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Should I Upgrade The Antenna?


d0s3s

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Greetings.

I'm a pretty new user to the WiFi Pineapple and would like to increase the range of the WiFi signal.

At the moment I was looking at:

http://www.data-alliance.net/servlet/-strse-531/Antenna-12dbi-Alfa-RP-dsh-SMA/Detail

On a side note, is this the cable the WiFi Pineapple is using for the antenna?

http://www.data-alliance.net/servlet/Detail?no=669

Mine was loose and I was forced to solder it back on, but would like to get another just as a back-up. ;)

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Link 1: Yes, a higher gain antenna will give you further range, but keep in mind that an omni directional antenna has a donut-shaped range. The higher the gain, the flatter the donut (to the point that even a couple feet higher than the antenna will cause you to have no signal). I am not a radio professional, so I cannot say how the 12db antenna will perform, but I have a 9db one from the hakshop and it works very well.

As for the second link, yes, that is the one

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I also highly recommend the hakshops antenna products. I've never been disappointed. Not only do you get something that will for sure work with the pineapple (no guesswork), but you're also supporting the show and the community.

telot

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  • 2 weeks later...

What's the best antenna for the pineapple

Iam tying to find one with 3 to 4 mile range

Open terrain? City? Through buildings? omni or uni directional?

There is no "best antenna" and I doubt you're going to get your 3-4 mile range unless you have a very specific scenario in mind.

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3-4 mile range, you need to have line of sight mainly and no interference, and speeds, will be less than desirable, but work. You can build canteena antennas with things like pringles cans for short range, but you'd be better with some sort of dish setup and line of site between the two AP's to really have decent use of signal. Darren did an episode demonstrating long distance connection(forget how far, but I think was up to a mile??) but there are wifi groups and ham radio groups devoted to long distance wifi. Give a quick google, will probably find tons of tuts on how to make antennas and what length to cut them at for different frequencies and distances, etc. Theres an actual formula to determine the length of antenna for different frequencies and distance which controls how it picks up the radio wavelenths for different frequencies, ie: 2.4 vs 5ghz and up.

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Thanks for the info

If I do go down the do it yourself e.g pringle can what cable would I need to connect pineapple to cantana antenna?

That was just an example for getting point to point access aimed at each other over longer distances. There are probably a ton better antenna ideas and ways of making home made dishes, parabolic, uni-directional, dipole, yagi, etc. Just requires a little reading on whats best for which type of base stations are in communication to one another and line of site, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pringle+can+antenna&oq=pringle+can+a&gs_l=youtube.3.0.0.1658.3752.0.5534.13.12.0.1.1.0.153.1298.4j8.12.0...0.0...1ac.1.uuoF0FSKW1s

Edited by digip
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  • 1 month later...

To get a longer cone shaped range, use the antenna you have on hand and get a wire mesh noodle strainer.

They are a $1 at the dollar store.

cut a 2 holes in the noodle strainer, maybe 1' away from the base or bottom of the screen.

I think a good rule of thumb would be to make sure the middle of the antenna is in the cone of the noodle strainer.

Your basic poor mans parabolic dish...for a $1.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Wifi-Signal-Strainer-WokFi/

here's a different version of it from a trusted source:

http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4268&page=8

(just look 7 posts down)

Google homemade parabolic dishes:

https://www.google.com/search?q=homemade+parabolic+antenna&client=firefox-a&hs=UE2&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=Qd5xUfbOBsnTqAGepYCYBQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1301&bih=684

sorry for not posting an original picture. I can always get one from the store and show you if you want, just dont have one on hand.

Promise you one thing though, your range will get some pretty damn good range with this.. So happy hunting ;p or phishing dare I say ;p

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  • 3 months later...

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