PCMCIA WiFi card with external ant?

Hi All,

Any cards (ideally g) come to mind that are supported by Netstumbler (for faultfinding) please?

All the best ..

T i m

Reply to
T i m
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buffalo, a friends got one, he was dissapointed at first because the signal strength was less than his belkin, untill he realised he could get far more AP's at the same point, it also works with netstumbler

Des

Reply to
Des

That's an interesting note about the signal strength. I think NetStumbler just reports what it is given, and there may be no standard for the numbers. I recall noticing that NetStumbler said something about "invented numbers" or something like that.

I had an SMC 2435W and a DLink DWL650. The supplied utility with each looked _very_ similar. The DLink consistently reported higher numbers, but the SMC would connect to WAPs that the DLink only showed excellent signal for. Move a little closer, and the DLink would connect.

For NetStumbling, since the external antennas are getting harder to find, I would go with a USB adapter. Either attach an antenna to one of the standard sized adapters, or use the mini-USB as a remote antenna.

Under WinXP, most adapters work with Netstumbler.

Reply to
dold

Thanks for that Des .. I'll have a Google ..

Cheers ..

T i m

Reply to
T i m

Ok ..

Ooo err ;-)

Sounds like wireless then ;-)

I was hoping to use my little Yagi to get a bit of directionality .. ?

Good to know, thanks ..

Cheers

T i m

Reply to
T i m

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this isnt G, but this is what your looking for.

Reply to
sandman

The mini-dongle in a can is somewhat directional. Good enough for signal improvement, maybe not good enough for locating the WAP.

New Zealand uses mini-USBs in various parabolic reflectors.

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Bob Alston's coffee can
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Dold's coffee can
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used the turnpoint calculator to decide where to poke the hole.
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Taylor's standard USB cantenna
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Reply to
dold

I think USB would be the way to go as you don't have to spend for expensive coax and have signal loss between the antenna and the computer. Below is a simple setup I made and it works reasonably well (although I don't have another type of setup to compare it to).

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Reply to
Si Ballenger

That was what I was thinking .. I have a mini dongle and a couple of external USB WiFi units but didn't fancy mucking about (for this case) with any 'addons' to make any of them directional, especially when I need this kit to be easily portable (my Yagi is pretty flat and sits in my laptop cas ok).

Handy links for playing about with fixed kit though .. (thanks) ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

Reply to
T i m

Hi Si and thanks for that.

Funnily enough I have been playing with different devices recently re getting WiFi down to an outbuilding.

I had a setup that worked wiith a 5m USB extension / hub connected to a Netgear external USB WiFi unit and that worked well till the USB lead got damaged and it all went crazy (and in spite of replacing the extension was never to work again ..) ;-( Using a new external Belkin USB unit (ie not dongle) was ok for 2 weeks then that locked up (and would lock solid most PC's you plugged it into?).

At the moment I have a PCI WiFi card and have experimented with a std 'rubber duck' on the back of card, a higher gain rubber duck on the rear, both on a little desk mount, the Yagi on it's .5m fly lead or on

5 and 10m extension leads.

The long extension leads *do* loose signal but getting the Yagi

*outside* the building returns the highest signal strength of all.

All the best ..

T i m

Reply to
T i m

That looks (looked) good and I don't think the fact that it is only b will be a problem in most cases as many routers are set to both b/g aren't they (or they are by default at least)?

All the best ..

T i m

Reply to
T i m

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I have bought antenna four my Cisco card from them, It was posted in the UK and was with me 4 days after ordering. As far as 11b or 11g is concerned if you are using the internet then 1Mb is the norm with a few AP's running up to 4MB so 11MB (11b) will be perfectly adequate for most!

If you are working with in a company wireless network transferring large files then 11g will be better. also unless you are very close to the ap the connect speed will be around 11mb any way. If you are using an adhoc network the max for most cards is 11Mb.

I have a belkin 56Mb (11g)and a Cisco 11Mb (11b) and I find not a lot of difference between the two, the extra sensitivity of the Cisco with an external antenna more than makes up for the 'lower' speed!

Des

Reply to
Des

Good feedback ..

Ok .. ;-)

I have seen a few connected at 54M but as you say .. generally when the conditions are 'good' ..

Noted ..

The bit that interests me is the connection for external antenna .. for pinning down (say) a 'new' wireless net that may be walking over an existing one I would need a directional twig.

Just need to see if 'MC' (the connector used in this case apparently) means anything to the guy that supplies my Yagi's .. ;-)

All the best ..

T i m

Reply to
T i m

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