Wifi aerial

[tinmar49]

Friends have just bought a holiday caravan on a site that does not have its own hotspot. They don't want to get a BT line but have been told that the adjacent site has a public wifi point. Would an external usb aerial be the answer? I think the distance is 150 yards over flat ground. There are lots of fancy claims made by vendors, can anyone suggest something that is known to work?

 

[OvenMaster]

Yes, there are parabolic Wi-Fi antennas that work very well. Here's what I was able to find available in the UK:
24dBi Parabolic Wireless Networking Directional Antenna.
U.S.:
WiFi Antenna | 2.4Ghz Grid Antenna | Parabolic Antenna | L-com.com

 

[tinmar49]

The parabolic will certainly work best, but I was hoping for something a little smaller but with some directional capabilities.

 

[3D Jed]

I think those parabolics are for narrow beam link ups ie 2 devices looking at each other over a distance, as opposed to just one device trying to pick up a distant signal. The website says 'perfect for point to point'.

Google 'inverse square law' - signal is proportional to the inverse square of the distance. 10 times the distance = 1/100th of the signal etc. If its gonna work, then the bigger the dish the better. Does the next door hotspot have a password ?

 

[tinmar49]

I live in a built up area and before I ditched wifi for hard wiring, I could pick up about six signals upto 70 yards away with an aerial about 3 inches long. Problems with reliability led me to the wired route. I don't have any idea if a password is used.

 

[OvenMaster]

The parabolic will certainly work best, but I was hoping for something a little smaller but with some directional capabilities.

Will this be better? It's certainly less obvious: MFJ-1800 2.4 GHz WiFi 15dBi Yagi Antenna for 802.11b/802.11g Wir - Radioworld
Here's one that's very affordable: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Long-Rang...005&prg=9264&rk=3&rkt=6&sd=281293349919&rt=nc

 

[tinmar49]

All these aerials are good but they won't connect to a laptop.