has anyone used the Cantenna Wifi antenna
and will it help me get better signals in my building
from my neighbors signals ?
and will it help me get better signals in my building
from my neighbors signals ?
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Cantenna wifi antenna ?
- Thread starter fab5freddy
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I have
I haven't used the actual cantenna brand ones, but i built one from an old folgers can and it actually did help, but only if you aim it just right. The smaller the diameter of the can, the more sensitive it is to being off axis.
I used to use it a lot actually, but now its just rusting in my closet. I used this:
http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html
good luck.
I haven't used the actual cantenna brand ones, but i built one from an old folgers can and it actually did help, but only if you aim it just right. The smaller the diameter of the can, the more sensitive it is to being off axis.
I used to use it a lot actually, but now its just rusting in my closet. I used this:
http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html
good luck.
i'm not sure.
Well i'm afraid i can't help you there. I hooked mine to a hacked WRT54G and used it as a long range bridge. I don't know about the PRO, but the plugs on my macbook aren't easily accessible. A lot of laptops have that little door that you can take off to get to the wireless card antenna plugs. Then you can buy pigtails off of ebay or http://www.hyperlinktech.com/ or wherever and plug them right into the wifi card.
Well i'm afraid i can't help you there. I hooked mine to a hacked WRT54G and used it as a long range bridge. I don't know about the PRO, but the plugs on my macbook aren't easily accessible. A lot of laptops have that little door that you can take off to get to the wireless card antenna plugs. Then you can buy pigtails off of ebay or http://www.hyperlinktech.com/ or wherever and plug them right into the wifi card.
the MBP cannot easily be hooked up to a pigtail unless you use an expresscard wireless card that has a port for an antenna. a few laptops come with antenna ports that are accessible, but often you must use an add-on card or just a non portable system (router usually).
If your budget is very tight you don't have many worthwhile options, but if you have some wiggle room i'd suggest an antenna of the backfire or dish type attached to a router, preferably a dd-wrt or other flashed model. It's not an easy setup, but if you want real advantages over stock, you need to spend some money and put in a little work.
I use a $35 backfire type antenna from hyperlinktech.com mounted outside a window (same mounting type as the ubiquitous satellite tv dishes), aimed at the source, then a pigtail leading in to my buffalo wrt-hp-g54 running as a client with dd-wrt. I get very good SNR through 3 walls and across a street. I then have my old linksys wrt54gl with dd-wrt as an access point so i can wander about the apartment with my macbook and get good reception from the AP as well as a good fast connection to the base station across the street (landlord provides free internet but it's across the street and too weak for a laptop...plus i want my own subnet for my shares etc.)
i tried for a long time using homemade reflectors on the antennas, moving everything around, mounting things on windows, but in the end i was just wasting time and energy. the entire setup would probably cost somewhere approaching $200 all told if you bought it all today (i already had 1 dd-wrt wireless router, and my father made me a pigtail for free, so it only cost me ~$100 all told). I spent forever dealing with lost signal, weather induced dropouts, teaching my girlfriend how to reset the router when it inevitably died, coming home every night to a network troubleshooting task...i really appreciate hassle free internet these days, and i didn't have to break down and get cable for $50/month either (actually that wasn't an option either because the landlord also includes cable tv...)...
If your budget is very tight you don't have many worthwhile options, but if you have some wiggle room i'd suggest an antenna of the backfire or dish type attached to a router, preferably a dd-wrt or other flashed model. It's not an easy setup, but if you want real advantages over stock, you need to spend some money and put in a little work.
I use a $35 backfire type antenna from hyperlinktech.com mounted outside a window (same mounting type as the ubiquitous satellite tv dishes), aimed at the source, then a pigtail leading in to my buffalo wrt-hp-g54 running as a client with dd-wrt. I get very good SNR through 3 walls and across a street. I then have my old linksys wrt54gl with dd-wrt as an access point so i can wander about the apartment with my macbook and get good reception from the AP as well as a good fast connection to the base station across the street (landlord provides free internet but it's across the street and too weak for a laptop...plus i want my own subnet for my shares etc.)
i tried for a long time using homemade reflectors on the antennas, moving everything around, mounting things on windows, but in the end i was just wasting time and energy. the entire setup would probably cost somewhere approaching $200 all told if you bought it all today (i already had 1 dd-wrt wireless router, and my father made me a pigtail for free, so it only cost me ~$100 all told). I spent forever dealing with lost signal, weather induced dropouts, teaching my girlfriend how to reset the router when it inevitably died, coming home every night to a network troubleshooting task...i really appreciate hassle free internet these days, and i didn't have to break down and get cable for $50/month either (actually that wasn't an option either because the landlord also includes cable tv...)...
you don't need a bridge, any dd-wrt router (generally the buffalo wrt-hp-g54 is highly rated) can be run as a bridge. there's no special hardware required, it's just the software that allows you to bridge (or run as a client if you want a separate network).
oh and yes, it's really rather impressive, you can cover many miles if you're free of obstructions by using directional antennas.