[rubydog]

Hello,

I live near a neighborhood hot spot. My intel imac sometimes gets a 2 or 3 bar signal, but usually it's 0 or 1. Is there a good receiver antenna I can mount outside my window and have it retransmit the signal to the inside of my house? Would I need to hard wire it to my imac?

Thanks, Steve

[rjt1000]

Hi,

Two companies that have a range of wireless products for the Mac are:

http://www.macwireless.com
http://www.quickertek.com

Both stock antennas, but I didnt see one designed specifically for the new intel iMacs. You might want to contact them to see if they can recommend a solution that will work. (I imagine if you can get to the iMacs airport card and have the right connector you should be able to connect an antenna)

Quikertek makes a number of transceivers (that receive and then retransmit the signal). Again none is designed for the Intel iMac, so you should contact them to see if one might work. One thing you should understand, though, is that transceivers reduce your data thoroughput by half, since each frame has to be received and then transmitted. That would be important if you are doing data intensive uploads/ downloads.

An easier solution may be to use a USB wireless adapter that incorporates a USB cable and a directional antenna.

I have used one by Hawking Tech and posted my experience with it in another thread. (you should find out from them if they have a driver for the intel iMac).

http://forums.macnn.com/92/networking/295013/improving-wireless-performance-12-inch-aluminum/

Good luck,

rjt1000

[rubydog]

rjt1000,

Good info, thanks. I especially didn't know about transceivers losing signal speed. MacWireless has some good looking antennas but I'm queasy about drilling a hole in the case. And that's a great Hawking review and follow up you provided the link to. That's where I'll look closest. Not sure what I'll do, but I'll let you know when I do it.

Steve

[Love Calm Quiet]

FWIW, I have been so disappointed in quickertech products durability & performance (esp. for their pricing) that I would never touch again.

I was amazed at how much better reception a friend got on his PB just using a wireless Card (and selling his internal to pay for it).

my 2¢

[rubydog]

On the MacWireless installation instructions they warn that leaves and trees will partially or entirely block the signal. Has anyone found this to be true with their antennas? Is this typical with all external antennas? With airport?

Must be why my reception got worse over the last few months as the trees grew leaves.

Thanks, Steve