lawrence38 Posted December 3, 2015 Share Posted December 3, 2015 Hi guys & gals, newbie here , please be kind as my knowledge is surely lacking and I am basically hear to learn from this great community. I've been using the setup in the title , an Alfa R36 + AWUS036H , plus a 9Dbi Alfa Omnidirectional antenna and it served me good over the last months. Recently we have made some changes with the positioning of the routers and I am experiencing too low signal on my side. I have tested the AWUS036H on itself, couple to the Antenna and the little sucker gets enough signal in this setup to maintain a stable and fast enough connection, but when putting the Alfa R36 into the equation, the signal drops significantly. As I've read over the last few days, this could be/most likely is due to the fact that Tx power is lowered via the Alfa R36, whereas when connecting the AWUS036H I have the option to increase the power myself and get better signal (Alfa R36 doesn't offer this in it's settings). I basically need the R36 or some kind of router because I am not only using the connection for the PC but for (many) other devices in my man cave, phone, tablet(s), TV, etc. So my question to you experts is, what should I get : a) a better antenna, do you think that might help? I was thinking something like this antenna to boost the incoming signal? (although not sure if going with a panel type over the stick - omni-directional type might be a good idea?); b) a different AP than the R36? something that will maybe allow me to control and thus increase the Tx power of the AWUS036H? If yes, which one would you recommend, is there something suitable? c) forego the whole Alfa setup altogether , for something better? Again, is there such a thing? Budget-wise, Ideally I would not want to spend north of $250 Looking forward to your replies and suggestions Larry N. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawrence38 Posted December 3, 2015 Author Share Posted December 3, 2015 Sorry, seems I cannot edit original post, I wanted to add/ask in particular about this: NextG USB-Yagi Plug & Play 11N Long Range WiFi antenna 2200mW , does anyone have experience and will this still work in connection with the Alfa R36? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawrence38 Posted December 6, 2015 Author Share Posted December 6, 2015 bump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooper Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 a) Panel: Directional. Stick: Omni-directional. If you can aim at your target, directional is always going to win. The one you picked is an outdoor one, resulting in a price above that of a new card, which is just silly. At the very least buy an indoor version which should already save you a pretty penny. Why not make your own, like ?b) I would say no, because setting it higher is probably illegal in your area. Not to the tune of someone knocking on your door to throw you in jail or anything, but rules will always apply and your best bet is to try and abide by them whenever possible. Transmitting at a higher power can result in you producing significant interference on other people's devices which is just rude. c) Alfa is a brand, plain and simple. They have good cards, sure, but picking the right antenna matters more than picking a brand antenna. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WPA3 Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Hi guys & gals, newbie here , please be kind as my knowledge is surely lacking and I am basically hear to learn from this great community. I've been using the setup in the title , an Alfa R36 + AWUS036H , plus a 9Dbi Alfa Omnidirectional antenna and it served me good over the last months. Recently we have made some changes with the positioning of the routers and I am experiencing too low signal on my side. I have tested the AWUS036H on itself, couple to the Antenna and the little sucker gets enough signal in this setup to maintain a stable and fast enough connection, but when putting the Alfa R36 into the equation, the signal drops significantly. As I've read over the last few days, this could be/most likely is due to the fact that Tx power is lowered via the Alfa R36, whereas when connecting the AWUS036H I have the option to increase the power myself and get better signal (Alfa R36 doesn't offer this in it's settings). I basically need the R36 or some kind of router because I am not only using the connection for the PC but for (many) other devices in my man cave, phone, tablet(s), TV, etc. So my question to you experts is, what should I get : a) a better antenna, do you think that might help? I was thinking something like this antenna to boost the incoming signal? (although not sure if going with a panel type over the stick - omni-directional type might be a good idea?); b) a different AP than the R36? something that will maybe allow me to control and thus increase the Tx power of the AWUS036H? If yes, which one would you recommend, is there something suitable? c) forego the whole Alfa setup altogether , for something better? Again, is there such a thing? Budget-wise, Ideally I would not want to spend north of $250 Looking forward to your replies and suggestions Larry N. My AWUS036H has stopped working with my r36 no idea why it's stuck on 1mb connection no matter how close the connecting router is, so i have gave up with it my self. My setup was r36 and http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WiFi-Antenna-8dBi-Fiberglass-ALFA-G-Super-Long-Range-Booster-GET-FREE-INTERNET-/131085268401?hash=item1e854a75b1:g:jUMAAOxy4dNSxvRV Had some great range, i have been meaning to test it with my AWUS036NH but just aint had the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawrence38 Posted December 8, 2015 Author Share Posted December 8, 2015 a) Panel: Directional. Stick: Omni-directional. If you can aim at your target, directional is always going to win. The one you picked is an outdoor one, resulting in a price above that of a new card, which is just silly. At the very least buy an indoor version which should already save you a pretty penny. Why not make your own, like ?b) I would say no, because setting it higher is probably illegal in your area. Not to the tune of someone knocking on your door to throw you in jail or anything, but rules will always apply and your best bet is to try and abide by them whenever possible. Transmitting at a higher power can result in you producing significant interference on other people's devices which is just rude. c) Alfa is a brand, plain and simple. They have good cards, sure, but picking the right antenna matters more than picking a brand antenna. Many thanks for the reply. To be very honest I'm not very handy with building stuff so I'd rather buy& try a ready made one. What do you think of this antenna? http://andrew-mcneil.com/shop/biquad-yagi-2-4ghz/ Thanks for the youtube link by the way, really interesting and very educational, this guy certainly know what he's talking about! My AWUS036H has stopped working with my r36 no idea why it's stuck on 1mb connection no matter how close the connecting router is, so i have gave up with it my self. My setup was r36 and http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WiFi-Antenna-8dBi-Fiberglass-ALFA-G-Super-Long-Range-Booster-GET-FREE-INTERNET-/131085268401?hash=item1e854a75b1:g:jUMAAOxy4dNSxvRV Had some great range, i have been meaning to test it with my AWUS036NH but just aint had the time. Hmm...do you think maybe it could be my AWUS036H that needs replacing then? BTW, have you tried using the setup you have , WITHOUT the R36? In my case, if I connect the computer directly to the AWUS036H+Alfa Antenna, the result is significanly better than when adding the R36 into the equation. But like I said, I need that to be included as well or some other form of repeater to be able to keep all the other gadgets online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooper Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 Simply put, when it comes to antennas Andrew McNeil is my hero. That particular antenna is pretty much guaranteed to kick massive ass, but it also incredibly directional. If your usage scenario fits this (and yours does) you're going to be hard pressed to find anything better, on the market or otherwise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawrence38 Posted December 9, 2015 Author Share Posted December 9, 2015 Simply put, when it comes to antennas Andrew McNeil is my hero. That particular antenna is pretty much guaranteed to kick massive ass, but it also incredibly directional. If your usage scenario fits this (and yours does) you're going to be hard pressed to find anything better, on the market or otherwise. Thanks again. Just ordered the BiQuad Yagi. Anxiously waiting for it, hoping it arrives before Christmas to test it out :) Will surely update regarding the results and comparison to my previous Omni 9Dbi Alfa Antenna. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lawrence38 Posted January 1, 2016 Author Share Posted January 1, 2016 Thanks again. Just ordered the BiQuad Yagi. Anxiously waiting for it, hoping it arrives before Christmas to test it out :) Will surely update regarding the results and comparison to my previous Omni 9Dbi Alfa Antenna. Antenna arrived. On the positive side, there's loads more networks found with it when testing with ViStumbler. On the signal side though, it has not really improved my previous setup, meaning it gets about the same amount of signal as the Alfa Omni piece from the particular network. Didn't have a lot of time with it though and I assume it will take a lot more trial&error before finding the best positioning for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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