USB/PCIE wifi adapter for urban areas

[staurulinos]

So, I live in the city and I want to be able and connect to networks that are ~150 meters away, will Alfa Network AWUS036NHA do the job?Is there a more powerful adapter near the same price point or should I just buy a 9dbi antenna + the alfa adapter?

 

[bill001g]

Don't get trapped into the marketing and the claims of "hi power". They at least are good enough to not lie and say that it really only puts out 28db where the legal maximum is 30db. Pretty much any adapter that puts out the same power will give you about the same coverage. The reason they don't sell the 9db antenna with the unit and sell it as add on is that the combination is illegal in most counties because you are now at 32db of power.

Still it likely will make little difference since the you generally must upgrade both ends and you will have ability to do anything about the router end.

The largest issue you will have is the walls of building both on your end and the far end as well as trees and other obstacles absorb a lot of the signal. Larger antenna only have a very small impact on this since walls tend to be able absorb more signal as the power is increased.

That device will work as well as any other it will not be significantly better or worse than most other nics.....except those that are designed for low power consumption.

If you really want to attempt this you are likley better off with a outdoor bridge device something like engenious enh202 but ubiquiti makes many models also. At least you will eliminate the walls on your end.

It generally does not work too well anymore if you live in a densely populated area. Used to be you could use a weak signal to some extend, now you have a lot of strong signals all around interfering from lots of different people.

People in apartments have issues getting a good connection to their own routers because of all the other people using wireless around them.

 

[staurulinos]

Really informative, thanks for your time.

 

[mcnumpty23]

i used the alfa with a home made biquad antenna can also do a double biquad

cheap and easy to make and can even be mounted on a satellite dish for extreme stuff

when my bt broadband went down and they couldnt figure out why i used this to connect to a free bt wifi 400 yards away in the local hotel till they eventually fixed my broadband

though if your intention is to use some ones wifi without permission thats a different case and bound to be illegal whatever country you are in and against the forum rules here

 

[staurulinos]

Nah, I got a friend who's willing to share his internet early in the dawn.

 

[mcnumpty23]

then a biquad or yagi is probably your best bet thats reasonably cheap

they are more directional than the standard antenna