HQ usb wifi devices?

patcat88 · 12-30-2004

In my friends house, there is a public wifi network near by. They want to use it from their house, where their comptuer is in the basement (no way wifi down there). The signal is good at their front door, but all the windows in the house block 100% of any wifi getting into the house (cellphones dont work ("no service") in 95% of the house). When I take netstumbler, with my senao, 2511cd with a 5.5db rubber duck antenna, I turn on netstumbler, for 1 second (1-3 refreshes of the graph) it picks up networks, then the card freezes, the signal level goes streight, with ZERO variation for 5 minutes (I stoped after that). and this is on every network that was picked up in the few cycles that the card worked. The stright lines are just flat level of the last valid cycle that read the card properly. The only place I found where I can get wifi is in the attic through a window that is normally open. I tested being able to get the signal good (light green in netstumbler) with a 5.5 db rubber duck antenna and a senao 2511cd card. So obviously, there has to be a retransmitter/signal booster/bridge somewhere for my friend to get wifi in their house.

I was thinking of taking a junky laptop (I have a pentium 166, and a pentium 266, both with 32mb ram, but I can get it to 64), putting linux on it, and give it 2 wifi cards, a junky one for the house side (or use homeplug), and a good one for the outside world one, the outside world one, has to have a external antenna jack, preferably where I dont need to solder. I will use the laptop as a wifi to wifi mac level bridge. If I put it in the attic, it has to be on the floor, with a cable running upto the antenna, which will be in the window between the glass and the screen (no glass blocking the signal), but wont there is insane signal loss from a 4 foot antenna cable?

So I think I need a USB to PCMCIA converter (run a usb cable from laptop on floor to inside side of sill, then run the usb cable into a usb to PCMCIA convertor, put a good PCMCIA card into it, and plug my antenna cable into it and run that to the outside half of the sill where the antenna is), or a really good usb card. I dont know of any good USB cards. Only one I have worked with was a Linksys WUSB11 with a atmel chipset which royally sucks, and doesnt work with netstumbler. And also the USB card need to have antenna jack.

So can someone please give me some advice on what kind of set up I need to have (if laptop acting as bridge is right), and if there is a usb to PCMCIA converter, and are there any high quality USB wifi cards?

brooma · 12-31-2004

you need low loss cable

Quote:

Originally Posted by patcat88

In my friends house, there is a public wifi network near by. They want to use it from their house, where their comptuer is in the basement (no way wifi down there). The signal is good at their front door, but all the windows in the house block 100% of any wifi getting into the house (cellphones dont work ("no service") in 95% of the house). When I take netstumbler, with my senao, 2511cd with a 5.5db rubber duck antenna, I turn on netstumbler, for 1 second (1-3 refreshes of the graph) it picks up networks, then the card freezes, the signal level goes streight, with ZERO variation for 5 minutes (I stoped after that). and this is on every network that was picked up in the few cycles that the card worked. The stright lines are just flat level of the last valid cycle that read the card properly. The only place I found where I can get wifi is in the attic through a window that is normally open. I tested being able to get the signal good (light green in netstumbler) with a 5.5 db rubber duck antenna and a senao 2511cd card. So obviously, there has to be a retransmitter/signal booster/bridge somewhere for my friend to get wifi in their house.

I was thinking of taking a junky laptop (I have a pentium 166, and a pentium 266, both with 32mb ram, but I can get it to 64), putting linux on it, and give it 2 wifi cards, a junky one for the house side (or use homeplug), and a good one for the outside world one, the outside world one, has to have a external antenna jack, preferably where I dont need to solder. I will use the laptop as a wifi to wifi mac level bridge. If I put it in the attic, it has to be on the floor, with a cable running upto the antenna, which will be in the window between the glass and the screen (no glass blocking the signal), but wont there is insane signal loss from a 4 foot antenna cable?

So I think I need a USB to PCMCIA converter (run a usb cable from laptop on floor to inside side of sill, then run the usb cable into a usb to PCMCIA convertor, put a good PCMCIA card into it, and plug my antenna cable into it and run that to the outside half of the sill where the antenna is), or a really good usb card. I dont know of any good USB cards. Only one I have worked with was a Linksys WUSB11 with a atmel chipset which royally sucks, and doesnt work with netstumbler. And also the USB card need to have antenna jack.

So can someone please give me some advice on what kind of set up I need to have (if laptop acting as bridge is right), and if there is a usb to PCMCIA converter, and are there any high quality USB wifi cards?

brooma · 12-31-2004

Quote:

Originally Posted by brooma

you need low loss cable

i have a dish antenna in my loft with a 10 meter cable coming from it and the loss is less than 3 db

Barry · 12-31-2004

But is your dish 2.4ghz?? Tv cable and microwave cable are two totally different beasts.

patcat88 · 01-09-2005

are there any high quality, high sensitivity, with external antenna possible, wifi usb devices?

King_Ice_Flash · 01-09-2005

Something such as the MN-510 was a good one. It was a prism 2 chipset, and there are instructions on how to mod it on this site.

Thorn · 01-09-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by King_Ice_Flash

Something such as the MN-510 was a good one. It was a prism 2 chipset, and there are instructions on how to mod it on this site.

If you can still find them. Microsoft stopped producing them last summer. If you look around you may be able to locate some closeouts.

Linksys also makes a series of USB devices: The WUSB11 and WUSB54G

patcat88 · 01-28-2005

Are there any good, decent sensitivity, preferably prism 2.5 based, usb cards that work with netstumbler? All atmels i've worked with dont work and I hate them (Wusb11 ver 2.6 linksys).

streaker69 · 01-28-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by patcat88

Are there any good, decent sensitivity, preferably prism 2.5 based, usb cards that work with netstumbler? All atmels i've worked with dont work and I hate them (Wusb11 ver 2.6 linksys).

One of the two best ones is this.

wrzwaldo · 01-28-2005

HQ usb wifi devices?

http://www.netstumbler.org/showthread.php?t=13963

Thorn · 01-28-2005

Asked and answered. Merged and locked.

12-30-2004	#1 (permalink)
patcat88 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 17	external wifi card/device for laptop In my friends house, there is a public wifi network near by. They want to use it from their house, where their comptuer is in the basement (no way wifi down there). The signal is good at their front door, but all the windows in the house block 100% of any wifi getting into the house (cellphones dont work ("no service") in 95% of the house). When I take netstumbler, with my senao, 2511cd with a 5.5db rubber duck antenna, I turn on netstumbler, for 1 second (1-3 refreshes of the graph) it picks up networks, then the card freezes, the signal level goes streight, with ZERO variation for 5 minutes (I stoped after that). and this is on every network that was picked up in the few cycles that the card worked. The stright lines are just flat level of the last valid cycle that read the card properly. The only place I found where I can get wifi is in the attic through a window that is normally open. I tested being able to get the signal good (light green in netstumbler) with a 5.5 db rubber duck antenna and a senao 2511cd card. So obviously, there has to be a retransmitter/signal booster/bridge somewhere for my friend to get wifi in their house. I was thinking of taking a junky laptop (I have a pentium 166, and a pentium 266, both with 32mb ram, but I can get it to 64), putting linux on it, and give it 2 wifi cards, a junky one for the house side (or use homeplug), and a good one for the outside world one, the outside world one, has to have a external antenna jack, preferably where I dont need to solder. I will use the laptop as a wifi to wifi mac level bridge. If I put it in the attic, it has to be on the floor, with a cable running upto the antenna, which will be in the window between the glass and the screen (no glass blocking the signal), but wont there is insane signal loss from a 4 foot antenna cable? So I think I need a USB to PCMCIA converter (run a usb cable from laptop on floor to inside side of sill, then run the usb cable into a usb to PCMCIA convertor, put a good PCMCIA card into it, and plug my antenna cable into it and run that to the outside half of the sill where the antenna is), or a really good usb card. I dont know of any good USB cards. Only one I have worked with was a Linksys WUSB11 with a atmel chipset which royally sucks, and doesnt work with netstumbler. And also the USB card need to have antenna jack. So can someone please give me some advice on what kind of set up I need to have (if laptop acting as bridge is right), and if there is a usb to PCMCIA converter, and are there any high quality USB wifi cards?

12-31-2004	#4 (permalink)
Barry Managing the iTards. Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Ohio Posts: 5,883	But is your dish 2.4ghz?? Tv cable and microwave cable are two totally different beasts. __________________ Never do anything you don't want to explain to the paramedics.

01-09-2005	#5 (permalink)
patcat88 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 17	HQ usb wifi devices? are there any high quality, high sensitivity, with external antenna possible, wifi usb devices?

01-09-2005	#6 (permalink)
King_Ice_Flash Alien Paranoid Stumbler Join Date: May 2003 Location: WI Posts: 2,688	Something such as the MN-510 was a good one. It was a prism 2 chipset, and there are instructions on how to mod it on this site. __________________ "Yeah," said a voice from under the table, "you go to pieces so fast people get hit by the shrapnel."

01-28-2005	#8 (permalink)
patcat88 Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 17	good usb card netstumbler Are there any good, decent sensitivity, preferably prism 2.5 based, usb cards that work with netstumbler? All atmels i've worked with dont work and I hate them (Wusb11 ver 2.6 linksys).

01-28-2005	#10 (permalink)
wrzwaldo I amuse you? Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 9,147	How many time are you going to ask this? HQ usb wifi devices? http://www.netstumbler.org/showthread.php?t=13963

01-28-2005	#11 (permalink)
Thorn Did you do the math? Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Villa Straylight Posts: 10,361	Enough Asked and answered. Merged and locked. __________________ Thorn "Read Altas Shrugged. Compare it to today. Repeat as necessary"

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