OK, a friend just got back from the Bahamas, says all the marinas there and on the E Coast are going wifi, mostly for free (no password, or easy to find out password). However, he says all the sailors are putting antennas on their boats, as they receive a wifi signal that is too weak to work with while at anchor. So I tried to find an antenna that will work with my iMac G5 or my iBook G4 but the good antennas connect to cards, and I don't think either mac has the proper slot. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good exterior wifi antenna for a mac?
Also, I have installed an SSB for SailMail, known as snailmail because it is so slow, have been advised to get a PC-simulator program to run the sailmail software. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? And if I run a windows simulator to do sailmail with, does that help the antenna issue? Thanks. Kathy[color:darkblue][/color]
kathill Wrote:OK, a friend just got back from the Bahamas, says all the marinas there and on the E Coast are going wifi, mostly for free (no password, or easy to find out password). However, he says all the sailors are putting antennas on their boats, as they receive a wifi signal that is too weak to work with while at anchor. So I tried to find an antenna that will work with my iMac G5 or my iBook G4 but the good antennas connect to cards, and I don't think either mac has the proper slot. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good exterior wifi antenna for a mac?
Also, I have installed an SSB for SailMail, known as snailmail because it is so slow, have been advised to get a PC-simulator program to run the sailmail software. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? And if I run a windows simulator to do sailmail with, does that help the antenna issue? Thanks. Kathy[color:darkblue][/color]
Kathy, the best way to accomplish good Wi-Fi reception with either of your Macs is to install a booster AND an external antenna to replace the one already in your machines as part of the Airport system. Basically what you need to do is purchase an antenna, a booster, an adapter cable for the booster, a cable to connect the antenna to the booster, and then install the adapter cable from the booster to your Airport card. I've attached some links detailing procedure for connecting to your Airport card with your iMac and iBook, these instructions are for a standalone local antenna made by MacWireless. You'll be going from a booster to the Airport card instead from an antenna.
http://www.macwireless.com/downloads/doc...iMacG5.pdf
http://www.macwireless.com/downloads/doc..._iBook.pdf
here is a good source for external antennae and boosters as well as the appropriate adapters
http://sharperconcepts.zoovy.com/
Thank you very much for the advice and the sources, which I will check out promptly!
These folks are very knowledgeble about Mac-specific WiFi and have useful & helpful technical support:
http://www.quickertek.com/
They sell antennas as well as powered transceivers for extra range.
I actually got a phone call to discuss a question I had posted via their standard support email.
I ordered a big WiFi antenna and two connections from Quickertek after getting on the phone with their techs and describing the two Macs on my boat. Thank you for sending me there. No problem connecting my iMac G5 which now has about a 5-mile range and a very fast connection speed. It's great. But the connector they sent for my iBook is for an older model that doesn't have the combined Airport-Bluetooth card - won't work. I can send it back. Meanwhile they have just released wireless versions which might be of interest to others. Not sure if that will work with the new iBook. I sure appreciate everyone's help.[color:indigo][/color] :?
5 MILES! Wow!
May I ask what model you ended up with to get this kind of range?
thx,
paul
We didn't think much of the waterproofing on the Quickertek antenna - this appears to be a strip of friction tape to apply over the coax connector. So we installed the antenna in the wheelhouse on the doorpost (high on the boat, and near windows). In theory we would get greater range if we mounted it up with the other antennas in the rig.
I installed a bridge from Engenius. I had intended to put it on top of the mast, but it works so well in its temporary spot on the stern I decided not to.
it has phenominal range, and connection speeds. It was not easy o configure, however it does have a web interface and works just fine with Macs.
http://www.panbo.com/archives/2007/04/en...ailor.html
kathill Wrote:Also, I have installed an SSB for SailMail, known as snailmail because it is so slow, have been advised to get a PC-simulator program to run the sailmail software. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? And if I run a windows simulator to do sailmail with, does that help the antenna issue? Thanks. Kathy[color:darkblue][/color]
You could use xnetmail.com instead of Sailmail instead of your HF provider. XGate, which is the e-mail compression software that run over xnetmail, runs natively on the mac. This means that you can use your MacMail e-mail program to read your mail over pactor.
here are some links that describe the service and the software
http://www.xnetmail.com
http://www.globalmarinenet.com/email.htm
--luis
