Blue said:
Too expensive.
However, I stumbled across another site where this guy, Red Scorpion,
had the idea of using one of the unassigned pins in his VGA port as the
electical contact for his antenna. This would avoid having to drill
any holes in the laptop. The only downside is not being able to use an
external monitor when using an external antenna ... but how often does
that happen.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=1660246
He, also, goes on to add a power supply for an amplifier from the USB
power. I think I'm going to avoid that part.
Buddy, I think you just gave me the information I needed to destroy ...
I mean ... modify my laptop.
Thanks!!
Things to remember:
1) The Wifi consists of a RF transmitter and receiver. The transmitter
expects to work into a fixed impedance cable and antenna. The
antenna assembly has to "match" the way the Wifi card was designed.
That maximizes the energy transfer from the transmitter, into the
antenna. While the commercial antenna assemblies you've been looking at,
might seem to be randomly designed, they are actually carefully
designed by radio/microwave engineers, using simulation tools
and careful laboratory verification. Just dangling a wire off the
card, is not the same thing. This is not AM radio at 1MHz, it is
microwave radio at 2.4Ghz.
2) Maintain coaxial wiring at all times. As soon as you go through a
pin on the VGA connector, you've violated the coax rule. The VGA
pin becomes a radiator, the impedance is unknown, and you could
have changed the standing wave ratio to the transmitter. At 2.4GHz,
as soon as you strip the coax and expose the wire, the controlled
impedance environment is ruined. In a lab, you can verify what you
are doing, with things like TDR, or with a network analyser set up
to measure return loss etc. At home, you haven't a clue (I'm not an
RF engineer, but I've worked with some.)
Virtually any kludge installed by a home user, could be violating
the design of the Wifi in some way. If you buy an antenna, with the
right connectors to plug to the mini PCI, then that is still following
the rules. But making up your own wiring assembly, is venturing into
the complete unknown. Maybe it only works 50% of the time. Maybe it
doesn't work at all.
I actually read one article, where it was suggested the problem was
too much signal strength. It is possible to have things like multipath
problems, when the wireless router and laptop are close to one another.
This was a test conducted by a testing laboratory, where they found
installing an RF absorptive mat, in their test environment, actually
increased thruput while testing. Not all wireless problems are
caused by too little signal strength. Some problems are actually due
to reflections from interior surfaces.
Some Wifi problems can be caused by microwave ovens, or portable
2.4GHz phones. Remember that the 2.4GHz range, has become the
"CB radio frequency" of the current day.
A PCMCIA card, gives you the opportunity to attach an external
antenna, if the card is equipped with an SMA for that purpose.
You don't need to build any microwave kludges by doing so.
If you use a properly engineered solution, it means you'll get
performance you can depend on. (Meaning, you don't have to twist
about in your chair, to get a good signal for the Wifi.)
And a PCMCIA card does not have to be expensive. There is one
here for $29.99. (In fact, this one is virtually free, after
rebate.) Have a look around. Buying something like this beats
the hell out of trying to solder coax to your VGA connector.
ASUS WL-100gE BroadRange High Speed Mode Cardbus - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16839112009
Paul
... see