Would really love help with networking. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2016, 02:36:11 am
content: Now before I begin I am ready to accept I fked up and bought something useless to my needs, but I have recently purchased an Edimax AC-1200 Wireless dongle (USB 3) for use as an Access point.Now for some reason, using stuff like Virtual Router Manager (fancy graphic shell for console commands I think) and other similar methods in operating systems like Ubuntu, connectivity is unstable if possible at all. It did work ONCE when I had it on an 802.11 N 2.4 Ghz mode.So what are my intentions? The 2.4 Ghz band is crowded by everybody's wireless anything and with very few stable channels, I want to use a 5.0 Ghz network with my compatible devices, however I am unable to get the dongle to host an infrastructure network stably (AD-HOC is not supported by operating systems like Android). If any suggestions are available I would love some, but I am willing to accept I just bought something that doesn't work well with that.Any specific information can be given at request, more info and such. I would love any help.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 05, 2016, 02:40:50 am
content: Yes, you bought the wrong tool for the job. As you as probably already aware, you could have just picked up a cheap consumer 5GHz router/access point and be done with it.Whilst it's not impossible, it can be a lot of dicking around. You also won't get anywhere near the coverage you would have with a device with some kind of external antenna. As far as I know, you can configurepfSenseto use a wireless NIC to basically act as an access point, however I've personally never tried it.Quote from: TwoOfFive on September 05, 2016, 02:36:11 amAlso, Ad-Hoc networksaresupported by Android and have been for a long time. I use my Android handset to connect directly to a Wi-Fi OBD-II dongle I have plugged into my car. It also works with devices such as printers.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2016, 02:50:24 am
content: 5Ghz routers aren't cheap. The dongle was 20 bucks and has an antenna that swivels out.Either way I have used it as it was originally intended as a wireless antenna, so it's not a total waste.I need to try AD-HOC again, but last I did, it wasn't detected and hasn't been available in earlier versions of Android. I currently run 6 on an NVidia Shield Tab.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2016, 02:56:00 am
content: Alright, well thanks. 5Ghz routers are never cheap going 100 dollars to higher. APs aren't good either.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2016, 03:07:05 am
content: However I have found one for 20 bucks on Ebay.http://www.ebay.com/itm/D-Link-DIR-820L-802-11AC-Wi-Fi-AC1000-Wireless-Dual-Band-Network-Router-/371552908162?hash=item5682477382:g:7AkAAOSwFnFWE~duDoesn't need to be stellar, but it needs to handle about 2-3 devices.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2016, 03:42:56 am
content: Wait for a deal. I got an AC1200 Trendnet for $30 last year. Install DD-WRT on it for best results.Just look for 802.11ac since that requires 5GHz by spec. Find out how many MIMO channels your devices support (more than 2 is not very common) so you'll know how many channels the router should support.