How to expand mu wifi range???

Hi all, need some help from all you wifi experts as I'm trying to reach some OPEN wifi hotspots in a mall a few blocks away from my place. I have a 16dbi 6"x6" pannel antenna and also purchased a 4w signal booster from ebay but the booster only amps what I was already seeing and did not expand my range at all to reach the hotspots. Do I need a bigger antenna or is there something else I can try?
Also, how does the small antenna inside my smartphone reach the cell tower 2 miles away but my 6" wifi pannel antenna can't reach 3 blocks?
Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.

long range cantenna?

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https://jacobsalmela.com/2013/09/07/wi-fi-cantenna-2-4ghz-how-to-make-a-long-range-wi-fi-antenna/

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Your going to need some TX power to reach out that far from your location, a panel antenna is good for receiving but does nothing for transmitting, a yagi antenna with some good gain both ways would work better.

What I have used in the past is an Alpha 2 watt WIFI device, (see link below) connected to a yagi antenna, all this mounted in a water tight box right at the antenna, also used was a USB to CAT 5 adapter with POE.

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https://www.amazon.com/High-Gain-Long-Rang-Alfa-9dBi-Mount/dp/B0038Q4AIG

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Or you can use active USB extension cables to reach the outside mast with the USB alpha inside the WT box.

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Originally Posted by nobodyspecial

long range cantenna?

Code:

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https://jacobsalmela.com/2013/09/07/wi-fi-cantenna-2-4ghz-how-to-make-a-long-range-wi-fi-antenna/

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Cantenna's work OK for RX but do nothing for TX, they do not provide any gain.

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Originally Posted by Mavrick

Hi all, need some help from all you wifi experts as I'm trying to reach some OPEN wifi hotspots in a mall a few blocks away from my place. I have a 16dbi 6"x6" pannel antenna and also purchased a 4w signal booster from ebay but the booster only amps what I was already seeing and did not expand my range at all to reach the hotspots. Do I need a bigger antenna or is there something else I can try?
Also, how does the small antenna inside my smartphone reach the cell tower 2 miles away but my 6" wifi pannel antenna can't reach 3 blocks?
Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.

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It's all about RX antenna gain and amplification at the cell site and TX power back to your phone.

And the small coax (thinner then a pencil) used to connect your WIFI device to the panel antenna is dropping your signal by at least 20 dB or more, the shorter you can make this connection the better, or use better coax.(I'm guessing that your using the coax that came with the WIFI device)

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Originally Posted by Terryl

It's all about RX antenna gain and amplification at the cell site and TX power back to your phone.

And the small coax (thinner then a pencil) used to connect your WIFI device to the panel antenna is dropping your signal by at least 20 dB or more, the shorter you can make this connection the better, or use better coax.(I'm guessing that your using the coax that came with the WIFI device)

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Thanks guys,
Actually the panel antenna had the usb wifi card integrated into the unit so the coax connecting the two was only about 3" long, then it had a 15' usb cable back to my computer. I think the integrated usb wifi card is putting out some power but I'm guessing it's only 1 watt if that as there is no separate power source for the card (just what comes threw the usb cable), that is why I tried the 4-watt signal booster but with no luck. I do have a 23" yagi antenna, it has a 3' coax cable integrated into it, I have tried it in the past with just a regular (un-powered) usb wifi adapter and didn't get much range with it which is why I stayed with the panel antenna, maybe the yagi needs the 2 watt powered card you pointed out to work properly, or maybe a bigger yagi?

So what size of yagi were you using with that Alfa card Terryand what rage did you get with it? If wifi (and cell) range are based on the TX power are there any other wifi cards that you know of that are more powerfull than that 2w Alfa, maybe something 3 or 4 watts of power?

2 watts is the upper limit on unlicensed WIFI, I got about 3 miles on the yagi/Alpha setup.

And this is the one I used, it's compatible with the Alpha unit, they also have extension cables, but I mounted mine outside in a water tight box..

Code:

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http://www.technorv.com/Long_Range_WiFi_Yagi_Antenna_p/wfb-yagi.htm

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You can also use a small TV antenna rotor, this will give you some searching capabilities.

wok lid with tape criss cross across the opening and mount a small antenna strip to the center.
I had a magnetic base antenna and took the guts out to mount.
or a small dtv dish on a tripod and a magnetic base antenna stuck to the lnb arm.
That is the setup in my attic.

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Originally Posted by Terryl

2 watts is the upper limit on unlicensed WIFI, I got about 3 miles on the yagi/Alpha setup.

And this is the one I used, it's compatible with the Alpha unit, they also have extension cables, but I mounted mine outside in a water tight box..

Code:

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http://www.technorv.com/Long_Range_WiFi_Yagi_Antenna_p/wfb-yagi.htm

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You can also use a small TV antenna rotor, this will give you some searching capabilities.

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that's the one I have
worx great

Ihave modified two "C" band dish's for WIFI and got over 15 miles. (top of two hills)

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Originally Posted by zelig

wok lid with tape criss cross across the opening and mount a small antenna strip to the center.
I had a magnetic base antenna and took the guts out to mount.
or a small dtv dish on a tripod and a magnetic base antenna stuck to the lnb arm.
That is the setup in my attic.

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I tried using a 36" dish and replaced where the LNB sits with my 6x6 panel antenna but it didn't work very well, I think you need to point at a tower or something with direct line-of-site for this kind of antenna to work well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Terryl

2 watts is the upper limit on unlicensed WIFI, I got about 3 miles on the yagi/Alpha setup.

And this is the one I used, it's compatible with the Alpha unit, they also have extension cables, but I mounted mine outside in a water tight box..

Code:

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http://www.technorv.com/Long_Range_WiFi_Yagi_Antenna_p/wfb-yagi.htm

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You can also use a small TV antenna rotor, this will give you some searching capabilities.

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Wow, 3 miles, I would love to get that. That Yagi is the exact one I have, like I said I tried it with some (un-powered) usb wifi adapters but it didn't work very well, maybe it needs a powered card like the Alfa. Are you pointing to a tower Terry or just in the general direction of the AP's? I will get the 2-watt Alfa and also use the 4-watt booster and see what that does.

WoW now thats somthing!!

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Originally Posted by Mavrick

Wow, 3 miles, I would love to get that. That Yagi is the exact one I have, like I said I tried it with some (un-powered) usb wifi adapters but it didn't work very well, maybe it needs a powered card like the Alfa. Are you pointing to a tower Terry or just in the general direction of the AP's? I will get the 2-watt Alfa and also use the 4-watt booster and see what that does.

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I had two of these setups pointing at each other, one was a dual antenna type router, the other was a PC with the USB extension cables, they had line of sight, so there was no problems with reception.

You got to remember that WIFI is a two way street, you can put up a very big antenna to receive the signals, but you need to get your signal back to the other end, most of these add on high gain antennas have too much signal loss coming back in from the device in your computer.

Most WIFI devices are only 200 to 600 milli watts at best, and that is right at the output of the device, the thin coax used is very lossey at 2.5 or 5 GHz and anything over 10 feet is a waist of any increase of gain provided by any add on antenna.

This is why I used the Alpha mounted in a water tight box as close to the antenna as possible, you also need to have direct line of sight for the best reception, stuff like buildings, trees and TV antennas in the way will knock the signals down to nothing.

This is why it's best to mount it as high as you can.

The setups I used had CAT5/6 USB to LAN interfaces, also POE for running the Alpha in the WT box, this way the loss was kept to a minimum, one setup I even used a DC powered two port USB hub, this was powered at the WT box, this way the USB Alpha interface had plenty of juice to run at the maximum power, this way I didn't need the POE injector in the setup.