MetroFi-Free wireless internet - Best wireless booster?

The good news:

Much of the San Francisco Bay Area has free wireless broadband internet access. It kinda makes you want to live here, huh?

The bad news:

This service is provided by 800 access points sprinkled around the area mostly on streetlight poles (as far as I have noticed). If you are more than about 100 feet from one your little built in laptop wireless adapter is not likely to to cut it.

This is a slightly hard situation to get a handle on, 99.9% of the wireless solutions seem to be people with dsl, or cable wanting to use a wireless modem to broadcast to other computers in their own house.

In this scenario, there is no control over the signal being providing the internet connection. What is needed is an external wireless adapter that can establish and maintain a link from a weak signal originating hundreds of feet away.

I am currently using a small usb dish adapter. the dish sits on top of my computer hutch and is pointed in the direction that the signal comes from. It is a tiny little thing and draws its power from the usb connection itself.

I want something that connects via CAT-5 (ethernet) cable, and can be used in conjunction with my wired router. The other features of my dream wireless adapter/booster would be an a/c adapter to power it, and a connection for an external antenna that could be mounted on my roof.

I get confused looking at these products because they mostly don't seemed geared to work this way. Does anyone know of products that can do this?


-HandsOff

 

Take a look here:

http://wifi-plus.com/antennas/24ghzantennasspecs.html

...screamer

 

thanks screamer - That is a really good site!

I've been looking...I downloaded a lot of spec sheets for the various antennas, and looked at the prices at one of their distributors, HD Communications in NY. The prices really don't seem too bad.

The wireless adapter - the part that attaches to the computer is a bit more complicated. Some claim ranges that seem a little hard to believe from a indoor unit with a couple of little antennas attached. But it would be great if they could deliver. Just the same, I'd like to have the option of attaching an external antenna.


-HandsOff