Question Wifi adapter and range problem

[vp77]

Hello there, so basically I have a wifi adapter(Alfa Network AWUS036H) and I recently bought an sma antenna so I can replace the current one it came with because it broke, however I am facing problems for example I have my friends wifi who lives on the flat right in front of the house, it's considered a relatively big distance so you can connect flawlesly to it but when I replaced the wifi antenna I was able to connect.The speed however is terrible though the power of the signal seems to be okay(I have 3-4 bars out of 5) if I go closer to his network it improves but I want to be able to connect while being at home.I don't undestand what's wrong this happens to all of the wifi networks I've tried it on is there something wrong with the adapter? maybe it can't react to such a long range because it is designed to be in a small one? I am have no idea of wireless technologies so any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

[bill001g]

Speed and signal level are only some what related. What is much more important is the quality of the signal more than the raw strength. Lots and lots of interfering radio signals on wifi.

I am not sure why people keep buying that old adapter. Years ago it was top in its class. One reason people used it was because it had external antenna connections so you could put directional antenna on it. The much larger reason was it supported promiscuous mode under linux and people where using it to capture wifi data.

Now days all data is encrypted both by the wifi and via the browser via htps. A complete waste of time to capture. In addition the cost of directional bridge equipment has come down so much you can get a directional bridge for the same price as just a antenna and cable.

That is extremely old tech. 802.11g was replaced by 802.11n which kinda was replaced by 802.11ac and as of last month 802.11ax came out. So there are 3 generations of newer radio transmission methods.

I would look at one of the more current technolgy to accomplish this. Something like a ubiquiti nano station will likely run much faster and costs $50. Be sure you match the radio band to the router you are attempting to connect to. Unlike the alfa thing the ubiquiti can connect via a 100 meter ethernet cable and can be placed outdoors if needed.

 

[kerberos_20]

if your antenna is too strong it can produce distortions while picking up relatively good signal (signal strenght vs signal quality)
if u dont plan to move with your wifi device (like with notebook when u walk around) u can use directional antenna, that will give u better coverage over longer distance
https://www.amazon.com/Alfa-2-4HGz-RP-SMA-Screw-Antenna/dp/B003ZWPRUI

 

[vp77]

Thank you I was looking for something like this, is there something I can to improve my antenna? I bought it from bangood cheap so I would not be surprised if the antenna hasn't good signal quality. I was hoping I can do something with it.

 

[bill001g]

Actually antenna are very simple it is a piece of wire of a very specific length. Connecting the screw connector to the wire is the somewhat more tricky part but any place that can make circuit boards can make quality antenna. Now directional antenna are quite a bit more complex to make so those it really matters who makes them. Quality companies will have graphs that show how much gain in each direction the device has.

Hard to say I suppose you could buy another one and see if you happen to get a defective one. It could also be that the radio unit has failed.

Not sure I have gotten lazy and no long even mess with raw antenna and nic cards I just buy bridge units where all the work is done for me.

 

[vp77]

Pardon me, I've been using my phone to check on the thread so I didn't notice your first answer.I'm actually not looking for directional bridge but I'll definitely take a look at it, is there any wifi adapter that is compatible with the current standards?(I would appreciate if you suggested me an alfa network product) what are the advantages of new adapters? also if I'd buy a new adapter I would make sure to buy an directional panel unfortunately the alfa one wont ship to my country could you recommend any? Thank you for being so detailed.

 

[bill001g]

The advantage of something like 802.11ac is you will get real life speeds more than 10 times faster than 802.11g. It could be even more depending if you get enough signal.

I tend to not like alfa equipment in general because they like to use a lot of marketing crap like long range and high power. They are restricted by the same legal limitations on transmit power as everyone else. For a very long time they used to package their units with a illegal antennas but since they did not put it on the unit they could get away with it. They would still claim in their ads things like 3watts when the legal maximum is 1watt and even less in many countries. When a company does dishonest stuff like this I tend to not trust anything they say. They are somewhat better now days I suspect they got a warning or something from the FCC.

There are many USB based wifi adapters that work well. Asus has one that is extremely popular. I am to lazy to look up the model.

In any case what you are doing is well outside the use wifi equipment is designed for. 100 meters is generally the maximum recommended distance and even that tends to be much more than you get in real life installs.

You really need equipment designed for distance and that almost always has directional antenna. Buying equipment designed to do what you are attempting tends to always work better than trying to hack together something yourself.

 

[vp77]

Thank you, up until this point I wasn't aware of directional antennas. I've chose alfa not because of their claims just I've seen other people recommend it so I decided to purchase it, anyways I'll search more thoroughly in order to buy a new one.Thank you.