[Village Taphouse]

Gang:  I had an old Linksys originally (the blue jobbie with the 2 antennas) and then moved to a Cisco/Linksys model that started to go on the fritz and the coverage was not that impressive.  With a wife and 3 kids who want wifi everywhere, I upgraded to a Netgear Nighthawk dual band router.  This is a $200 router where my old one was probably a $50 or $60 toy.  I set this thing up today and dead spots in the basement are gone.  I have signal way out in the backyard.  Has anyone played with a Nighthawk yet?  I would love to know if anyone knows any do's or dont's as far as placement, etc.  We have 5 phones connecting to this thing along with 3 laptops, an iPad, a smart TV and an Xbox 1. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBZkkZWcDVo 

[denny]

Haven't tried that one, but it sounds like I should!  I bought a new router a cple months ago to see if it would hit my detached garage where I brew.  Since I have the Zymatic out there, I have to have internet.  Router wouldn't do it, so I have to use TWO range extenders to get out there.  It works, but it's very slow.  Sounds like a Nighthawk might be the solution.

[Village Taphouse]

Almost every review I have read has been uber-positive and a number of gadget sites have declared it the best router available right now.  The setup was easy and there is a dashboard app that comes with it so you can monitor things, change passwords, check on traffic, etc.  Denny, I know you love that Zymatic and while I have no idea what it does with its web connection, I know you would probably love it more if the connection was quicker.  I used to have this dead zone in my basement bar where people might hang out, check scores on their phone, etc.  That spot went from "dead" to full wifi signal with the Nighthawk.  Cheers my friend.

[denny]

Thank ya for the info sir!  I think I'm gonna have to look into that seriously.  As long as my wofe doesn't figure out that I bought ANOTHER router!

[Stevie]

Denny, what you may need is a directional antenna. You could add a router in the garage that would act as a bridge/extender. The key here would be it must be capable of accepting an external antenna. The directional antenna has a more concentrated radio beam that you would point towards your home router. Standard router antennas are omni directional sending out radio waves in nearly every direction.

For very far distances, a yagi antenna may be the ticket. They look like Pringles  cans and have a very concentrated beam. You may have seen yagi antennas in use at sporting events by mobile camera crews and in rural areas where long distance wifi based broadband services are offered.

[Village Taphouse]

Agreed on the antennas.  This Nighthawk has three adjustable antennas and at some point I will probably find myself getting a lower signal (like when I want to sit in the backyard and stream XM Radio through my phone to a Bluetooth speaker or something... there is a table out there that is probably 100' from the router) and if the signal is sketchy, I would probably start playing with the positioning of the antennas to see if it would work.  Steve's suggestion sounds great if you just want to home in on your garage where the Zymatic is located. 

[S. cerevisiae]

Denny, do you know if the PicoBrew uses embedded Linux? 

[denny]

Denny, do you know if the PicoBrew uses embedded Linux?

I do not know anything but that it uses an Arduino.

[S. cerevisiae]

I do not know anything but that it uses an Arduino.

If the device uses an Arduino for embedded control, then it has to have second processor to support the Internet Protocol Stack.  The PicoBrew more than likely has the same configuration as the Arduino Yun.   The Ardunio Yun has an Atheros AR9331 in addition to the Atmel AVR microcontroller that is used on a Plain Jane Arduino.   The Atheros AR9331 is a WiFi computer system on a chip (SoC).  The Ardunio Yun configuration runs a stripped down version of Linux on the AR9331.  If that is so, you should be able to open a Telnet or SSH connection to the machine and look around.  It would be nice to know if that is true because you can configure the machine to use an external USB-connected WiFi adapter with a 9dBi omni-directional antenna or a directional antenna with a much higher dBi rating.  Antenna gain is more important than radio frequency (RF) linear power amplifier rating (FCC Part 15 rules limit RF output power for unlicensed devices to 1W on the 2.4Ghz ISM band).   The rating dBi is decibels with respect to an isotropic radiator, which is a theoretical reference antenna.  A increase of 3dBi in antenna gain is the equivalent of doubling the output of the RF linear power amplifier. 

[Village Taphouse]

When I read Mark's posts, I realize what a simpleton I truly am.  I will start posting like this now:  Me like beer.  Me have new shiny wireless thing.  Me like sports.  Me eat pizza.  That sort of thing. 

[denny]

When I read Mark's posts, I realize what a simpleton I truly am.  I will start posting like this now:  Me like beer.  Me have new shiny wireless thing.  Me like sports.  Me eat pizza.  That sort of thing. 

You're not the only one!

[HoosierBrew]

When I read Mark's posts, I realize what a simpleton I truly am.  I will start posting like this now:  Me like beer.  Me have new shiny wireless thing.  Me like sports.  Me eat pizza.  That sort of thing. 

You're not the only one!

Funny stuff !

[S. cerevisiae]

Runs and ducks for cover... 

Seriously though, what I said is not as technical as it reads.  Telnet and SSH are terminal protocols that are used to connect to Unix and Unix-like operating systems (they are also the names of commands on Unix and Unix-like systems that implement the protocols).  Protocols are sets of rules that are used to manage a communication dialog between two computers (e.g., HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol and HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure).  Linux is a Unix-like operating that was started by Linus Torvalds.   There are many different incarnations of Linux (known as distros).  There are also many different flavors of Unix.  For example, Mac OS X is version of BSD Unix in disguise, and so is iOS.  Android and Chrome OS are versions of Linux in disguise.  A USB-based WiFi adapter is just a device that plugs into a USB port that allows a computer to connect to a WiFi network.  However, one cannot just go out and purchase just about any old USB-based WiFi adapter.  The operating system software has to have driver support available for the adapter.  That's where being able to connect to the PicoBew with Telnet or SSH comes into play.  We can verify what device drivers are currently installed as well as determine what driver support is available on the Internet.  We also want to purchase an adapter that has a screw-on antenna such as the Alfa AWUS036H or the Alfa AWUS036NEH, so that we can install a more powerful omnidirectional antenna (broadcasts in all directions) or an even more powerful directional antenna (broadcasts in a directional beam).  If the PicoBrew has an external WiFi antenna, then all we have to do is replace it with a better one.

[erockrph]

I just upgraded to a Netgear R6400 (AC1750), which I think is a small step down from the Nighthawk, and I love it. My dead spots and connection issues have virtually disappeared in my house. And streaming video is insanely fast. Previously, it would take a while for movies to buffer on Amazon video or VUDU on my smart TV, and it would be a few minutes before you were caught up and watching in HD. Now 1080P HD starts almost instantly.

Also gone are the connection issues as more and more devices connect to the WiFi. Having a dual channel router is a nice plus in that aspect as well.

The router app (Netgear Genie) has some nice features, too. I especially like the network map, where I can see which devices are currently connected and name them. I also get a popup on my PC whenever a new device connects.

[denny]

Yeah, I really like the Genie app, too.