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Old 07-02-2013, 05:31 AM   #1
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Extended Wi-Fi

I don't know where to put this so I will just pick here. When camping in a park where WiFi is included, the signal may well be unusable out in the park. There is an antenna called a Cantenna which may help with this.

Cantenna Kit Tripod USB Wireless WiFi Antenna 802 11b G | eBay

This is an EXAMPLE of the thing. I have not purchased from this vendor, though I may do so. A package like this is much easier than the alternatives.

The Cantenna is a directional antenna tuned to the frequencies used in WiFi. You plug it in, point it at the transmitter and you get a boosted signal.

You can Google Cantenna to read more about it. It has been around since the early days of WiFi and there is an entire community around how to make them, modifications, which can to use etc. This thing can be home made by you but you probably do not want to do that, it is a lot of work.

They really do work quite well from what I have read. Electronics is my original background, in fact Amateur radio was where I got my start back in 9th grade a few millennia ago. I am just too old now to spend my few remaining moments building a Cantenna.
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Old 07-02-2013, 06:15 AM   #2
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We have found some campgrounds to have inadequate wifi, where if there are a lot of users on it to be slow or unusable. Some campgrounds the wifi could only be used close to the office. We finally gave up and bought a Verizon Jetpack, now we have wifi wherever we have cell phone service. Kind of pricey, but we do all our business online when away from home for months at a time.
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Old 07-02-2013, 06:16 AM   #3
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A wifi extender will do the same thing without being so obvious
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Old 07-02-2013, 06:56 AM   #4
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We finally gave up and bought a Verizon Jetpack, now we have wifi wherever we have cell phone service. Kind of pricey, but we do all our business online when away from home for months at a time.
I hear that. My Verizon phone is a wifi that I use to tether my laptop and pad. Two obvious problems there, cell signal and I have to pay for the data.

I was simply reading (somewhere) about folks going to the office to use the wifi etc. This is a tool to help with that.
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Old 07-02-2013, 07:04 AM   #5
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A wifi extender will do the same thing without being so obvious
Not quite. A Wifi extenders work quite well, and I recommend them highly. I have one in the room I rent to get at the wifi at the other end of the house. The Cantenna is an antenna to increase signal strength.

BTW you can buy the Cantenna part by itself (from this guy in fact) to connect to the range extender's external antenna.

Again, I have no commercial interest here. I don't sell these things, I have just studied them. I will probably eventually buy one. They really do what they say they will, which is to give you X db higher signal strength. X is determined by line of site of course. It wouldn't help at all if the antenna can't "see" the transmitter. For our purposes a long coax cable would often be required to get the Cantenna to where it can see the transmitter.

Just another tool in the arsenal.
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Old 07-02-2013, 08:29 AM   #6
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Though I've never used one of these, I'd say you have to remember to switch to the can WiFi receiver when running your computer. By default, you probably auto-switch to the internal WiFi and have to go to network settings to change things. Though, if I was the developer, I'd set it up so that "If USB WiFi is plugged in, use that...".

And even though you now have a good signal you may have crumby internet connectivity since the TOTAL bandwidth for the campground my only be a max of 10 MB/s or less for ALL users. If someone else in the campground is downloading the complete season 3 of Battlestar Gallactica you aren't going to be able to do much more than read your emails.
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Old 07-02-2013, 09:15 AM   #7
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You can defeat the campground bandwidth limitations most of the time by using wi-fi off peak. We're early risers and use it immediately after breakfast.

In Canada we usually go to CAP centers since our Verizon data plan is prohibitively costly in Canada. The data rates at CAP cebters are always 54 MB/s and usually little used and every town has one, typically better then Tim Hortons or McDonalds.
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Old 07-02-2013, 09:26 AM   #8
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And the nice thing about a cantennna is that you can often sit on a hill overlooking the town, aim your cantenna at the wifi hotspot and there ya go. With a cantennna on one end you can often get a useful signal a fair distance, up to a mile or more IF you have line of sight.
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Old 07-02-2013, 11:10 AM   #9
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You can defeat the campground bandwidth limitations most of the time by using wi-fi off peak. We're early risers and use it immediately after breakfast.

In Canada we usually go to CAP centers since our Verizon data plan is prohibitively costly in Canada. The data rates at CAP cebters are always 54 MB/s and usually little used and every town has one, typically better then Tim Hortons or McDonalds.
Can you enlighten me regarding the CAP centre?
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Old 07-02-2013, 12:47 PM   #10
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CAP Centres

In Canada, at least all of Atlantic Canada, there are CAP centers. CAP stands for Community Access Program. Generally they are open wireless hotspots, located in virtually every community. In the old days they all had computers you can use as well.

In the larger communities they are at often at a library. You can park in front of the library and pick up a great wireless signal. No password required. Just accept there terms and you're on, just like Tim Hortons or McDonalds.

In smaller communities the CAP centers are located at the town hall, the fire station and sometimes a school. It is our experience that they are always left on. In our years of travel we have only come across on CAP center that used a password. it was the strangest past word; you had to enter '9' 26 times.

Since we always have our phones, whenever we come across one during our daily riding around we'd stop and download our email and do whatever business. As well I usually have my netbook in the car for more complex actions.

We carry a cigarette lighter inverter in the car and use it to charge phones and computer while driving.
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Old 07-02-2013, 03:06 PM   #11
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Originally Posted by jwcolby54 View Post
And the nice thing about a cantennna is that you can often sit on a hill overlooking the town, aim your cantenna at the wifi hotspot and there ya go. With a cantennna on one end you can often get a useful signal a fair distance, up to a mile or more IF you have line of sight.
Seriously? Have you proven this yourself or is this just internet hype? If it's true that's pretty cool...but how often do you have a line of sight to the nearest starbucks from your campsite?

...Walmart parking lots excluded
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Old 07-02-2013, 03:51 PM   #12
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I do not own one so to some extent it certainly is "internet hype". I was reading a test by a guy who bought one and went to the park at the far side of a lake (think line of site) aimed the Cantenna at his house and as he put it "it was a slow connection but he was able to get in and use his network".

That was from over a mile away across a lake.

As for "how often will you have line of site" I guess what I was simply pointing out is that this is a pretty easy, pretty cheap tool. What you get in any given location is going to be what you get. It may make the difference between nothing and great reception. Or it may not help at all.

I am simply presenting another tool in the toolbox. Some people will not care, not want to figure it out, decide that it isn't worth it. Others may decide to use it and think its the greatest thing since sliced bread.
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Old 07-02-2013, 05:16 PM   #13
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My read on it is that it will power one laptop through the USB port. Our problem is usually powering the other items from the camper - iPhone, tablet, etc. They seem to have smaller antennas.

For about the same price, we are trying a Netgear signal booster from Walmart. A friend used one at camp to pick up the signal from about 450 feet. He put it in a plastic bag and hung it in a tree. It works at home but we have not been out since we got it.
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Old 07-02-2013, 06:11 PM   #14
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I installed a "Alfa 2000mw 2W Waterproof Marine high power Long Range Outdoor 802.11 B, G, N, USB wireless network Wifi Adapter with Integrated 12dBi Antenna" on top of my Bigfoot.

The 'mast' is a piece of PVC, stuck in an aluminum adjustable flagpole mount. Less than $50 all-in. Easy to raise / lower / fold over / take down.

It connects to my laptop, and I then enable internet connection sharing using the internal wifi adapter so that I can use ipad, etc. if I want to as well.
Attached Thumbnails
external wifi adapter rear view.jpg   external wifi adapter side view.jpg  

51NOkgq%2BYfL._SL1500_[1].jpg  
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Old 07-02-2013, 07:42 PM   #15
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I used a Belkin Wifi extender with mixed results.. sometimes it connects easily with minimal settings.. other times it does take some tweaking with IP addresses and passwords complicate it as well.
The extender has good range so all your neighbours will also be able to piggyback on the otherwise unavailable signal which in turn will degrade your connection.. still better than no connection
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Old 07-08-2013, 11:30 PM   #16
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Originally Posted by chuyler1 View Post
Seriously? Have you proven this yourself or is this just internet hype? If it's true that's pretty cool...but how often do you have a line of sight to the nearest starbucks from your campsite?

...Walmart parking lots excluded
I am an electrical engineer with a focus on antenna design, and Ham radio operator who experiments with antennas. Here is what I found out about WiFi antennas.

First the basics: There are two types. Omni Directional and Beam antennas.

Omni antennas perform equally good in all directions. High gain antennas are created by stacking antenna elements vertically which takes the typical donut shaped antenna pattern and flattens it so more of the signal and sensitivity is sent horizontal for greater distances. There is no point in radiating energy going up into the air. Think large thin pancake pattern compared to fat donut for high gain antennas. All the energy is sent along the ground where it is wanted.

While you may want a donut on a sailboat heeling over, for most applications high gain antennas work better than lower gain antennas and require no pointing. I have two of these in a 9db and 11 dB gain versions. Each 3dB gain doubles the signal strength. So 9 dB has eight times more signal strength on transmit and receive. A 12 dB antenna has a 16 times stronger signal.

Beam type antennas, many of which are Yagi-Uda type named after two inventors who developed this antenna type independently, work differently. In this case the elements are mounted at 1/2 wave length spacing on a horizontal bar. The element sizes are also close to 1/2 wavelength where the lengths are slightly smaller and increase from front to back. Imagine all the radiated energy from a simple donut pattern is now pulled and stretched in one direction. These antennas must be pointed at the WiFi source you wish to hook up to. Often these antennas have similar gain values to the omni-directional antennas.

This is the model beam I have:

Cushcraft PC2415NA 2.4 GHz Articulating Directional Yagi Antenna

OK so which is better?

If there is only one WiFi node in your area, then the Omni works easiest as there is no pointing involved. You might find, moving your trailer one or two feet improves your connection to the gateway WiFi, but it is basically plug and play.

However, if you are parked in the street of a residential community with dozens of WiFi emitters and only one is free, an Omni antenna will be picking up all of them and chances are very high that there will be other emitters operating on the same channel as your gateway WiFi. This causes interference and makes it difficult if not impossible to connect unless you are right next to the gateway access point.

Here is where a directional antenna works wonderfully. When pointed towards your gateway access point, it is extremely sensitive in that direction only and other interfering Wifi emitters are received weakly. These beam type antennas allow you to make a connection over a much longer distance in the presence of competing signals. There is a disadvantage. High gain beam type antennas have narrower antenna beams patterns and are harder to point accurately. The higher the gain the harder they are to point accurately but they do work over longer distances. I think 12 dB gain is just right for most purposes.

How long a distance can you make a connection? Using extremely high gain antennas mounted on dishes to further block unwanted signals and increase gain, the record is over 25 miles with an amplified link on both ends and two people working hard to make it happen.

It is quite possible to reach a mile with a beam type antenna but more practically you should be able to reliably achieve distances over 1/4 mile or more with a sensitive, say 12dB gain antenna and a 1 watt amplifier.

Attaching the amplifier to the base of the antenna directly or through a short feedline improves performance, as signal losses in the feedline are very high at these frequencies. Even without an amplifier a directional or beam antenna will give you a stronger, more reliable signal. My amplifier is located 6" from my antenna.

If I were running a campground I'd use an amplified high gain Omni antenna. Or perhaps more than one access points on different channels and locations if I wanted to be known for having great WiFi.

If I were a customer staying at a campground I would use a directional antenna on a mast that I could rotate by hand and lock into position. I would also use a 1 watt amplifier and choose a campsite with line of sight vision to the campsite WiFi access point. Many times the WiFi only works in certain locations. If you don't want to have to move to the WiFi a beam antenna brings it to you.

If I were traveling in a parking lot trying to connect to a free WiFi but not wanting to go into a store to use its hotspot, I would either have my beam antenna in a fixed mount and steer it by turning my vehicle or else park where I wanted and steer the antenna at the hotspot. This works well at night when places are closed but access points are still running. I can keep a low profile and take advantage of the sites full bandwidth as I am the only user.

A few final thoughts:

if you don't have line of sight you can sometimes bounce a signal off another RV or a building. So the best signal may not come from pointing your antenna directly at the emitter. Most software will show the signal strength and allow you to steer your antenna for maximum signal.

Directional antennas also have nulls where they don't receive anything on the back side. If there is an interfering signal, twisting your antenna to 'null' them out will allow you to pull in a weak WiFi emitter that is farther away. While you might not have maximum signal strength pointed at your access point, eliminating the other interfering signal provides a reliable connection.

Finally, I have a free wifi service that comes with my broadband cable service. Mostly this consists of access points along the coast of Connecticut. Using a high gain antenna will not work unless I provide the MAC address of the device I am connecting with, to the cable company. If you chose to use a paid wifi service, along with a complicated antenna and amplifier, be sure to test out your configuration prior to traveling as you may find the set up and configuration to be more difficult than it should be.
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Old 07-09-2013, 04:27 AM   #17
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Thanks a lot for the education, this finally makes some sense,
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Old 07-09-2013, 08:47 AM   #18
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Excellent description!
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Old 07-09-2013, 09:16 AM   #19
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So you are saying that all things being equal, an omni and a directional will be able to get the same gain? I was under the impression that the design of directional antennas gave them a gain advantage in a specific direction (ignoring "lobes"). And yes, they do have to be pointed.

I was a ham enthusiast in my youth but my knowledge is now 35 years old and fading rapidly.
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Old 07-09-2013, 11:19 AM   #20
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Attaching the amplifier to the base of the antenna directly or through a short feedline improves performance, as signal losses in the feedline are very high at these frequencies. Even without an amplifier a directional or beam antenna will give you a stronger, more reliable signal. My amplifier is located 6" from my antenna.
Thanks for that input, Conrad. It explains a lot.

You mention an amplifier would improve the performance, is it or anything else other than the antenna needed? Or, does your devices wifi connection just pick up off the antenna itself?
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