usb wireless antenna to router

Nov 9, 2018
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I have an Outdoor USB Wifi Wireless Adapter Antenna (I am not sure that is the name), but I am in a metal building and when I am indoors I can't pick up my wifi signal from the house, so I use the outdoor antenna which works great. However instead of connecting it do my computer I would like to connect it to a router to give more access. Is there a router or bridge router I could use to plug this usb antenna into rather than use a laptop?
 
Solution
Getting an ethernet interface device like a Ubiquiti nano or Engenius ENS202 would be much more practical. USB requires a driver in the OS. Home routers generally don't have a lot of USB devices built-into the OS.
Nov 9, 2018
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It is a usb antenna, so it is designed to just plug into a computer usb port, and works just like a usb wifi adapter. But I can't find any routers that accept a usb wifi adapter, and so I need to have a laptop running as a bridge to the router. I was just hoping there was a way to do this with a router or adapter instead of my laptop.
 
Nov 9, 2018
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Thanks. I think I will just run a hard wire. I thought it would be easier than this. I am surprised I am the only one that would like to attache an outdoor antenna to a router though
 


They do and they make antenna to hook to routers. The problem is the device you are talking about is not a antenna it is a outdoor pc nic card.

Still nobody really hooks outdoor antenna to a router anymore. You need expensive microwave rated cable to connect between the antenna and the router. Cheaper cable can lose as much signal as the antenna gains.

The new way to do this is with outdoor bridge equipment as mentioned in the previous posts. They are a antenna and the electronics inside the antenna enclosure. Some , the ones from ubiquiti, can run as a router or as a bridge.

These units have come down so far in costs that you can get the bridge units for about the same price as just the antenna. So you actually save money since you no longer need to buy the microwave cable.
 
Nov 9, 2018
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Thanks. I guess the problem is that I just wanted to run one computer, and the solution I got worked great for that. I didn't want to wait to get the bridge equipment, so I just ran a wire. It was a real pain to do, but it is probably better in the long run anyway.

Again, thanks for the help.