External Antenna

[smackenzie]

I have a customer who lives in a non-broadband-enabled village not far from Maidenhead in Berkshire. After a disastrous 6 months trying to live with the 3 Network's mobile BB offering, he is currently (on my recommendation) trying out Vodafone's mobile BB dongle - with similar dismal results.

My research so far tells me that an external antenna may well make all the difference (according to Vodafone's very detailed coverage map, his house appears to be right on the edge of 3G coverage. It's an old Victorian house; using a USB extension cable to get to the window appears only to have a marginal effect on performance.

Does Vodafone support the use of external antennae? Does anyone have any recommendations for such devices (make/model etc)? Is the best solution to put one on the roof? Any information, comments etc will be most welcome.

[matvat2]

I have a customer who lives in a non-broadband-enabled village not far from Maidenhead in Berkshire. After a disastrous 6 months trying to live with the 3 Network's mobile BB offering, he is currently (on my recommendation) trying out Vodafone's mobile BB dongle - with similar dismal results.

My research so far tells me that an external antenna may well make all the difference (according to Vodafone's very detailed coverage map, his house appears to be right on the edge of 3G coverage. It's an old Victorian house; using a USB extension cable to get to the window appears only to have a marginal effect on performance.

Does Vodafone support the use of external antennae? Does anyone have any recommendations for such devices (make/model etc)? Is the best solution to put one on the roof? Any information, comments etc will be most welcome.

Some of the Huawei dongles have an antenna jack on the hardware (e.g. Huawei K3715), but no access hole is provided in the case! See http://www.telefon-treff.de/showthread.php...threadid=376882 . The text for the image is in German, but there is a button there somewhere for the English version. Opening the case and opening an access hole will of course void the dongle's warranty. Here you will find an antenna that "connects" to the dongle through a wrap-around connector. http://www.siptune.com/siptune.com/index.p...amp;cPath=38_40. There is also an antenna here for connecting via the hidden jack.

If the computer is not far from a window, preferably one in the direction of the nearest Vodafone antenna, a USB extension might help get the dongle in a place with a stronger signal. I myself, however, have had problems with USB extension cables and the K3715, though others I've tried have worked.

To connect to a serious outdoor antenna I think would require something other than a stick modem, but I'm not absolutely sure of this.

Good luck.

[Ben_H]

Hi smackenzie,

A very warm welcome to the eForum family! It sounds like your friend really is out of the way here...

There are indeed some dongles that support the external booster antennae - the one we used to range is the E220 but this has since been discontinued. If your friend is lucky they could buy one second hand but they won't be as fast as some of the modern ones. Then you have to look at the extra cost of installing the antenna, which won't be easy to do espcially if the house is Victorian as you mentioned as you sometimes need permisison from the local authority to erect one.

The quickest, most cost effective and guarenteed method would have been the Vodafone Sure Signal but a fixed broadband connection is needed in the first place to make these possible for the guarenteed 3G coverage. Let me know if he is able to score a modem with the antenna capabilities!

If anyone else wishes to check their coverage too, try our Maps for a better idea before you buy

Cheers, Ben

eForum Team