Wireless Signal Boosters

WiFi signal booster - 5 MILES!??! is this for real?

Okay, so I live in the boonies, and we can only get dial up. It particularly sucks because the broadband coverage area ends about 5 houses down the road and they just won't extend it here. There are a lot of hotspots in the town nearest me, which is about 3.85 miles away. I have line of sight view of the tops of the buildings there. Anyway, I've been browsing http://www.5milewifi.com/ and they claim that their product can boost both my receiving end and the actual hotspot's signal itself to allow for a 5+ mile radius, which would include my nearby town. So if I placed their antenna on the top of my roof and had line of sight with the town, would this realistically work? IS THIS FOR REAL... ANYONE?

Public Comments

1. I am sorry, I don't think that is going to work. If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.
2. Gets some decent reviews in boat journals. Have no idea if it will work with buildings around. Pretty pricey, about $400.
3. Wow. 400 bucks??? Is it possible? Definitely. Will this product do it? No way to know for sure, but the website does not give many details. I am not sure where you live, but you may want to check out Hutton Communications (http://www.huttononline.com), Double Radius (http://www.doubleradius.com) of Streakwave (http://www.streakwave.com/). They all carry professional products that are tested and proven to go multiple miles. A "Subscriber Unit" or CPE, typically starts at as little as half that. Also, this is not an extender from the looks of it. It is likely a relatively high power wireless adaptor, plus an amplifier, that is why it will need two USB ports, not a USB hub
4. If that is truly 1000 milliwatts (= 1 Watt), it's a bunch of RF juice at 2.4 GHz! Add a 9 dB gain antenna and there's a serious chance that it just might work -- at least in the transmit direction. In the receive direction, you'll benefit from the 9 dB gain antenna, but you may or may not be able to receive the incoming signal, unless the other end of the link has the same amplifier and antenna combination. Signals at 2.4 GHz will be vulnerble to precipitation loss, so a path that works on clear days may not work when it's raining. You'll definitely need a line of sight path, and since 802.11_ is unlicensed, you'll want to stay away from other 802.11_ transmitters. Microwave system designers -- usually working for telcos -- traditionally add system gains and path losses to determine best- and worst- case signal to noise ratios. Transmit power to antenna + transmit antenna gain + receive antenna gain - receive sensitivity - path loss = Fade margin Here's a handy path loss calculator: http://www.terabeam.com/support/calculat... 118 dB path loss is a lot to overcome! You'll need to determine transmission line losses and the sensitivity of the receivers at both ends. (I have no idea what they might be.) Hope that this helps -- it's an interesting project. Don't give up until you've worked out the calculations to see if it's got a prayer of working!