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ronboc · 04-08-2007, 05:07 PM

Here we are at a great rv resort this weekend, all the amenities you could ever imagine... except decent internet. Oh, they do have a DSL box that you can rent, but it only spits out 18k! (I think I can do better with dialup on my cellphone). The main-office does have wifi, but it's at the other end of the park and across the lake from where we are (maybe a 1/3 mile or so).

This morning I was trying to get online with the DSL box and not grow old waiting for things to load, and got to thinking there had to be a better way. I didn't want to trudge to the office and sit there all day to use their wifi, but wanted to do it from the comfort of my rv. I remembered I had a USB wifi dongle in my parts-box, so I tried hooking that up. Nope, not enough signal-strength from inside the coach. Not enough while hanging it outside the window either.

What if I take the dongle and stick it at the focal-point of my portable Directv antenna and aim that at the office? I stuck the dongle to the arm of the antenna and started experimenting with small position-movements and tilting, all while aiming the antenna out the front window of the coach.

WOWEEE! I was getting a boomer-signal now! Spent a few minutes taping it down better and fine-tuning the positioning, and I was ready to go. Later on, I did go to the office to compare signals and was pleased to note that I got a better signal from my coach than I did while sitting in the lobby at the office (didn't take the antenna setup in the office, tho).

Worked great... til the dog tripped over the wire and knocked it all down. No problem, I knew the solution now.

Thanks!
Ron

ronboc · 04-08-2007, 05:07 PM

Here we are at a great rv resort this weekend, all the amenities you could ever imagine... except decent internet. Oh, they do have a DSL box that you can rent, but it only spits out 18k! (I think I can do better with dialup on my cellphone). The main-office does have wifi, but it's at the other end of the park and across the lake from where we are (maybe a 1/3 mile or so).

This morning I was trying to get online with the DSL box and not grow old waiting for things to load, and got to thinking there had to be a better way. I didn't want to trudge to the office and sit there all day to use their wifi, but wanted to do it from the comfort of my rv. I remembered I had a USB wifi dongle in my parts-box, so I tried hooking that up. Nope, not enough signal-strength from inside the coach. Not enough while hanging it outside the window either.

What if I take the dongle and stick it at the focal-point of my portable Directv antenna and aim that at the office? I stuck the dongle to the arm of the antenna and started experimenting with small position-movements and tilting, all while aiming the antenna out the front window of the coach.

WOWEEE! I was getting a boomer-signal now! Spent a few minutes taping it down better and fine-tuning the positioning, and I was ready to go. Later on, I did go to the office to compare signals and was pleased to note that I got a better signal from my coach than I did while sitting in the lobby at the office (didn't take the antenna setup in the office, tho).

Worked great... til the dog tripped over the wire and knocked it all down. No problem, I knew the solution now.

Thanks!
Ron

SacsTC · 04-08-2007, 06:50 PM

Ron,
If you have a different wireless(i.e. built-in wireless) already in your laptop, make sure you have it turned off when using the above method. The gain from using both antennas could possibly harm the chipset.

MonacoMama · 04-08-2007, 06:59 PM

Gosh.... and you could NOT take any pics before the dog pulled it down? Dang!!

Ronboc...Which brand and model do you have?

ronboc · 04-09-2007, 03:15 AM

Hey SacsTC -
Good point. When it installed itself, the new software automatically disabled the built-in wifi capability. Which means I'll have to figure out how to re-able it when/if I don't use the dongle next time. I'm getting just good enough with pc's to get real dangerous now.

'Mama -
He's a 2 1/2 year-old German Shepherd .... oh! You mean the make/model of the wifi stuff

....
Well, the dish is one of the original ones, a few dings/scrapes but still works well. The USB is a TrendNet TEW-424UB, and I don't recall which computer-store I got it at. Seems like it was about $30. I supppose any of the similar brands would work about the same.

Neat thing about the TrendNet is that it has a screen that presents link-quality and signal-strength for any/all wifi signals in the area. I can very easily tweak the antenna/dongle positioning to get the best reception that way. It also has a little green lite that blinks when it's locked-on (kinda like the MotoSat satellite-internet folks). I had another older one that didn't have such nice features.

As far as the dog, the antenna is now sitting outside and AWAY from his big feet (altho I am coming to the conclusion he does stuff like that to get my attention).

HTH.