4km WiFi Range w/ $5 DIY Antenna

Mignon writes "This industrious fellow in New Zealand made his own WiFi antenna using a USB WiFi adapter and a Chinese 'spider skimmer mesh scoop.' He got about 17 dB signal improvement for about US $5 in materials." Update: 05/25 23:09 GMT by T : Reader John Stockdale offers a U.S. hosted mirror of the site. Update: 05/26 13:58 GMT by T : Reader Jared Mauch contributes another mirror.

Comments

Why haven't AP manufacturers tried this?

[bobhagopian]

I wonder if there are hidden shortcomings to this technique. If it only costs $5, I would think that manufacturers of wireless access points would have implemented this a long time ago (or at least made it available as a $40 add on). After all, there *is* a market for it, and at least some people would buy such a device.

Re:Why haven't AP manufacturers tried this?

[Tony Hoyle]

Possibly not.

In the US I believe the output is measured by the effective output of the antenna (essentially transmitter power + gain AFAIK). This allows you to build directional antennas that can go some distance (you're also allowed a whole 1W signal which is quite a lot).

OTOH in Europe we measure EIRP, which is total power in any direction - so directional transmitters are illegal (we also only get 100mw to play with). This is why things like the WRT54G are so useful - you can have a really powerful receiver (not limited) and a still use the legal transmitter in the other aerial.

Re:Apple's had this for years

[wankledot]

wtf are you talking about?

The airport base station doesn't have a range anywhere NEAR 14km. There are lots of antenna out there for lots of base stations (including the Airport ones) that will give you that range, but Apple has not "had this for years" any more than every other vendor that sells products with the option of adding an antenna.

Hell, Cisco has products that have 25 MILE ranges, with the right antenna.

USB 802.11 dongles -- are any Linux friendly?

[timothy]

I just took a long car trip, relying mostly on (purchased and municipally provided*) 802.11 access, and in preparation for that trip bought a highish-end 802.11 card and extrernal patch antenna, which indeed came in handy.

I considered one of the USB 802.11 donglers, but passed on account of ignorance: Are any of them of Linux-friendly? Are some brands better than others? Can anyone provide reception figures or anecdotes?

It certainly would be nice to have a rooftop mount on my station wagon to which I could as necessary string up a 15' USB cable and thumb-drive-style 802.11 thing :)

timothy

*Thanks, taxpayers and politicians of Salt Lake City!

Re:Too bad it's directional

[Hamstaus]

The antenna is directional so this kind of range isn't that helpful unless the two end points are stationary.

Wrong. It isn't helpful unless one end point is stationary. Which is a big difference.

Case in point. I live on a fairly large property. I'm trying to extend my wireless signal to the edge of the property, where my hammock is, so I can work in my hammock. A directional antenna hooked to the transmitter on my router inside my house extends the range in whatever direction I point the antenna in, i.e. towards my hammock. Since the antenna increase pickup as well as transmit power, I just put it on my stationary router, and I don't need to do anything to my wi-fi card on my mobile laptop.

If I wanted to extend coverage to the whole property, I could aim my antenna at a distant repeater to get omnidirectional coverage from the repeater, while still increasing range from my base-station router.

Wireless rules.

One word...

[B747SP]

Bluejack

I already built one of these things after the site first surfaced a couple of weeks ago. The neat thing about it is that it's modular insofar as your choice of radio goes. Unplug the 802.11b tranceiver, replace it with a usb Bluetooth tranceiver, aim at the nearest bus stop, and wa-la, bluejack city. Want to use 802.11g, or heaven forbid, 802.11a, plug one in! It's the ultimate in modular l33+ hax0r radio toys. Why, I reckon you could even plug an usb IrDA adaptor in there...

No, wait... :-)