USB wireless internet sticks?

[IndyIan]

I'm out in the sticks and only have dial up available over land lines. We are thinking about getting an internet stick and borrowed a friends to try it out at our place. It worked ok but dropped from 1.7MB/S at the top of our hill, to 0.4 MB/s at our house.
I was thinking a bigger antennae and transmitter would help at our house, since a USB stick has obvious limitations on power and antennae size.
Any other ideas? I was also thinking of putting the stick in the middle of parabolic dish to amplify the signals once I figure out which tower we get the signal from.

 

[brianl703]

What provider is it using?

 

[IndyIan]

Bell Canada, they have 3G coverage here.

 

[eljefino]

How far is it from the top of your hill to your house? You could set up a box with your laptop in it as a proxy then send wifi down or other elaborate schemes.

The dish may not work as well as you think because the distance could cause latency which will slow things down, always handshaking etc. But it's worth a shot.

Also try your attic in case foil backed wall insulation is interfering with the signal. Then you could set up a router there.

 

[IndyIan]

It's around 300ft to a spot with good reception up the hill. My wife thought I was crazy for suggesting the box with a computer but it might be the simplest option. I was reading specs on wireless routers and many don't work below freezing but I guess a small space heater with a thermostat should work for that in the winter.
We don't have foil backed insulation so what were getting now is as good as it gets.
Good point to about the dish, I forgot about mulitpath problems, I'd have to shield the stick from direct reception so it only receives signal off the dish.

 

[eljefino]

300 feet is more or less within cat5 reaching distance, you might even be able to rig power for the laptop through the unused 4 strands, look up "power over ethernet". Can get a 500 foot roll at home depot for ~$50. The laptop screen might not like the cold. Buy a laptop with busted screen on ebay to get around that little hurdle.

Heat would be a little excessive moneywise.

I have a zombie notebook that only serves my magicjack; screen off: 19 watts. You could run a simple gateway program that serves the rest of the house, tell your router your laptop is where to go.

 

[IndyIan]

Any forums or websites you can recommend to research this stuff more? I think I can figure out a system like you outlined with some help.

 

[eljefino]

egads, google searches for gateway laptop bring gateway brand laptops.

I would start by searching for the exact model number of your wireless adaptor and its usability in linux. Even if you don't want linux on that laptop, it shows how open that adaptor is, or if bell crippled the service somehow to detect multiple computers etc.

There are turnkey linux gateway distros that also explain what to do with your wireless router to make everything point through it.

Power over ethernet is another good search term. You only use 4 of 8 strands of regular ethernet wiring. Hopefully the DC losses over that 22 gauge wire aren't bad enough to cripple a laptop.

If you want to get fancy you could consider weather or UV proof ethernet wire too. Or run romex up the hill and use wifi to get the signal back down.

 

[brianl703]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Bell Canada, they have 3G coverage here.


You can get outdoor antennas for the cellular band. I'm not sure how you'd connect it to the internet stick..someone may make an adapter to do it.

What's the model # of the internet stick?

 

[javacontour]

I believe they make routers that will take either a usb stick or even a SIM card. You can put the router outside and run the ethernet cable back to the house.

 

[javacontour]

This one is in England, but I can't believe such devices are unavailable in North America

http://www.trustedreviews.com/networking...TS-Broadband/p1

 

[IndyIan]

Something like that is what I need, I'm going to visit the bell store and see if they have any help for my situation. Now I know what to ask for atleast.

 

[Texan4Life]

I use my cell phone hooked up to my computer via usb cable.

I too live in the sticks, but get 3G service. the area for new 4G service from Clear is about 5 miles away (dang). But I'm happy with 3G. light years ahead of dialup.

Still have dialup as a backup or if I need my phone. lol. I dont use the internet unless I can go 3G.

The make booster antennas for cell service. even a wireless house booster the boots all cell devices in the home.

Be careful because most "unlimited" data services are actually limited to like 2 or 5GB a month. read the fine print.

Also alot of the terms of service forbid the use of their service as a "primary source of internet" So I would stay low key about talking to you service provider unless you trust them

 

[Texan4Life]

http://www.alternativewireless.com/cellular-antennas/

to give you a few ideas of whats available.

 

[unDummy]

Good reading here:
http://www.evdoinfo.com/content/category/3/88/40/
http://3gstore.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=138

Most antennas can be found on ebay or other online discounter/electronics store.