Wifi/Internet on the road

[Eric Graham]

Additionally, they aren't giving free cards. However, for a limited time, there is no activation fee.[/b]

Sorry my bad heard the Sprint commercial wrong makes better since now. BTW anybody who has bought the card/attena combo from ebay whats the speed rating for the attena mount?

 

[Jay Cazel]

Sorry my bad heard the Sprint commercial wrong makes better since now. BTW anybody who has bought the card/attena combo from ebay whats the speed rating for the attena mount?
[/b]

Well if you mean how fast can you drive with out it falling off?
I have done over 80mph with it on and have had no problems, now I have not been hit by any high winds yet but that little magnet is farily strong and it is not real tall so I don't really see a promblem of it coming off.

 

[Bob Schafer]

I can attest that my external antenna stayed in place in 150mph winds. I was driving 60mph with a 90mph headwind, your honor....

 

[Tony Cook]

Something else that will help is to get an external wireless card.
Even though my laptop has built in wireless, when I am chasing I only use the external Orinoco Gold Combo PCMCIA card with an external 7dBi antenna magnet mounted on the roof. I can pick up WIFI where you wouldn't think WIFI existed...
[/b]

Bill,

Can you estimate how much better your range is with the external antenna/card setup, versus a card with no antenna capability. I am trying to decide if it is worth the $$ to replace my linksys card with the Orinoco.

I am more or less stuck with Verizon's Quick2Net service for another year. It is cheap ($5/month), but has also not performed that well in practice. At any rate, the Cingular and Sprint options aren't really there for me right now, and I'd like to improve my WIFI capability.

Thanks,
TonyC

 

[David Drummond]

I tell you guys, when my Orinoco card stopped working, I grabbed a "replacement" at Best Buy on the road. It's a DLINK DWL-G210 802.11g. It's actually a USB card that has a long USB cable with a flip up square antenna. I have used this sitting still by just setting it up on the roof or by folding it over the window and gentle rolling the window up on it. Still gets better range than the build in WIFI. Anytime you can get get that signal up and out of the vehicle, which attenuates radio waves bad, your going to get a really good effective increase on your range.

Since I got the Sprint card though I rarely use it. Usually in the motels my internal card gets the job done and on the road if I don't have Sprint coverage I still have WXWORX. It's nice to have for a backup though.

 

[Bill Hamilton]

Bill,

Can you estimate how much better your range is with the external antenna/card setup, versus a card with no antenna capability. I am trying to decide if it is worth the $$ to replace my linksys card with the Orinoco.

I am more or less stuck with Verizon's Quick2Net service for another year. It is cheap ($5/month), but has also not performed that well in practice. At any rate, the Cingular and Sprint options aren't really there for me right now, and I'd like to improve my WIFI capability.

Thanks,
TonyC
[/b]

I have connected to a fellow members wifi over a mile away and driving down I-44 without no problem.
While on a chase earlier this year I was able to see SEVERAL more wifi access points than another chaser I was with. His only had the built in card and antenna.
Like David had stated, anytime you can get the antenna outside the vehicle the signals pick up much easier.
I wouldn't take for my setup, I am quite happy with it.
Unless you are going for a Sprint or Cingular data package you can't beat it for the price and no monthly charge.
You won't always have a connection but I usually grab data when I go through just about any town.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I bought an Orinoco card and external antenna last year and was very disappointed with the results.

The Linksys USB adapter with the flip-up antenna gets better reception than anything I have seen. Some of the laptops with built-in antennas also seem to do a lot better than external adapters.

 

[Evan Stubbart]

I finally got everything all set up on my car. I got the Proxim card and antenna that Bill recommended. I've been testing it out with my job, and it works great! I pick up signals almost anywhere... Obviously I'm a beginner chaser, so I'm easily satisfied- but this works great. Thanks again Bill!

 

[Bill Tabor]

David, check out the link http://linksysco.com/box.php! If you want to flash your own, you apparently can for free. It's all software, not counting the WRT54G box itself.
I had read some time ago that the early version of the unit (the one Monica and I use for our wireless home net) had a PROM-based Linux OS that you could reconfigure from the shell to boost the power, etc., etc. In later versions Linksys locked the kernel so you couldn't mess with it that way.
[/b]

Nice find guys! Anyone find any good prices on the correct version of this router in stock so we can program? Looks like it isn't that hard.

 

[Bill Tabor]

I'm seeing some of the routers going on Ebay (version 1.0) for $15. Tough not to get one and give it a try.