Community Forums

K Man · 12-03-2008, 01:44 PM

Anyone have suggestions for the best [not necessarily least expensive] USB WiFi antenna?
Google search turns up too many for me to evaluate.
Thanks in advance.

Dolph · 12-03-2008, 02:41 PM

Opinions are like belly buttons, everybody has one. I have an Air Link antenna. Have no idea if it is the best, but I like it. Am in a park in Yuma and could not get on the WiFi without it.

Meandering Retiree · 12-03-2008, 03:07 PM

I use a hField Wi-Fire which is advertised to reach up to a quarter mile. I have had excellent results and have picked up some signals from three different campgrounds when camping at Two Rivers Campground in Nashville,TN.

lllkrob · 12-03-2008, 03:08 PM

You might try this site, I think you will find what your looking for.
www.ccrane.com/antennas

Duner · 12-04-2008, 09:40 AM

I've been using the Hawking Technologies Hi Gain for 1.5 yrs now fulltiming at RV parks with free wifi (1000 Trails mostly). It is directional and will get 3-5 times greater distance than the built in wifi. The fact that it is directional helps reducing interference from other encoded wifi on the same channel that can block the weaker signal you're trying to pickup. So I can be at a campsite 2 or 3 rows away form the club house and as long as I have a line-of-site, it works fine. I've had 3 friends buy on my recommendation and they're all happy campers.

Here's a link to Buy.com that has it now for $40.24 with free shipping: BUY.COM

Pubtym · 01-21-2009, 03:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Duner:
I've been using the Hawking Technologies Hi Gain for 1.5 yrs now fulltiming at RV parks with free wifi (1000 Trails mostly). It is directional and will get 3-5 times greater distance than the built in wifi. The fact that it is directional helps reducing interference from other encoded wifi on the same channel that can block the weaker signal you're trying to pickup. So I can be at a campsite 2 or 3 rows away form the club house and as long as I have a line-of-site, it works fine. I've had 3 friends buy on my recommendation and they're all happy campers.

Here's a link to Buy.com that has it now for $40.24 with free shipping: BUY.COM

Thanks Bill...just ordered one..should work great at GNR 2009.

Charlie

Oemtech · 01-22-2009, 07:57 AM

On Edit:

Well... Dang Right Church But the wrong Pew. Must have been a senior moment. Thanks Gary

Gary RVRoamer · 01-22-2009, 08:37 AM

Apples and oranges, Dale. Cellular data ("air card") is different than wifi [IEEE 802.11], though. Different radio frequencies and different protocols.

Duner · 01-22-2009, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pubtym:
Thanks Bill...just ordered one..should work great at GNR 2009.
Charlie

Hi Charlie,
Well, at the GNR it will work, but not great. At least not fast when 100's of others are trying to use the same GNR wifi. Last summer when I was at the GNR Rally grounds, the speed was good the week before the rally started. Then once the 1500+ attendee's fired up their pc's the speed came to a crawl during the normal waking hours. After 10-11PM the speed increased and after 2AM it was blazing again.

Hope to see you next summer at GNR .... if all goes well and I can keep my house leased. My tenant that's leasing my home in Camarillo will lose his job next month when the office closes down.

Wow, this economy really sucks.

Bill

Noelj · 01-25-2009, 07:26 AM

Help me a bit here please. I have a HP laptop with wireless builtin. It has a button and light which enables or disables the wireless adapter. There is no external connection for a wifi antenna. Will one of the USB external antennas connect to the internal adapter??

NeilV · 01-25-2009, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Noelj:
Help me a bit here please. I have a HP laptop with wireless builtin. It has a button and light which enables or disables the wireless adapter. There is no external connection for a wifi antenna. Will one of the USB external antennas connect to the internal adapter??

They are totally self contained units and don't require the internal adapter to be turned on or for there to even be an internal adapter.

two2go · 01-25-2009, 10:55 AM

To amplify on what NeilV said, your internal WiFi does not connect to an external antenna. An external adapter is required for a separate antenna, and will have its own driver and show up as a separate connection in your network connections utility. It is best to disable the one not used to avoid internal address translation issues.