TP-LINK ANT 2424B and TP-LINK TL WN722N?!

[ravaell]

Hey everyone. Long story short, I live on the country side, there`s still no internet company that can provide internet here so I thought about getting the free wifi from the town hall which is about 500 meters away from me. I bought the antenna "Ant 2424B" and the adapter "TL WN722N" and a 10 feet pigtail cable.

I managed to reach the the wifi at the town hall and even connect to it, but the signal is somewhere between -85 and - 90 even -91. I know the wifi is bidirectional but I was wondering if there`s a way to increase the power of the antenna even by a bar, or something like that so I can get at least -80 or below 80. There is no obstacle between me and the town hall.

I already managed to improve the signal by reassembling the antenna from this :

to this:

And to be honest it has increased by a bar from not even seeing the hotspot to actually seeing it and connecting to it.

Now, is there any other way I can push the antenna even further as I said before, even by a little bit? Maybe by getting a stronger adapter? Or by somehow tweaking the antenna?

 

[kanewolf]

How high do you have the antenna? Is there a clear line of sight? Many times the signal loss in the coax is as much as the antenna gain. Rather than a coax downlink, you could try an outdoor wireless bridge, that you could raise higher because the output is Cat5e rather than coax.
Something like this -- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833168155

 

[ravaell]

The antenna is aprox at the same height as the town hall`s AP. The line of sight is clear, only a couple tips of the wooden roofs in the way, but Im not sure they really reach the antenna`s signal, maybe 2 of them a little bit, but other than that its clear.

My house is aprox 1000 sq feet WITH the land, the house is roughly 550 sq feet. The access point is at over 5000 feet from my location, so there is no way I can put the bridge even CLOSE to the halfway of me and the AP, sadly. 2nd problem, I could not find that bridge/extender in my country on any retail websites. So yeah, not gonna happen. Any other ideas of what I might do/try?

Thanks a lot for the answer though, I thought no one`s gonna help me. So yeah, thanks in advance for other ideas to this. As I said, I`m looking to get at least a decent signal, 2-3 bars [-80 - -75 or even lower if it`s possible]. It`s basically my only option to get internet at this moment, the cellphone internet costs A LOT and it`s also really slow, that`s what Im using to write this post. No way you can download something over the internet or play any online games, the cellphone even struggles with YouTube videos.

 

[kanewolf]

My specific device was just an example. Engenius makes several outdoor directional bridge units. Ubiquiti makes several. I believe you should search for "outdoor wireless bridge" to see what products ARE available.

 

[ravaell]

My specific device was just an example. Engenius makes several outdoor directional bridge units. Ubiquiti makes several. I believe you should search for "outdoor wireless bridge" to see what products ARE available.

Okay, but lets say the bridge is not gonna help. What could I do then? Is there even something i could do?

See, in my country 50 dollars is not really easy to get, especially when a wage is roughly 150 dollars. I'd really like to avoid spending any more money.. If its possible.

 

[kanewolf]

My specific device was just an example. Engenius makes several outdoor directional bridge units. Ubiquiti makes several. I believe you should search for "outdoor wireless bridge" to see what products ARE available.

Okay, but lets say the bridge is not gonna help. What could I do then? Is there even something i could do?

You could try a satellite TV dish and rig up a 2.4 Ghz WIFI receiver. Otherwise I know of nothing.

 

[BuddhaSkoota]

The antenna is aprox at the same height as the town hall`s AP. The line of sight is clear, only a couple tips of the wooden roofs in the way, but Im not sure they really reach the antenna`s signal, maybe 2 of them a little bit, but other than that its clear.

My house is aprox 1000 sq feet WITH the land, the house is roughly 550 sq feet. The access point is at over 5000 feet from my location, so there is no way I can put the bridge even CLOSE to the halfway of me and the AP, sadly. 2nd problem, I could not find that bridge/extender in my country on any retail websites. So yeah, not gonna happen. Any other ideas of what I might do/try?

You might gain a little signal strength by eliminating the loss in the cable and connecting the wifi adapter directly to the antenna using an adapter like this:

And instead use a 10ft USB cable from PC to adapter.

The only problem will be weatherproofing the adapter, possibly with a small plastic weather enclosure that can be modified easily.

 

[ravaell]

The antenna is aprox at the same height as the town hall`s AP. The line of sight is clear, only a couple tips of the wooden roofs in the way, but Im not sure they really reach the antenna`s signal, maybe 2 of them a little bit, but other than that its clear.

My house is aprox 1000 sq feet WITH the land, the house is roughly 550 sq feet. The access point is at over 5000 feet from my location, so there is no way I can put the bridge even CLOSE to the halfway of me and the AP, sadly. 2nd problem, I could not find that bridge/extender in my country on any retail websites. So yeah, not gonna happen. Any other ideas of what I might do/try?

You might gain a little signal strength by eliminating the loss in the cable and connecting the wifi adapter directly to the antenna using an adapter like this:

And instead use a 10ft USB cable from PC to adapter.

The only problem will be weatherproofing the adapter, possibly with a small plastic weather enclosure that can be modified easily.

Thank you, it seems that`s the only option for me atm to increase my signal. Thanks for the answers guys. I`ll still leave the thread open for a couple of days, in case other people have some other ideas, but I think besides removing the pigtail and getting a longer USB cable, there`s nothing else I can really do.