Re: [gentoo-user] Re: [wildly OT]advice for a wireless antenna?

[Grant]

>  >>>> I'm talking about the USB wireless adapter (I don't think I can
>  >>>> connect the antenna to my laptop directly),
>  >>>> not the passphrase key...
>  >>>
>  >>> Ah. I've got a Hawking HWUG1 USB WiFi adapter that works fine
>  >>> with Gentoo (I had to download driver source from somewhere).
>  >>> It's got an R-SMA connector for use with external antennas.
>  >>
>  >> I've had good luck using these together:
>  >>
>  >> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833164015
>  >
>  > Yup, that's the one I have.  That's a good price on it, too.
>  >
>  >> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833164110
>  >
>  > I've also got one of those antennas and it's exellent.  It
>  > provides a little (1-2dB) more gain as my double-biquad
>  > reflector, but it's a lot cheaper (assuming your time is worth
>  > much), and a bit easier to use, since it will sit nicely on a
>  > table or windowsill.
>
>  Seems a nice combo, indeed.
>  A curiosity: by itself, the Hawking USB adapter has more or less
>  sensitivity than the simple Airport glued to my Macbook motherboard?

I think it depends a lot on the maturity of the drivers.  As I said,
my Netgear PCI card uses the madwifi drivers and vastly outperforms
the Hawking adapter.  The Hawking's drivers are fairly new (rt2x00)
and madwifi has been around for quite a while now.

I do have another rt2x00 adapter that performs noticeably worse than
the Hawking.  It's a Linksys and it has no external antenna.

Also worth noting is that this item:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833315075

uses rt2x00 but has some type of failure issue.  Possibly heat
related, possibly not.  I've experienced it firsthand.

- Grant
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