Friday, January 11, 2013

Adding WIFI to the Arcade Cabinet in the Shed

I had been using my FRITZ!Box USB N stick in the shed connected to my arcade cabinet had a relatively weak connection to my router in the front of the house. Copying files to and from the machine was pretty slow 1-2MB/s and occasionally I would lose connection and would not be able to use the network when the shed door was closed.

To solve this I ordered from Amazon (via MyUS.com) a reasonably powerful Alfa 2000mW USB Wifi adapter ($39 USD) built into outdoor housing. To attached it to the shed I used the included screw rings to attach it to the gutter.

I then drilled a 10mm hole into the shed and fed through the mini-usb cable to the PC. The other end of the cable is 2 standard USB plugs (one of extra power) which are connected into the back of the computer.

Close up of  mounted Alfa Network WIFI endpoint

Antenna mounted to shed opposite cabinet
The connection in Windows now shows full bars and fluctuates between 130-150Mbit and copying some test files from my NAS transfer at a reasonable 6-9 MB/second. Problem solved :)
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownJanuary 26, 2013 at 4:58 PM

    That's a nice adapter, could come in handy to replace the power-line ethernet link to my own shed!

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    Replies
    1. UnknownJanuary 26, 2013 at 5:29 PM

      I'm trying to hold out on more wireless equipment/new internet routers until the new standards come out - pretty sure they're in draft.

      Hopefully the next wifi standard will replace any hankering for wiring up my place which would be a nightmare :)

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