wi-fi antenna question

Hi,

This is my first post. First off, I love these notebooks. I have a CF-29 I begged my office to get me and they caved in after I fought for a while to get us all Panasonics and I at least got some CF-51's out of the deal, and the 29 for me after I told my boss to get it and he didn't like it so I got it. (smart plan, eh?- I then told him to get a Y7 I think it was) The rest of the guys use these crappy notebooks from a local vendor that fall apart in months. But all my bosses look at is the bottom line and thats it- bummer for us.

While I use this 29 for personal use and usually have it with me (we use the Sprint S620/S720 cards to connect) I thought I should buy my own, so I just bought a 1GHz 28 off ebay. It didn't have a wireless card so I got one for it to stick it in (hopefully when it arrives tomorrow- the caddy and card came today, backlit keyboard coming soon).

So the question is, would something like this be fine for me to stick in and maybe hide these two antennas up on the opposite sides of the screen?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Wi-Fi-Booster-A...ryZ61816QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks, this is a great forum. I'm still trying to convince my bosses we need to use these things all around, not these home toys they are buying.

 

I have some experience with DIY antennaing and to be honest those would be fine... But be sure you know what you're doing, the damage you can cause to the display is pretty severe (and warranty breaking).

 

mrbungle,
Welcome to the forum. I strongly suggest you read the FAQs at the start, you will find lots of info for your wi-fi antenna questions. Those antennas will work but you probably don't want to try to put them in the lcd housing. The first responder is a Dell owner, and they tend to have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to Toughbooks. The magnesium case presents special challenges to getting any sort of radio signal in or out. Search the wi-fi antenna posts here and you will find the results of hundreds of hours of experimentation by people who really know what they're doing.
Cap

 

MrBungle.... First off... Welcome to the Toughbook Knowledge Base! Secondly.... Avoid ANY suggestions from those who own Dells... They don't know anything about Toughbooks.... They are a whole different animal. (As you have found out!)

The magnesium case makes those types of antennas useless IF you put them around the LCD. There is only one area that I have found where those work... And they actually work pretty well. (In the CF-28 that is) The place to put it is under the battery on the outside of the magnesium frame but under the plastic outer port cover. You can also use the same port cover... (Not the hinged one... the one held in by two screws!) to install an SMA bulkhead mount to U.fl pigtail to run to the wifi card. I use the Engenius 600mW wifi card in the 28s that I sell hooked up as suggested and usually never need to use the external SMA connector... The internal "paddle" type antennas that you linked to do very well for me. The only time I need to hook up the external antennas is when I am outside trying to pick up a signal from a block or more away! THEN I move to the 3-5dB side-mount antenna or the 7dB mag mount antenna.

The CF-29 has an awesome antenna system. I've never had an issue with that one!

Good choice in laptops!