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antenna - reflector design question for USB wireless NIC

I've been looking at the various 2.4 GHz antenna reflector designs, trying to get better reception on my D-Link DWL-G132 USB adapter. Since I can not add an external antenna or use a PCI network card (used with a laptop) I figure this is my only other choice.

Looking ot the various designs on

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which one do I need for this USB NIC? Apparrently there are different designs depending upon the antenna design, dipole or not. Without going through the process of building and testing different models to find the best one, does anybody know which one I need for the G132? Do I focus the reflector to the center of the G132 or somewhere else? This adapter is 0.5 inch thick by 1 inch wide. Thx.

Reply to
Squish
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Why not use a tin cantenna

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Bob

Reply to
Bob Alston

Thx. I will check it out.

Reply to
Squish

Squish hath wroth:

Salad Bowl Dish: |

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Wok dish: |
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Parabolic noodle strainer: |
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Coffee Can: |
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Up to 5 kil. use the wok,past that, use the can with the usb as a feed for a satelite dish.

Reply to
grumpyoldhori

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An associate of mine preferred the less directional 3lb coffee can (150mm diameter), over the more directional 1lb-coffee-can (100mm) that Bob and I both used. He found that the 150mm would keep a connection, where the 100mm had stronger signal, but would lose the connection over time, and have to be re-aimed. The 100mm needed a tripod, like Bob's, the 150 could be propped up on the back of a couch and wedged into place with books.

Bob's single can:

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's double can:
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used the turnpoint calculator to decide where to poke the hole.
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I see Jeff provided some other good links.

I've seen mention of some folks using the USB dongle with the EZ-10 corner reflector, as well as the original freeantennas reflector.

It's not rocket science. Nothing is going to blow up, and a useful signal increase can be had with large errors in the positioning.

Simply folding a sheet of aluminum in half, you could move the dongle around (taped to a stick) while watching the signal strength.

I've seen debate as to whether the folded sheet of metal should be at

90 degrees or some other value.
Reply to
dold

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Thx. I did try the 90 fold of aluminum toil foil but it freaked out (for the lack of a better term) my D-Link USB NIC. Got a blue screen of death while running Network Stumbler (only after using the reflector) and the USB adapter was very hot to the touch! Not sure if I want to try that again otherwise I may damage something. The signal level reported back by NS was only -77 dBm at the time so I am not sure why it got so hot unless the reflector was picking up on something else I was unaware of.

Oh well, lots of other options to try.

Reply to
Squish

Oh, that part ;-) If you disconnect a USB dongle while NetStumbler is running, bad things happen. My laptop would hang, but I guess a blue screen isn't far from that. I would occasionally disconnect it while fussing with the can.

The dongles do run hot.

Reply to
dold

Never disconnected it while running. I suspect the USB NIC had some sort of driver malfunction, probably a result of the excess heat. I guess that in turn caused NS to crash. The BSOD indicated a problem with the USB NIC driver, A5AGU.sys. The USB NIC was connected via a powered USB 2.0 hub, just to make sure it had enough power.

Reply to
Squish

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