Recommend a wifi dongle+antenna

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Stickman

Stickman

Stickman

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I'm looking for a reasonable USB wifi adaptor and long-range antenna to improve the wifi connection range/quality on my laptop. Seen a few on ebay for £10-15 odd but wasn't sure if they're any good? I don't mind paying £20 odd quid if it means I'll get a good one but since I don't know anything about these I'd like some advice on which ones are best?

It's a desktop replacement lappy so the antenna/dongle doesn't need to be portable... can be on a long lead if necessary, but would prefer omnidirectional.

Thanks. :)
 
also: I think this is ok to ask since OCuK don't stock the kind with separate hi-gain antenna... so hopefully I'm not breaking the rules.
 
What wifi standard are you using (a, b, g, n-2.4Ghz, n-5GHz)? Does the laptop have wifi built in? Laptop antennas are normally much bigger and more effective than anything you'll find in an omnidirectional unit attached to a USB port. To increase range for an external unit you'll pretty much have to get a directional antenna. The more directional the better the range, but the sweetspot for alignment will be smaller. I wouldn't bother with any of the unbranded Chinese units off ebay. Buffalo used to sell some reasonable units like this a few years ago, but all the major brands have now moved on to other solutions. If you can up your budget then look at n-wifi or adding another access point (perhaps combined with homeplug to simplify cabling). If not, maybe you can get enough improvement by repositioning things (router, laptop, furniture) to improve reception for free. If you're willing you might be able to upgrade your internal antennas or move them to a better place internally e.g. from the base to the screen.
 
The laptop's built in wifi is 802.11n... but I only use it to connect to an 802.11g BTOPENZONE network whilst I'm at work, so only 11g is needed. The only thing is the BTOPENZONE transmitter is over a mile away (luckily over open fields)... and despite it obviously having a pretty high power because I can get up to 5 megabits on a good day even at this range... sometimes when it's really chucking it down with rain, that mile of water between me and the hotspot makes it difficult to connect. This is why I was thinking perhaps better hardware on my end might help. :)

So, interesting to hear that the inbuilt wifi would usually be more powerful... most of the adverts for wifi dongle's that you read claim that the inbuilt wifi is only the equivalent of 1dBi and that their dongles are 4, or 7 or more dBi... then again I suppose they are bound to claim theirs are better...
 
Pretty much anyone selling wifi antennae will also sell kit that the shop does, ergo this thread ist verboten.
 
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