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On 27/01/2014 20:12, bad apple wrote: > On 27/01/14 18:57, Eion MacDonald wrote: >> Dear Folk, 20140127 >> I use a motel in London frequently (close to my daughter's home in an >> area where we used to live) which has safe parking. >> The motel has free (unencrypted!) wifi in bar, reception and adjoining pub. >> Using a 'newish' laptop Dell E6530 on last trip rather than my more >> ancient laptop, I found I could get a 'reasonable reception' for evening >> check of emails in a room close to reception, which had never occurred >> before and motel has not changed its wifi set up in 7 years (b,g standard). >> This begs the question, is receiving set up important for distance >> reception? Would an investment in (at say less than GBP 50) get a >> wireless dongle with good pick up? >> Motel is down market and GBP£50 would be equivalent of one night's extra >> fee in nearby "hotel" with room reception. >> Any thoughts? >> Thanks in advance. >> Data: Windows 7 Pro (OpenSUSE in Virtual Drive with VM), DELL E6530, i7 >> 3520 2-core 22nm , 4GB RAM, Intel 4000 graphics, Intel PROset Wifi >> Intel Centrino Advanced N-6205 device >> > > > God yes, the antenna on your receiving side makes all of the difference: > modern laptops with decent chipsets and even internal antennas have > massively improved range over old gear, often by an amazing amount. The > crappy built-in wifi on my crappy netbook can see 2 or 3 wifi networks > from my desk here, as soon as I plug in a couple of extra USB dongles or > just grab the girlfriend's MacBook, that jumps up to ~20 immediately. I > inherited and modified a Buffalo* directional antenna with a pigtail for > wardriving/wifi pentesting and the same netbook thus equipped can easily > sniff networks from over a mile away, reliably. > > If you don't mind getting a bit hands on, you can go absolutely crazy on > this: build a 'cantenna', get an Atheros chipset based > USB/PCMCIA/whatever dongle, crack the protective plastic covering off it > and build a pigtail lead to connect them together. I won't link to any > resources, the internet is literally full of cantenna build information. > > Now, obviously, you're going to get arrested if you start lurking around > London motels with gigantic diy antennas hanging off a laptop so you > could buy any off-the-shelf much smaller directional antenna (the ones > I've seen look similar to a ballpoint pen) and connect that to your > modded stick instead. > > The easier, less-likely-to-get-you-arrested but more expensive option > would be to just shell out cash for something like this: > > http://www.fsf.org/news/a-second-fsf-certified-device-from-thinkpenguin-long-range-usb-wifi-adapter-with-atheros-chip > > No idea if it would fit into your £50 budget though - presumably not. > > Regards > > > > *This isn't the exact model, but it's one like this: > http://www.buffalotech.com/products/wireless/wireless-accessories/14-dbi-high-gain-outdoor-directional-antenna > 20140208 Dear Folk, WiFi reception. Many thanks to Bad apple, I did a lot of reading. It is so long since I read any 'electronics or radio' stuff (and then only enforced to get by in an electronics exam about 50 years ago). Impressed by a guy in tourer van who used it over line of site in Iran and turkey to pick up free wifi from a hotel over a sea bay (about 1.5 miles he reckoned. Also brought back to mind early 1960s triangulation from Grampians to Cumbria to do a prime UK OS Triangle with line of sight theodolite (in freezing weather in January! Using light waves on line of sight as the wavelengths ) Decided to stuff the budget and buy the ThinkPenguin one. I will have a bit of explaining to my Better Half! Thanks for all your help. -- regards Eion MacDonald -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq