High Gain WIFI Antenna?

[Grimmer]

Hi,
I'm looking to buy a long range WIFI antenna to connect to a coffee shop about a mile away. What is the best long range antenna out there? I found an article about some people using a homemade biquad dish antenna that you can bolt to the horn of a small sattelite dish, is this currently the best way to get the highest gain or is there something better out there?

[pclover]

Both have to be using high gain i believe.

Buying a high gain wont allow you to get wifi form the coffee shop most likely.

[satrow]

A single high gain antenna works both ways, pushes and pulls, so providing you are line of sight and can increase the gain enough, it'll work fine - unlike boosting the output power, which only increases the push - that must be used on both sides for best results.

Try using a wireless dongle in the satellite dish to test with.

[hrlow2]

Didn't think wifi would work at that distance.

[satrow]

USB dongle + dish = "I was able to aim the dish across San Diego Mission Bay, and connect to the AP at the Hyatt Regency about 3 miles away" so I reckon 1 mile should be feasible. http://www.goodoldrvs.com/forum/topi...age=1#comments

Pretty sure Pringle's cantennae can have similar reach, wouldn't guarantee them for streaming video though.

[Colemanguy]

With proper equiment you can do 25-30 meg across a mile or two on wifi, right now i have a wifi link setup between our radio station to the local community access tv station for the purpose of streaming hd video to our distribution system.

[hrlow2]

Looks like I have some researching to do.
About 3 miles? Really?

[Grimmer]

not sure how accurate this is but this antenna claims to get 8 mile range los http://www.simplewifi.com/parabolicgrid.html. gonna mess around with my dish and usb dongle see how much of a boost i can get from that. thanks for the info gives me some ideas.

one other question though, i hear of people being able to amplify an existing wifi antenna how exactly is this done? what hardware would one need to accomplish this?

[hrlow2]

Key words in that ad are "up to" 8 miles.
Your usage quite likely won't extend to that.

[pclover]

Originally Posted by hrlow2

Looks like I have some researching to do.
About 3 miles? Really?

It's very possible. How do you think satellites work? They use high gain and all the power is focused on a line instead of omnidirectional. However break this line of sight slightly and it will crap out and not work.

[The Shadow]

In doing research on a topic like this.... Google is your best friend.
I've personally done a lot of research on hi gain Wi-Fi antennas.

I've tried several designs:


This 7db Gain vertical works a treat on my little Netbook.



I built this variation on the dish, and it worked, but not as well as I would have liked. A 3' dish would be best if you can find one.

The best I've seen is a professional built Yagi (beam type) antenna inside of a clear plastic tube (for protection). I found that during a Google search.

One mile is not hard if the Wi-Fi transmitter is putting out a good signal.
Type N300 is far better than type B or G.

Good Luck!

[Grimmer]

Just playing around I pulled the old dish I wasn't using off my roof and screwed a piece of metal flashing to hold the usb adapter to satellite horn. I do manage to get a stronger signal with my wireless router but it does not pick up any more ap's in fact it picks up less than trying to use just a metal soup can. Gonna look around for a better adapter with a longer range.

[Grimmer]

Originally Posted by The Shadow

The best I've seen is a professional built Yagi (beam type) antenna inside of a clear plastic tube (for protection). I found that during a Google search.

One mile is not hard if the Wi-Fi transmitter is putting out a good signal.
Type N300 is far better than type B or G.

Good Luck!

if this don't work think I will just save the hassle and buy a yagi antenna. thanks

[hrlow2]

http://www.radiolabs.com/products/an.../14eleyagi.php

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&key...l_6gfjd8fxxk_b