[Oroka Sempai]

I just got myself a new Dell 1720 (yeah, the ones with the big delay). Brought it to work, and I discovered the town now has a free wifi internet connection, but I cant get a strong enough signal to get online. I have a D-Link DWL-G630 pcmcia wifi card, but it dosent have a connection for an external antenna.

Is there a way to add an external antenna, or should I look at other options to boost the signal?

[CGR]

You would be better off getting a wireless router with dual antennas. It should be able to pick up a better signal then you can just connect your pcmcia card to the router.

[Oroka Sempai]

So say I get a cheap Linksys router, and put it in say the celing at work, or somewhere it will get better signal strenght, it can be set-up to relay the singnal to me?

[coin]

set it up the same way you would any router. Let it pick up an IP from the town wireless network through DHCP and then get your own IP (in a different range) from the router using DHCP.

[Oroka Sempai]

Alright, I am after a Linksys WRT54GX2. I might get/build a bigger antenna, and put that outside on the roof, and stash the router in the celing. My boss dont want a computer in the store, even for paperwork. I offered to throw a computer together for free out of spare parts, and she said no, she dont want staff playing games (dont tell her our cell phones, ipods, and PSPs have games on them )

What kind of cable would I use to run the antenna? IIRC, specific wifi antenna cables are really pricey, is there anything else I could use?

[AMD Phreak]

How much money can you throw at this situation?


Best thing to do is to get a dedicated wireless radio on the roof top to snag the signal from the free AP's, and then run that down into the building and distribute it using 802.11 or Ethernet to the workstations.

[Lotec25]

I am sure you can add an antenna to the card. Just have to see the inside of it. Most of them have the Hirso connector get a short pigtail and remove the hirso connector and solder the pigtail into place. I did this on a netgear card works fine. But it would be easier to just set up a router in relay mode and pick up the signal from there. But cheaper to do the card.

here is a readme on the orinico card http://lifetheuniverseandeverything.info/node/92

here is the readme on the netgear card. http://www.reality-computers.co.uk/wg511.htm

just depends on how the inside of the card is layed out pretty easy cost me 15 bucks for the cable and the antenna i made.

[Ben333]

wow... no computers? How do you guys do buisness?

[AMD Phreak]

Well if the OP is trying to provide access to the office, they will need to look into a more expanded solution instead of just adding a connector.

[Lotec25]

but if you read his post it says can he add an antenna to his card.

[Oroka Sempai]

Originally Posted by AMD Phreak

Well if the OP is trying to provide access to the office, they will need to look into a more expanded solution instead of just adding a connector.

Yeah, this is for personal use when the boss is away.


It seems to have some small square thing with a hole in the middle, looks like what the cable is connected to in the first link posted there. I will post a pic when I get my server fixed.

[Lotec25]

That is the Hi-rose connector. and is where the cable needs to go. Remove the Hi-rose connector and soldier the cable to the leads. there is a pos and neg easiest way to find it is start up the card with the case off and check the leads

[Oroka Sempai]

So, I managed to get online at work, but only in the back of the building. I discovered that whoever owns this router didnt set-up thier router at all. no password, nothing... just plug-n-play. Thier internet connection was not signed in, so I used my username from home, and sure enough, they have a modem connected, and here I am. I dont know if it is common, but my ISP seems either to not know or not care if I am signed into two modems at once. I had sold a old modem of mine to a friend, and forgot to clear the settings, and for months my friend was getting his internet though my user, and we had no problems at all!

Anyways, turns out the router is a d-link, and has the same range boost thing as my PCMCIA card, so I will try that first to see if I can get a connection from farther in the building. if not, out comes the soldering iron

[Oroka Sempai]

Well, that is just no good. Appearantly my lappy dosent have a PCMCIA slot, but something called an 'expresscard' slot. I guess I will have to do the router plan...

[Oroka Sempai]

So, I got myself a second Mini PCIe wireless nic, now I have to connect a antenna to it. Inside 2 wires connect to my main NIC, a white and black one. I found a good wire on ebay, but there is only one wire. Is more than one wire needed. Here is the link to the wire I am looking at.

http://cgi.ebay.ca/12-in-U-FL-male-R...QQcmdZViewItem