprietary "turbo, extended
range, etc.", purchase the same brand (AND SERIES - THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!)
The same brand, but different series, could have features that are
incompatible) features available in your neighbors' router. If unavailable,
even on eBay, etc. you may need to buy a matching router for the other end
THIS IS ESSENTIAL IF IT IS A RANGE EXTENDING FEATURE.

6) When choosing routers, switches, etc., it's important to pay attention
to the specs. How much buffer memory (You'll see specs with bit and with
bytes. There are 8 bits to a byte). Additionally, often (but not always),
you can use the number of ports AND the number VPN tunnels (realistically)
supported simultaneously to help you choose. Remember, if both your
daughters are running significant bandwidth, this can cause major
degradation of your LAN. So, IF you have a choice, don't cut corners.

Best of luck.

JR



-----Original Message-----
From: InternetByWiFi@yahoogroups.com [mailto:InternetByWiFi@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Michael West
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 8:11 PM
To: InternetByWiFi@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [IBWiFi] Neighbor's Wifi and YAGI Antenna??

Hi new to the group and here is my question, my neighbor and I are good
friends and he said my wife and I are more than welcome to use his wifi
which he has with this setup. He gets internet by using wild blue dish
service then from his modem he goes into a basic Netgear router which
sends signal to another room for his wife's computer. We are about 1000
feet apart and have clear line of site to each other. I just bought a
20 element 20dbi gain yagi which I will put up on a mast about 15 feet
high, come into our house with LMR400 coax, then have a pigtail which
goes from N connector to mc and or rpsma connector. Ok what hardware do
I need on my end to hook the coax to so as to create a wireless
enviroment so my girls can get wifi with their laptops? A bridge,
router, repeater, access point or a combination of something? Hey
thanks for all responses and help. Mike

END QUOTE

I can't believe a company as smart as Apple doesn't have a fix for this.
Imagine encasing an antenna inside a metal box, what were they thinking?

How To Build A Tin Can Waveguide WiFi Antenna



Or buy something similar here for about $40: http://www.cantenna.com/

From what I've read, Pringles cans work well if you're making your own.

Oh groan. I'm just so far behind youse guys on this techno stuff. Just got my first laptop with all the gizmos my geek son insisted on. At home it runs wireless, and the bluetooth mouse is chirping away, but sooner or later I'll have to connect while on the road. Point in favor: the laptop was made in China, so the case is not metallic, just melamine. I believe it can be wiped down with ethylene glycol if the reception is not up to snuff. I'm getting cluster headaches already.

I totally agree and am NOT interested in poaching. I went into a CG advertising FREE Wi-Fi and was bitterly disappointed. While my wife and others were getting online I could not.

My personal goal is to be able get the available offered signal from any campground I am in (and paying for) and get maximum performance from it.

Per, at the root of it, antennas are simple -- They just radiate the energy produced by the whatever. Antennas alone don't actually amplify, but they can be built so that they radiate and receive in a particular direction, like TV antennas you see on a roof with a motor to point them in the right direction, and since all the energy is sent or received from just one direction, the energies involved are more efficient.

There are all kinds of technical numbers to describe this, but the key one is dBi; the higher the number in front of dBi, the more efficient the antenna, with perhaps the more need for proper aim. (dBi is a theoretical isotropic radiation pattern, a globe).

Laptops are built with internal antennas that are not generally directional, so they are less efficient but don't need to be pointed (like a hand grenade, bursts in all directions, but doesn't burst far); better antennas are more efficient but may have to be carefully aimed (like a rifle, much longer range, but useless if not pointed properly).

Antennas come generally in three basic radiation patterns; a ball or globe, a doughnut or concentrated. Laptops and WiFi cards with no external antenna are generally the first kind, Pringles can antennas are the last kind.

To go really long distances, two Pringles cans can be carefully aimed at each other, but usually the WiFi access point has one of the first two antennas.

It is very common for antenna's to offer some "Gain" over merely receiving some baseline signal. The more directional the higher the gain in that direction. It is very common to get positive gain from an antenna if it is designed to resonate at the frequencies you are trying to receive. The various antenna types and designs offered here all have the potential to amplify your Wi-Fi signal were it not for one limiting factor. The airport card built-in to your Powerbook does not allow for an external antenna connection.

As I offered earlier there are options for the Powerbook that use either the PC Card slot or the USB slot.
Either of these offer an antenna outside the shielded area of the Powerbook case.

I have used some PC Cards with success on a TiBook but the USB option allows for actually placing the antenna and adapter away from the computer or other sources of interference and can have the most dramatic result.

It is odd maybe but the best success for the least cost that I have had with this was a USB Wi-Fi adapter that is available from Home Depot of all places.

The Belkin USB Wi-Fi adapter does have Mac drivers available and I use one with my Titanium G4 with great results.

The device you found that is geared for RV use seems to be both an adapter and a high-gain omni-directional Wi-Fi antenna in one package.

It may seem pricey but it is an interesting and I bet good performing solution too.

The MacBookPro is an improvement over my last Powerbook, but the iBook with a plastic case gets far better Wifi reception. I may try one of the USB devices.

Bobbie

I have a USB external antenna and is does do better. It has a built in signal meter and a secure not secire meter. It brings me up to where the Dell computer is.

This full timer I met had a roof mounted antenna and claim to get full strength form any available signal.

I am in Fortuna, CA and have an appointment with RadioLabs when they open in the morning. Currently I am in an RV park that has password protected Wi-Fi and that we are using as part of the park fees.

So tomorrow I will see what these folks in Fortuna have to offer and if it gets me what I am hoping for - a powerful reception into our RV that both our computers can access at the same time. Wouldn’t that be cool.

PS: I’ll let you know what I find.

Mike
This brings up another interesting point, I have never seen an antenna splitter for this freq. that would allow two computers to use the antenna at the same time.
In fact because the computers both transmit and receive I will be surprised if this will work. Maybe I should go back and read the fine print in the ad.

Have fun
Ed

It would make more sense to set up one computer on the adapter and allow the other computer to access the internet through the first by choosing the proper permissions in the first.

Alternatively, if one could find an appropriate router, both computers could be connected to it (dunno if they exist for WiFi, but there are routers which will accept a data card [as in cellular data card]).

Just so you know. Radio Frequency signals in the UHF range ( Wi-Fi) is mostly line of sight. So if you are on a hill top with a clear shot to something 4 miles away you are probably ok with that fancy antenna.

If you are in the trees,( like a regular campsight would be) you will be lucky to go 1/2 mile.

Also if you look at the length of the yagi antenna elements you will notice that they are about the same length as pine needles. Yes ,without telling you how I know ,Pine needles WILL soak up RF energy at those frequencies. I cannot tell you about it, but I have seen actual proof of this.

Sometimes I wonder if a ballon antenna would be a better idea.

i've used netstumbler before, but it really isn't needed with xp.

just double click your connection - view wireless networks button - double click a connection within range and click connect.

the best software i've found for finding hotspots is wigle

http://wigle.net/gps/gps/main

you can download maps for the county you are visiting and it may only be a matter of moving a mile or so to find a hotspot.

edit - download digle and then you can download the maps for your location, by clicking connect to wigle button.

as far as I know it's free. i just fired up my digle software and remembered my username so I must have registered for free at one time.

check it out

I met with the folks at RadioLabs and was very impressed. They have a Wi-Fi link from the top of their building to the owners house 4 miles away.

I chose an omni-directional antenna with a Ethernet bridge. From this I can hard wire two ethenet cables to two computers or to a router. From the router I can rebroadcast to my local area either open or secure.

The antenna I bought is: 2.4 GHz 11.8 db Vertical Omni-Directional Antenna. If you can get 2 bars, it will boost the signal to 5 bars. This antenna is supposed to give a 1.5 mile range line of sight. They have a money back guarantee. So the clock in running and I will be testing soon.

The Ethernet bridge is Wireless-G MIMO Performance Ethernet Converter by Buffalo. The little antenna will be removed and wired to the Omni-Directional Antenna above.

Can't wait to see your results, Mike....

Pete, you are right on about the line-of-sight and also about vegetation. A friend was hosting in CO and had cell phone internet in early spring to Silverton from the campground because the signal was apparently reflecting down the rock walls of the valley, but he had to move about 1/2 mile closer when the aspens grew leaves...

I have a sort of reverse cell reception action at home; in winter, I get a lot of dropped calls, but in summer it improves...

A balloon would indeed give better line of sight, but it would be hard to aim a directional antenna and you would have to use something other than coax between the adapter and antenna because the signal loss would be too great. That's why sailboaters like the WiFi adapters/antennas on the end of a USB cable, like a Hawking, because there's far less loss, even with a USB extension cable.

Regarding aiming an antenna, the Windows Zero Configuration Utility or the utility software furnished by typical adapter manfs are nowhere as handy as NetStumbler because the former need refresh cycles whereas the latter are real-time and instantly show the signal change with a move of the antenna.

NetStumbler is a finder, while the others are connectors -- Depends on what you are trying to do.

It Worked!

I went to a local coffee shop and parked across the street. I had a weak signal on my Mac and Lori had a little stronger signal on her PC. She got on but then the connection was dropped. She got right on again and was able to do well. The restaurant has a very fast connection.

I then got out the Buffalo Bridge with the little stock antenna and was able to get connected with a strong signal. I was connected via Ethernet. To be honest, I was able to talk to the Bridge as per the directions, but I was NOT able to get on the Internet. I connected Lori’s PC via Ethernet and she got right on.

I had to set up a TCP/IP setting for the Bridge. Then connect. After connecting I switched my TCP/IP settings to DHCP to get on line.

I saved the settings and now I’m good to go.

I drove two blocks down the street and retested. No signal from the restaurant using the laptop wireless. I connected the Bridge and the big antenna and got 100% signal, WOW! Lori got on with her PC and I got on with my Mac. There are two additional Ethernet ports for two more connections. These ports can also be used to set up a router and rebroadcast Wi-Fi to my local area either open or password protected.

I drove another two blocks away and barely got connected, but did. So, I guess I was about six city blocks away.

The Antenna works.

This was all hand held and running off a 12v inverter out of my cig. lighter.

Wow, excellent! Now you don't have to go in and buy coffee anymore....

Were you pretty much line of sight the whole time. I wonder how it would do through buildings, trees etc.

Across the street I was LINE-OF-SIGHT. Second stop I was slightly out of LINE-OF-SIGHT. Third stop I couldn’t see the restaurant at all.

PS: I eat at JBS Place 3+ times a week and the food is good and the coffee is great. I know the owner very well. He has his Wi-Fi set up for FREE public use.

I was told that bulge mobiles, trees, what ever, could cause interference. Just be aware and adjust.

I think if I was only connecting one computer to an external Wi-Fi antenna, I would go with the Wireless RV System - WaveRV

My recommendation is that one not be too obvious about off-premise use of a business offering 'free' WiFi, esp during business hours, unless one KNOWS the owner intended free access to all, not just to customers.

Two WiFi Arrests...

There are plenty of folks out there subscribing to the theory of "If it isn't specifically legal, then it must be illegal!", incorrect as it may be in many cases.

On the other hand, cities are offering FREE Hot Zones.
Spokane, WA & Long Beach, CA to name a couple. Also, Rio Rancho, N.M. & Chicago, Ill.

Check out http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...SINESS/70626053

This is actually quite controversial. According to federal law, the FCC has the sole power to license and regulate the use of radio transmitters and receivers. The FCC's regulations are very clear about what constitutes legal and illegal uses of radio transmitters and receivers, and their regulations trump any and all other laws regarding the use of the radio spectrum.

When it comes to WiFi, FCC regulations were set up to guarantee access to WiFi frequencies and clearly state that they're a public resource anyone can use. WiFi is, in many ways, like the FRS (Family Radio Spectrum) walkie-talkies many of us use. When you talk, anyone can listen; if you have an intimate conversation with your partner and someone listens in, he hasn't broken the law. Nor has he broken the law if he interrupts and makes lewd comments as long as he does not use what the FCC defines as "offensive language." If you are offended by the things he says the only thing you can do is ignore him; alternately you can decide to tell him he's an ass for eavesdropping and get into a conversation with him. Either way, no laws have been broken.

The same concept applies to WiFi. Say you and your neighbor both have cable modems connected to a WiFi router. Because neither of you are particularly worried about security, neither of you choose to use the security features on your WiFi routers that encrypt your transmissions (akin to talking in a foreign language) or even change the default names of your routers, so both of your networks wind up being called "Linksys."

Now, you're an outdoorsy type, so once in a while you head out to the shade tree near the fence and surf the net wirelessly. You're not even aware your neighbor has a cable modem or WiFi, but because your neighbor's WiFi router is closer, your laptop automatically connects to his router instead of yours.

Some municipalities may call this "WiFi Theft," but because the FCC's rules have jurisdiction over use of the public airwaves, the local authorities can not legally intervene unless some other law (such as violating anti-hacking laws by accessing someone else's private hard drive) has been broken.

Here in Vancouver, WA there was a case involving "WiFi theft." A local guy was pulling into a local coffee shop's parking lot (the Brewed Awakenings coffee shop) and using their WiFi each day during lunch without stopping in for coffee. The Brewed Awakenings people asked him to stop and eventually called the police. It turned out the guy in question was a registered sex offender; he was convicted . . . not for WiFi theft, but for trespassing in Brewed Awakenings' parking lot.

Indeed, it is controversial, and until the controversies turn in to something more firm, my advice is still to keep things low key and not obvious so one doesn't expose oneself to overzealous people and agencies. If one gets their attention, they may look hard enough to find something wrong, like trespassing, tail-lights, etc.

The FCC may ultimately have jurisdiction, but there are existing state/city laws out there and I wouldn't want to be the one paying the legal fees to make legal history in a federal court... And I really wouldn't want to be the one to make legal history if the supremes ruled that the FCC didn't have the ultimate say about the problem after all...

This seems to be sliding a little off topic. NO one is advocating illegally searching or going after non public Wi-Fi.

I just ordered the matching Buffalo router so that I can sit outside my RV and receive Wi-Fi from the RV Park I have paid for.
Buffalo router - WHR-HP-G54

Which is what the guy in Michigan ran into; after using the local coffeehouse WiFi to regularly check his mail during lunchtime, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor rather than fight Michigan's law in court, and was sentenced to pay $400 and 40 hours of public service.

The interesting thing about the Peterson case is that it wasn't the coffee shop that filed the complaint. The barber across the street from the coffee house was concerned that Petersen was stalking someone, reported him to the police, who questioned him. Then the chief of police -- not the coffee shop -- swore out the complaint.

But Pete is right; as things stand now no one has taken any WiFi access case to the next level, to a court trial where laws (mostly state and one federal law which, in most cases, were written as anti-hacker/cracker laws preventing illicit access to the information on a private computer system) restricting WiFi access on unsecured networks have been tested against federal regulations mandating free access to those same resources.

It'll be really interesting when that fight comes. My money is on the argument that since all WiFi access points provide simple ways to keep their connections secure (security features are part of the WiFi standards specification) and consumers have no other way to definitively know which networks are to be considered "open" vs "private," and because the FCC defined the WiFi spectrum as an open access media, any further restriction on consumer use of WiFi networks will be thrown out.

But someone has to fight that point before it'll become case law.

--Peter

Something we are overlooking here is that even if the supremes decide the FCC has absolute jurisdiction over the WiFi use, the states still have jurisdiction over the internet connection, to which the WiFi is only the entrance, hence the laws that state something like 'theft of internet services', not 'theft of wifi access'...

If someone accesses someone else's cable or DSL connection in any manner, they are using contracted facilities between the paying customer and the company which installed and maintains the facility and during that connection, they are denying access to some portion of the facility to both of the other parties (I know the DSL telcos use traffic-based concentration equipment to efficiently use the bandwidth, and as traffic goes up at some point they have to buy more equipment).

So the crux of the argument here is whether it is up to the owner or the intruder to determine whether the service is public or private. I think we are back to the door example; can I open an enter any door that isn't marked private? Or must the door be obviously public?

I believe Pete is right on on this one.

I had the opposing view for quite a while. I know that W-Fi is lockable and so if they leave it open, it must be open for public use by default.

It was pointed out to me that I have this website open for limited free public use. Several years ago we had a member, who ran out of space on his geocities site, decide to post his photos here. It caused my hosting size and bandwidth cost to double. I was spending $50 per month at that early time. I asked him to stop and he refused. I finally had to remove him.

If I leave my front door unlocked, does that give you the right to use the facilities in my house without permission. Of coarse not.

I had a tipi I use to camp in. The lore is, that if you place crossed sticks across the door, it is locked. The people would respect this symbol.

My feeling now is, WiFi bandwidth is paid for by the owner of the account. If you grab it with out permission, you are stealing.

There is so much offered for FREE public use, I see no need to take it without permission.

Now this thread was meant to talk about getting the quality WiFi you pay for at RV Parks.

I used to have problems using my laptop in the campground with WIFI, had to turn it or move it to find the best signal. I just bought a USB WIFI from Belkin. Comes with a extra cable and stand so I turn off the internal card and now can move the antenna around to find the hot spot. It was only 39.95. Mike

I have one of those Mike. It works pretty good; much better then without. I still had problems though, so went the next level higher. Definitely not needed by every one.

Mike

Now haven't tried this yet, but I'm certainly going to.

Increase your Wifi range

If someone beats me to this let us know of your results. I'm looking for a salad bowl right now!

Anything one can do to reduce 'wasted' radiation from/to the WiFi antenna will of course improve the results; the objective being to change the patterns from spheres or donuts to a concentrated beam. There are several schemes out there for reusing a discarded satellite dish, plus of course, the old Pringles can antenna.

I recall making an audio 'antenna' out of a kid's aluminum snow disc and a tape recorder microphone. I was able to record conversations from hundreds of feet away.

Thats works really well when wearing your tinfoil hat too!

With the increasing availability of cell signal just about everywhere now, I simply keep my braodband card and don't even use a GOOD wifi signal when it's available.

Most places I didn't get signal before in my travels, I do now. I am sure it will only get better.

Greg

Don’t throw out your Wok. Have you seen this?...
http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/number13.jpg
http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/

I actually did the first part of wrapping the cat5 cable around the phone and plugging in the Ethernet port. It increased the signal strength when you plugged it in. I'm in a remote area so not sure if it increased range of finding signals. Would make it really difficult if the phone rang and you needed to answer it.

Nice to know Mike that if I can't find the salad bowl I can use the scoop or wok. I can just picture all of us at a rally with Gina's tin foil helmets on and pringle cantenna's.
It seems like all we use to care about was whether they cleaned the loo regularly.

I can report that the PDANet worked extremely well with my Treo at San Elijo on our last trip, so since I own that now it is free and unlimited Internet access.

The guys at radiolabs sent me this recommendation since I only need to hook up one laptop for hitting the RVPark Wifi.

Laptop Wifi

Now where did she hide that salad bowl....

I think this is their strongest USB
http://www.radiolabs.com/products/wireless...c12508917679062

He sent me that one too, Mike, but not sure what or where I'd mount it.

That is the one I was going to get, however I couldn’t get both our computers on at the same time.

Well I just received the new Wifi USB and Antenna from Radiolabs.
WaveRVII

I can only see my hub and one other from my office in my house. I hooked this baby up and I can now see about 6-8 that encompass our whole neighborhood. Too early to tell for sure, but the results look terrific so far. I'll let you know more as I test it around town and campground. Thanks Mike for putting me on to these guys as it looks like they know what they're doing.

First results update.

I work at the Library near my house a couple of days a week and they have free wifi.
They have four hubs and only one in the past is usually at 4-5 bars and speed lags somewhat.

Today with the new device all four hubs are at 5 bars and signal strength is awesome. I can now see about 20 wifi hubs in the list. The best thing is that I logon to my desktop system back at the office through "remote desktop." The speed up here at the library is usually a bit problematic. Today it is like sitting back at the office working directly on my office desktop. No speed degradation!!! From reading up on long range wifi I think they have put a combination together of an excellent duckie antenna and 1Watt of power on the USB wifi device. Most wifi cards are somewhere around 250mw if I recall correctly.

Next I will be testing in the campgrounds this fall, but the early results are, in terms of my working out and around the community, this device is worth every penny......

Thanks for the report. Sounds great.

The link posted previously to the WaveRV II shows:

Automatic gain control to minimize the signal distortion on all access points
* High Power transmit level, 200mW (23dBm)
*
5-Volt power supplied via USB PC connector
*
Industry standard USB connector. Works with USB 1.0 & 2.0
* 9 5/8" antenna length/wireless card combination
* 4' USB cable included
* Software CD included

I'm not sure, but I don't think 1 Watt is legal without a license, and perhaps not even then.

I have an older SMC 2532 802.11b card with the following specs (same output as above):

TRANSMIT OUTPUT POWER (E.I.R.P.)
•23 dBm @ 11 Mbps
RECEIVE SENSITIVITY
• IEEE802.11b
Transfer Rate IEEE802.11b
1 Mbps -94 dBm
2 Mbps -93 dBm
5.5 Mbps -91 dBm
11 Mbps -89 dBm

And an external antenna connector.

Plus,

I have a Hawking 54G USB adapter with a 6dBi directional antenna but no specs. It performs better than the SMC, but that may only be because the antenna is directional.

The SMC card cost me about $65, plus $15 for an omnidirectional antenna and the Hawking was about $60.

I pick up LOTS more stuf with the SMC or the Hawking than I do with my internal (Ralink) card.

Good points Pete.

The differentiation for me lies in determining the use. I work on the road when we are traveling so I need to find a high-end solution to the wifi/internet issue without shelling out 2k for a sat system or $60 a month for a marginal evdo card.

If I were going to just need to do email and/or surf the internet, my Treo phone solution for free works fine, however, it is not a robust enough solution to put in 6-10 hour work day. I have several PC wifi cards that I purchased at retail stores with very similar stats to the above, but in practice they don't work well when pushed.

When researching "extended range wifi" the card names that are consistently used are, Senao and Proxima coupled with high gain antenna's. Radiolabs also seems to have an excellent reputation in "extended wifi" products. When you get into that class of products they are indeed much more expensive. The difference being that regardless of whatever the specs are, the system should locate a strong signal within a 1/2 mile to a mile and perform for 4+ hours without dropping signals or fluctuating wildly on signal strength. Extended range solutions will also have the capability to make major adjustments to the wifi card performance within the software, which usually aren't available on consumer gear found at local retailers.

So far, Mike who also needs a high end solution and myself have had excellent test results with our purchases as noted above. The real test will be when we get in the "trees" and need to work uninterrupted for the day.

Some thing I just saw on TV

http://www.intel.com/netcomms/technologies/wimax/index.htm