External antenna for HP Notebook?

I am new to wireless and want to know if there is an antenna that will
work for my hp notebook that has built-in wireless? Or do I need another
wireless card? I was told a signal seeker will work? Thanks.

--
..

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
>I am new to wireless and want to know if there is an antenna that will
>work for my hp notebook that has built-in wireless? Or do I need another
>wireless card? I was told a signal seeker will work? Thanks.

The HP laptops (and I don't know about notebooks, so maybe it is
the same) were not designed to have an external antenna
connection; however, there is actually access to the connector
through a lid on the bottom. It certainly was not intended for
connection to an external antenna and I would not particularly
recommend trying it, but it could be done.

PCMCIA wireless cards that have connectors for an external
antenna are hard to find. I don't know if any currently
manufactured models have a connector.

Hence for many such situations a USB connected wireless is the
only reasonable approach. I don't know if and have antenna
connectors, but there are at least two other possible ways to
use a USB wifi.

Several models come mounted as an integral part of an antenna,
which in may be a high gain directional antenna or omni
directional antenna. The advantage of course is you can locate
them at the end of at least a 15 foot length of USB cable, which
is "lossless" (as compared to placing an external antenna that
far away, which would be nearly a total loss...). In fact I'd
expect almost any of them to work at the end of a pair of tandem
connected USB cables, 30 feet or so long, even though that
exceeds the USB specs.

A second method with USB is very popular too. Buy one with a
very small builtin antenna, and use that to feed a reflector.
The reflector can be a waveguide antenna like the popular
"cantenna", or something like a parabolic reflector. Other
configurations are possible, so let your imagination loose.

--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) (E-Mail Removed)

Floyd L. Davidson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Hence for many such situations a USB connected wireless is the
> only reasonable approach. I don't know if and have antenna
> connectors, but there are at least two other possible ways to
> use a USB wifi.

http://www.nodomainname.co.uk/cantenna/cantenna.htm has some USB adapters
with the antenna removed, or with the antenna used as the radiator in a
cantenna setup, and one parabola reflector.

> A second method with USB is very popular too. Buy one with a
> very small builtin antenna, and use that to feed a reflector.
> The reflector can be a waveguide antenna like the popular
> "cantenna", or something like a parabolic reflector. Other
> configurations are possible, so let your imagination loose.

The mini-USB dongle adapter can be used directly on a reflector or in a
cantenna setup.
http://www.rahul.net/dold/clarence/u...42-800x600.jpg
http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/

The mini-USB is $9.99 at CompUSA, so it's cheaper than a commercial
antenna, and probably cheaper than the connectors for building your own.

--
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Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8,-122.5

On 01 Jun 2005 00:33:14 GMT, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>I am new to wireless and want to know if there is an antenna that will
>work for my hp notebook that has built-in wireless? Or do I need another
>wireless card? I was told a signal seeker will work? Thanks.

Which model HP laptop/notebook and which wireless card?

Most HP Laptops use MiniPCI cards for their wireless. The RF
connector is a Hirose u-FL connector. Most cards have two antenna
connectors for diversity reception. What I did was sneak a pigtail in
through the cooling vents, near the MiniPCI card, and attach it to the
2nd antenna connector. The other end went to a do-it-myself antenna
that was attached with double sided tape to the back the display
(Hint: use the LCD metal back as a reflector). I did have to drill a
small hole in a plastic wall to pass the coax. A big problem was that
the coax needed to go around the hinge and therefore tended to dangle
in a open loop that gets caught on literally everything. I taped it
down to the case, but that really looks ugly. If I had to do it
again, I would have drilled the LCD lid, and run the coax through the
hinge. However, that was way too much work, and the custome didn't
want me drilling his laptop case.

Finding a u-FL pigtail was a problem. I had a few laying around, but
they were only about 6" long. Barely long enough for this one job,
but not really useful for sneaking through the LCD lid. At this time,
I do not have a reliable source of u-FL pigtails. See:
http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/PigTail
for some hints. Note that the u-FL connector is VERY fragile, will
not survive more than a few insertions, and cannot easily be hand
assembled.

There was also a web site offering a kit to mount an SMA connector on
the back of a laptop. That might not be a bad idea as the external
antenna could then be removed. I couldn't find the site.

Omni laptop mount (but lacking a u-FL connector):

http://www.radiolabs.com/products/an...op-antenna.php

My suggestion would be to get a USB or PCMCIA card, with an external
antenna connector, and leave the internal card alone.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
8><............................................... .
> I do not have a reliable source of u-FL pigtails. See:
> http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/PigTail
> for some hints. Note that the u-FL connector is VERY fragile, will
> not survive more than a few insertions, and cannot easily be hand
> assembled.
>
> There was also a web site offering a kit to mount an SMA connector on
> the back of a laptop. That might not be a bad idea as the external
> antenna could then be removed. I couldn't find the site.
>
> Omni laptop mount (but lacking a u-FL connector):
>
> http://www.radiolabs.com/products/an...op-antenna.php
>
> My suggestion would be to get a USB or PCMCIA card, with an external
> antenna connector, and leave the internal card alone.
>
>
The "Netgate" link on the "Seattle" site is invalid but they still do
kits,according to their web-site :-
http://www.netgate.com/product_info....roducts_id=189

Check out:

SMC Elite Connect 2.4GHz, 11Mbps Wireless card.

model SMC2532W-B
this model has a removeable external antenna with connectors.