Need a really powerful wifi usb adapter for when i go to campgrounds

Yoshinat0r · Jul 15, 2014

I was wondering if i could get some help on finding a wifi usb adapter that was strong enough to get a good signal when i go to campgrounds and want to connect to their router. Usually the distance i am from the router is about 1000-1500ft, although it can be as far as 2000ft sometimes, since we always tend to get stuck with the cabins farthest away :/ Also i would really prefer it to all be an indoor setup, and not have to put the antenna outside. is there anything out there that is strong enough to reach a signal that far away while indoors? or am i asking too much? i would like to not go much over $80 or so, but i suppose i can splurge if theres something out there that's really good and easy to use.

leeb2013 · Jul 15, 2014

with a line of site range of 300ft, you'll need something special for up to 2000ft. Don't forget the site's wifi transmitter will be normal power with a crappy antenna. WIFI is limited in power, even at your end.

You'll need a super sensitive antenna, which means directional, like a yagi antenna and will need to align it perfectly with the sites wifi antenna. You'll be looking at $100-1000.

Maybe either just tether it to your 3G phone, or do some camping instead of surfing!

Yoshinat0r · Jul 16, 2014

well i can actually see their network even with a crappy usb wifi adapter i have, its just that the signal is not good at all. i mean i can't imagine that their router is that bad. i heard about the yagi, it seems to be very popular for sure, but if i were to try that out im just not sure how i would set it up: do you need a specific adapter to use with the yagi antenna? and also how come the price varies from $100 to $1000, is there a decent one for around $100 that could work for me?

and about the whole camping and surfing thing, its really only for at night after campfires, i get very bored and sometimes have insomnia and like to have lots to occupy my mind, but of course i love to do stuff at the campground during the day

boosted1g · Jul 16, 2014

If you can see the signal with your laptop normally then you can probably use a parabolic antenna instead of a yagi which has less range but a much larger spread of signal, a yagi can go miles with line of sight but requires fraciton of a degree precession at that distance.

What I would do if you just need it for one device is get your antenna, a ubiquiti airbullet, and then plug that into your laptops ethernet port. This will cost somwhere around $120-150.

The airbullet is fairly versital and can be configured as a wireless bridge or access point, in your case it will be a wireless bridge and will allow you to plug any antenna wth a type N connection to it and then bridge the connection to an ethernt port and be able to plug that into a router or computer.

If you want to share it with more then one device then you will also want to get a router, then you can plug the ethernet fom the airbullet into the router and then share the internet with multple people/devices.

Yoshinat0r · Jul 16, 2014

that sounds like an interesting setup, so the airbullet plugs into the ethernet port on your pc and you have to buy a seperate antenna that plugs into the airbullet? also is this the airbullet thing you're talking about?

http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-BULLET-M2-HP-Outdoor-802-11-M2HP/dp/B002SYS22E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405542502&sr=8-1&keywords=ubiquity+bullet

i would be curious to try this setup but do you have any recommendations for an antenna to buy?

boosted1g · Jul 16, 2014

Yeah that is the airbullet.
As said you can plug the airbullet into a pc or into other networking equipment. It uses ubiquiti software called airos that is fairly versital and allows it to be configured to be a bridge, access point, or even a router (in your case you want it to be a bridge).

If you are getting the networks on your laptop, just too low of signal stregnth to be usable then a parabolic antenna should be what you need.

What I would do is mount the antenna and airbullet to a tripod type poll, try it indoors and if you need to then run it outdoors and then you just need to run the ethernet cord indoors.

Here is a decent parabolic antenna with nice dbi gain:
http://www.amazon.com/TL-ANT2424B-Directional-Parabolic-connector-resistant/dp/B003CFATOW

I forgot, you will also need the poe injector as i does not have a native power port on it (POE is power over etherent where you send the power/ground signal over the unused wires in the ethernet cord.
http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Poe-15-Power-Over-Ethernet/dp/B002R7JPGE/ref=pd_bxgy_pc_text_y

Yoshinat0r · Jul 16, 2014

oh my gosh that antenna is huge! LOL i mean wow it does look really nice, but dang i just didn't really want something you had to set up outside like that and i really dont think this could easily be set up in the very limited space inside the cabins at the campground. do you know how easy and how fast it is to set up these antennas outside? i'm concerned cause i can't do anything like mount it to the side of the cabin since we just rent them we dont actually own one of these cabins

boosted1g · Jul 16, 2014

The antenna is roughly 3ft by 2ft. You can get smaller ones from companies like streakwave or passadina networks or this http://www.l-com.com/wireless-antenna-24-ghz-15-dbi-die-cast-mini-reflector-grid-antenna-n-female-connector#

I suggested using a tripod pole and mounting the antenna to that, that way it is not fixed to anything. You can get ones specifically for antennas, but you can just use a speaker stand or camera stand etc, anything that has a round pole on it, if you wanted to make it super cheap you could even fab something up out of pvc pipe.

Yoshinat0r · Jul 16, 2014

right yea theres the tripod way, but i was wondering a couple of things: i know it says the antenna is weather proof but what about the part where the ethernet cable connects into it? if it poured out couldn't some water end up getting in there? also i've never done this before as you can tell

but how do you even run an ethernet cable from outside to inside without leaving the door cracked open, if you have no holes to run it through?

boosted1g · Jul 16, 2014

The airbullet is designed for outdoor use, there should be a waterproof connecter on the bottom for the ethernet cable.

As far as door cracked, yeah you would have to crack the door or a window since you cant actually poke a hole in the rental cabin. You might get away with using the antenna indoors though. There are indoor panel antennas that you can try as well, would just have too look at their range and of course that they use an N connector and it the proper "gender" for the airbullet connector.

Yoshinat0r · Jul 16, 2014

i found this one which seems pretty good for what i want, do you think this one could work well?

http://www.amazon.com/Antenna-2-4GHz-Wireless-Outdoor-Directional/dp/B008FH5UTG/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1405553472&sr=8-5&keywords=antenna+panel

it seems really good it's 20 dbi and it's only like 13" x 13", also it has the n-type connector, only thing is ive never heard of that company before and it only has 1 review lol

boosted1g · Jul 16, 2014

That panel antenna should be fine.

FYI when it comes to antennas the smaller the beamwidth (think how many degrees out of a circle) the farther the distance. A yagi antenna is only a couple of degrees of width but goes for miles, a panel antenna can vary anywhere from 10-40 degrees depending on the model (this one is 18, look at horizontal beamwidth), a parabolic antenna can go from 60-90 degrees, and a omni-directional (pole type) is 360 degrees and gets the shortest distance. The higher the dbi the more distance it gets, but too high of power can start to distort the signal.

While a yagi can go for miles, you have to aim it very precise otherwise it will miss the souce wifi connection very eaiily, the source is most likely using a 8-12 dbi omni antenna that gets minimal range. Thus you wold have to know exactly where the source antenna is to aim it without stabbing in the dark for an hour.

Yoshinat0r · Jul 16, 2014

ah i see, so in the case of this antenna i will have to be more precise about aiming it. my only other concern is if the source is sending out a weak signal to where i am would it even matter if i had a powerful antenna since we have to talk back and forth? i would think that would make the source become a bottleneck. but regardless i will try buying this along with the airbullet and see how it goes. thanks a lot for all the information and the help!

just to clarify, i just need the airbullet, the antenna, and a poe right? also there seems to be multiple versions of the air bullet, theres an older series and then a newer "M" series, and then theres 2 versions of the M series, one that trasmits at 2.4ghz, and one that transmits at 5.0 ghz. i assume i should get the M series 2.4ghz?

bill001g · Jul 16, 2014

You may want to consider the airgrid systems instead it is also from ubiquiti. It has the antenna and the electronics all in one piece. It very close in cost to just the antenna. Not sure why it is priced like this. 1000ft is a long way, I used one of these on both ends to go 1000ft and we had clear line of site on the top of buildings. You start talking trees and stuff in the way and it get tough. I do like the signal strength lights on ubiquti stuff it makes it much easier to get the best signal strength.

Yoshinat0r · Jul 16, 2014

i actually just ordered the bullet m2 and poe + antenna seperately, didnt know about the airgrid systems but thanks anyway for the info, thats good to know that they have a combined system

boosted1g · Jul 16, 2014

Yes, antenna, airbullet, and poe.

I chose the airbullet over the airgrid because your distances may change, this way you can go from a panel to a grid to a yagi, vs airgrid which is locked in to one antenna type.

Since you can see the signal on your laptop I doubt it is truely 1000ft away.
With antennas you have TX power and RX sensitivity. The reason why you can see the signal but cant get connected with it is that the source antenna is powerful enough for you to receive it but your laptop is not powerful enough to transmit. With the source having a decent omni and you having a more powerful antenna you should be good. Now when you start getting farther away then you will have problems with the source antenna which will be an omni most likely having enough tx range to reach you.

(TX means transmit and RX is receive)

And yes you want 2.4ghz because very very few places will have 5ghz for clients because very few computers have 5ghz still. Most places that do use 5ghz use it for backhaul (main router to access point stations).

Yoshinat0r · Jul 16, 2014

i didn't think about that but yea that's great to have the option to switch out antennas for different situations. and yea maybe it wasn't 1000 ft away cause that is pretty dang far actually, i just looked up the campground im going to on google earth and most of the cabins are about 500 ft from the main building where the router is. however this one campground i sometimes go to has cabins very far out from the main building, some like over 1200 ft away, and im not entirely sure if ive ever gotten one of those cabins that far away and tried to connect to their wifi. to be honest that's not really fair that they even have cabins that far away from the main building because they charge for wifi, and people who get stuck with the furthest cabins are basically screwed v_v

Yoshinat0r · Jul 17, 2014

sorry to keep barraging you with questions but i was just wondering is it possible that antenna i linked in my post may have too small of a beam width? because there will be lots of cabins and trees in the way obstructing the path to the router im sure, and the terrain is not completely flat. i did already order it but in all honesty i had a hard time finding anything else with a wider beam width that was able to fit indoors anyway.

EDIT: well there are the omnidirectional ones which i read are great for areas with lots of obstructions, but i doubt they can reach very far.

Need a really powerful wifi usb adapter for when i go to campgrounds

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