I've got several laptops with internal mini-PCI wifi cards (various brands).
I'm wondering if anyone's made some sort of switcher that'd allow selecting between the internal antenna and on attached externally? I realize this would be a hack, to say the least, since the plastics on most laptops aren't setup to allow adding something like this. But given that the gauge of coax used is so eff'ing tiny it's not something I'd want to cobble together myself.
It'd be useful in situations where connectivity is found to be marginal using the internal, so plugging in an external alternative might help. But for the vast majority of other situations it'd be burdensome to have to use the external antenna all the time. Not to mention other things needing to use the PCMCIA slots.
I've got exactly that problem with my newish HP/Compaq v5000z. The internal radio is good enough for around the house and back yard, but on a recent car-camping trip across the southwest it had a hard time hitting far-off public hotspots from the picnic tables. Screwing around with the sub-miniature u.fl connectors scares me. I just can't imagine they have that many plug/unplug cycles in them. (How the heck do the assemply line folks plug those in, under a microscope???)
My solution was to get a top-end cardbus card that takes an mmcx antenna. At least mmcx is meant to take a few plug/unplug cycles and I can do that without tweezers and microscope. True to my motto, "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing" I got a card that listed the RX sensitivity at -96dbm (Ubiquiti SRC). I'm not sure how much of that number is advertising hype and how much is fact, but the card sure is sensitive. The card also advertises a higher power transmitter, but one can of course turn down the tx power to anything one wants. I certainly don't plan to run it in hight power mode when on batteries.
For an antenna I have a 6" tall 5dbi "wire" antenna with a 1" magnetic base for general use and an 18" long stamped steel lightweight yagi with a claimed 15dbi gain. The yagi comes with a standard tripod thread on the bottom of it. It will be interesting to see how easy it is to point it and lock it onto a signal. Certainly a tripod is an ideal device for aiming something precisely. I'm still waiting on a pigtail so I can test this though.
Agreed. Its little brother, without the look of the satellite dish, but otherwise very similar, is what I use to successfully connect, browse, etc.;googlegroups, mail, etc,. all the stuff I am doing on the boat.
In my case, I have it connected via active USB cable (no loss; XP sees it as a "USB hub"), run the cable behind my seat, out the door (companionway hatch for maniners), and suspended under cover (dodger, ibid), aimed at my preferred AP.
Cheap, effective, if wired and klutzy, for a fixed location. Now for a
On 28 Jun 2006 12:34:56 -0700, "Skip - Working on the boat" wrote in :
Please, please, watch your terminology -- there's no such thing as an "active" USB cables -- there are just USB cables (with different specs and types of connectors). Yes a USB cable is different from a coax antenna cable, but that doesn't make it "active".
As for what your (unnamed!) product looks like to Windows XP, unless it's a separately configured wireless client bridge with USB networking (unlike the HWU8DD, and I've never heard of such a beast), it should appear as a Network Adapter, not a USB "hub".
Confusion from incorrect terminology can be a *big* problem! Please, please use the correct terms.
As ignorant as I've been proven to be, I rely on manufacturers and vendors' labeling and descriptions.
While not the product I use, it's electrically identical to this:
formatting link
Which shows as its label
"USB 2.0 Active Extension Cable, 16 foot
Part No. SW-1202 Mfg. Part No. BF-3000 "
And which description includes
"The specification for USB states that the maximum length of a USB cable is 5 meters (16 feet). As a result, you cannot extend the distance of your USB device more than 16 feet without using a USB "active" extension cable (also known as a USB repeater cable). This cable contains active electronics which boost the USB signal for maximum reliability and performance over extended distances."
So, perhaps I need to refer to this as a USB Repeater Cable?
This, of course, is compared to
formatting link
Which is
"USB 2.0 Passive Extension Cable, 6 foot
Part No. SW-1204-06 Mfg. Part No. CU156-06 "
and which description and commentary includes "Our premium USB 2.0 passive extension cables come in lengths of 3, 6 and 10 feet. You can use them to extend the length of any USB device.
If you need to extend beyond 16 feet, you will need a USB 2.0 Active Extension Cable.
The USB 2.0 passive extension cable allows for speeds of up to 480 Mbps. The device is compatible with older USB 1.1 devices, but will work at the slower USB 1.1 speed (12 Mbps)."
When I connect my (whatever it is) cable, XP sez it's found a USB hub. I don't argue, even when it tells me that I could get better speed if I were to connect it to a higher speed USB port - but there are only 2.0 ports on this machine. I just say "ok" and go on.
Meanwhile, the Hawking unit comes on line when I plug it into the (whatever it is) cable, or, if in a situation where i don't need the (whatever it is) cable, directly to one of my USB portts, and if I've not selected their configuration utility, the WZC does the job seamlessly.
So, whatever Windoze sees this Hawking unit [HWU36D] as, it effectively passes data to my computer from the AP I select, (the AP) assigning me an address in the process. It's how I do this post, googletalk with my son in Ireland, skype free call my wife in GA, and do web searches all at the same time over about a 2mps connection download, 500k up.
I do get to see it in the configuration utility and it's a network adapter, despite that it no longer shows as Hawking, for whatever reason, in the Hawking configuration utility. Instead it is XPC
802.11b/g Wireless Kit #3 - but, whatever it is,it works, unlike all the other exercises I have had to do with something else.
As in another post, I, the babe in the woods, will continue to regard all vendors as wolves, as obviously they are misleading me into unwise purchases.
Twenty lashes with a wet sheet (rope to landlubbers) for me...
I don't think anyone has produced a commercial version. If you can get the antenna connector to the outside of the laptop, there's no need for a switch as you can easily change from a dish to an omni depending upon what you're doing. The catch is that you might have to dill the laptop case if you can't find a convenient place to run the cable (such as the fan vent grill).
Most MiniPCI cards use a u-FL connector. All you need is a u-FL to SMA, TNC, or N connector pigtail. See:
formatting link
bottom of the page. Be careful when playing with the u-FL cables as they do not survive many insertions or much abuse.
As for switching antennas, methinks you could leave the laptop AUX antenna connected to the MiniPCI card, while the MAIN antenna connector goes to the pigtail. Many wireless clients (i.e. Intel Proset) allow you to specify whether you want diversity (both antennas) or to select either antenna. However, most MiniPCI client drivers do NOT have this feature.
You have to admit it is a clever hack to get around the really short cable limit of usb-1 when run in the really slow mode that mice and keyboards use.
On Wed, 28 Jun 2006 22:02:55 -0700, "Wolfgang S. Rupprecht" wrote in :
It is modestly clever packaging, but the same result can of course be obtained with a standard cable and mini hub, which can be less problematic -- if, for example, a separate hub is connected to a "repeater" cable, then the embedded one port hub and its associated power consumption is wasted. I've also seen cases where cascaded hubs have resulted in problems. I frankly think it's a solution in search of a problem.
If all you want to do is put a single device at the other end of a longer-than-15' cable then it's a fine idea. Provided the device at the other end can put up with being behind a hub, and that the OS driver will see it properly. They work pretty well. They work a lot better than using an cable, plugging in a hub and then using another cable to the device. All those extra connections are just more things to get pulled loose. And they add bulk to whatever you'd be carrying around in the laptop bag.
When what you want to do is get a USB device connected and carry as little as possible something like one of these 'active cables' is a pretty good solution.
It does, however, nothing to address the original question. Carrying along a simple duckie or similar antenna is a heckuva lot smaller than a bunch of USB cables, hubs and a dongle.
Seeing as how the current driver for the 1300 card supports changing the antenna port I'll probably go the route of putting a jack into the case. I'll lose the second internal antenna but I'm not all that sure they help me that much now. Getting the option of using an external antenna will certainly be an improvement. Something like an MMCX bulkhead connector might be ideal. It'd be quick-release and I could use other adapters/pigtails to use other styles of antenna.
On Thu, 29 Jun 2006 12:37:42 -0400, "Bill Kearney" wrote in :
The cable still can't be longer than 5 meters, so either you have two cables plugged together, only one of which needs to be a "repeater" cable, or a real kludge of two or more 5 meter cables permanently joined by embedded one port hub(s). I personally avoid cascaded hubs if possible, since they can be a source of grief.
Reasonable points, but mini hubs aren't much bigger than the ends of these cables, and I personally prefer the simplicity and flexibility of a mini hub.
Another option with greater and simpler cable range is to use a Wi-Fi client bridge with Power over Ethernet. I'd personally prefer that to the use of "repeater" USB cables.
I'd rather use an Ethernet wireless adapter than messing with the Active USB cables that run $20 each, especially if you need more than one of them. Also, the active USB cables can technically only be USB 1.1, since USB 2.0 requires powered hubs, and the active USB cable is essentially a cable with a one port hub.
Combine a Buffalo Turbo G High Power Wireless Ethernet Converter (WLI-TX4-G54HP), with some homemade POE, and an external parabolic grid or dish antenna. You could make this into a wireless solution (other than power) by plugging a wireless router into the Ethernet converter). This is what I do at my house when I want to use one of the free wireless services rather than my DSL.
It's a lot cleaner than hanging a four port passive hub somewhere, though no cheaper. Belkin seems to come out with a lot of these type of clever accessories. It's not really a kludge or a hack, it's just what it claims to be.
They probably could do a USB 2.0 version that would work under most circumstances, if the end device was less than 500mA.
Passive? The last technology to use passive hubs was ARCNET.
All USB hubs have active devices (i.e. integrated circuits) of some form inside. I think you mean't non-powered USB hub. That would limit the total current to ALL the devices plugged in to 500ma. If you add the power supply, the limit is 500ma per port.
This is a serious problem with wireless USB adapters as many come VERY close to the 500ma limit. See:
formatting link
says 480ma in xmit and 350ma in receive.
Plugged into a non-powered USB hub, there's very little else that can coexist with such a power hog.
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