For the original setup see here and here
Well, my original antenna that I mentioned buying in those posts blew off in the storm I sailed through the other week. Honestly, it was TERRIBLE and I was getting pretty awful performance out of it, and was not very surprised when it turned out to have terrible construction quality. I shed no tears as it was lost to the sea.
I bought a new one last week, a TRENDnet TEW-AO08O
This one was only 8dbi, while the old one was 14dbi (I think). I orignally was all MORE dbi BETTER THAN while failing to take into account that the higher up in power you go, the narrower the beam. Which leads to worse connections if you are not on the exact same level, despite being an ‘omni-direction’ antenna.
Anyway I installed it, it’s a LOT smaller than the other one which is nice (2 foot or so compared to 5)
And… it’s a TON better. I’m not sure if it’s because the build quality is better, or just the 8dbi has a bigger spread and is better at connecting but either way – I’m happy. And have internet again!
In other new, we had 20 hours of heavy rain, and 2 of my new portholes leaked :(. I think i figured out why though (I hadn’t tightened them enough, turns out hand screwing can get them a lot tighter without stripping than the drill) and I fixed that today. More seriously, the port side ones that I hadn’t replaced yet leaked so bad that it SHORTED OUT the AC power on the entire port side. As I was entertaining a guest. Sigh. Thank god I installed that GFCI that covers that, so it shut off with no damage or fire. And I really need to get off my butt and replace those old portholes.
I’d SERIOUSLY recommend everyone putting in a GFCI if that haven’t and if your sockets are wired in serial then you just need the closest socket to the power source done, and it protects all the other ones.
