WiFi antenna and wireless repeater.

ReZonator

Hi,

I'm thinking of buying a WiFi antenna and wireless repeater for a camper van for my dad for Christmas. I would appreciate any recommendations. Should I go for a permanent mounting system or suction cups etc? I have a budget of about 100 Euro, but I can go to 120 Euro if it is worth it.

Thanks.

cipro 55

I got this in Spain about a year a go, paid about €40


I had two or three before that cost a lot more, this is the best one i ever had.

http://approx.es/APPUSB18DB#.VhFEAH2IkWM

crabbypaddy

cipro 55 wrote: »

I got this in Spain about a year a go, paid about €40


I had two or three before that cost a lot more, this is the best one i ever had.

http://approx.es/APPUSB18DB#.VhFEAH2IkWM

Those are definitely a good solution for wired as the reciever is in the panel antenna you don't have cable and connector losses. The op is looking for a wireless solution.

If you are tech savvy you should be able to use that in conjunction with a dd-wrt or openwrt router with usb. If you know someone with an old vodafone home gateway lying around you install openwrt on that and use the rt2800 driver like so:

opkg install kmod-rt2800-lib kmod-rt2800-usb kmod-rt2x00-lib kmod-rt2x00-usb
reboot
ifconfig wlan1 up

IF you're not tech savvy then you can buy preconfigured access points:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/USB-to-WiFi-Repeater-AP/dp/B00A9VJ65A

killalanerr

I know ... I have to much time on my hands.I wouldn't mind finding this lot in my stocking on christmas morning http://www.wifi-antennas.co.uk/wifi-hotspot-boosting-kit-with-indoor-adaptor-kit-07.html ,hours of fiddling
May be some of you techies can advise of other options ?

ReZonator

Thanks for the suggestions. The Solwise USB to WiFi Repeater AP looks like it might be a good choice. My dad wouldn't be the most tech savvy, so I'm concerned about the ease of use of the Solwise. I presume one would require a laptop to get it to connect to the WiFi hot spot, and once it's set up one could use tablets and phones. Is this correct, and if so can anybody tell me if it is straight forward to use for a layman? Thanks.

Glastonut

ReZonator wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions. The Solwise USB to WiFi Repeater AP looks like it might be a good choice. My dad wouldn't be the most tech savvy, so I'm concerned about the ease of use of the Solwise. I presume one would require a laptop to get it to connect to the WiFi hot spot, and once it's set up one could use tablets and phones. Is this correct, and if so can anybody tell me if it is straight forward to use for a layman? Thanks.

You can set it up on a pc, laptop, tablet or even a phone to get it to connect and share wifi, all you need is the ip address http://192.168.1.2 but for a layman it isn't easy as I found out. I used to sell the same item and stopped because of the problems customers had.

Much easier with a mifi.

niloc1951

I have ONE OF THESE.
I'm using now as I post this reply. I'm on a camp-site and the camp-site wifi is out of range for a straight connection but the MHwifi unit is pulling in a good strong signal. Tablets, laptops and phone can simultaneously be connected through the unit
The antenna can be pole or suction cup mounted, while an omni-directional is the most convenient the directional type is most efficient and after-all in most situations where the host antenna is situated is usually known.

Jaden

It would be easy enough to build a version of a range extender for alot less than the €200 cost of that iBoost thing - although it does look like a nice piece of kit.

crabbypaddy

killalanerr wrote: »

I know ... I have to much time on my hands.I wouldn't mind finding this lot in my stocking on christmas morning http://www.wifi-antennas.co.uk/wifi-hotspot-boosting-kit-with-indoor-adaptor-kit-07.html ,hours of fiddling
May be some of you techies can advise of other options ?

I installed a couple of those 9db antennae (I didn't spec the job) about 10 years ago. Clf200 cable has a loss of 0.55db per meter and then you have connector losses reduced signal to noise ratio plus imperfect matching resulting in an amount of reflected power

The 9db external antennae were no better than a router/repeater with a standard 5db antenna simply placed on the windowsill or outside in a tupperware container.

The 18db panel antennae are a very different beast extending the range by hundreds of meters but they are directional meaning you will have to turn them toward the source.

killalanerr

http://www.motorhomewifi.com/product/iboost-d8-directional-system/ So if I get something like this off santa would I be able to run my android tv box from site or aires wifi ? Also this unit seems have been around for a while so I'm wondering what would be the most up to date hardware for this type of thing,keeping in mind I'm not very tec savvy ?

crabbypaddy

killalanerr wrote: »

http://www.motorhomewifi.com/product/iboost-d8-directional-system/ So if I get something like this off santa would I be able to run my android tv box from site or aires wifi ? Also this unit seems have been around for a while so I'm wondering what would be the most up to date hardware for this type of thing,keeping in mind I'm not very tec savvy ?

Looks like a microtik router, and I'm guessing a ubiquity wireless client and mount, thats high quality stuff. You are paying twice the price to have it preconfigured though.

http://www.irishwireless.net/rbmap2n
http://www.irishwireless.net/outdoor-bridges/locom2
http://www.irishwireless.net/ns-wm