This is going to sound nooby... So I have been given a big omnidirectional WiFi antenna originally made by Poynting. It has a male SMA connector, but my USB WiFi dongle is also male. Can you get a convertor for it?
Question 2: I'm sure a Pci-Ex Card will give better Tx/Rx power than a USB dongle, but do cheap brand WiFi cards perform close to those of reputable brands? And do they generally have male SMA ports on the back?
I am trying to get Telkom Wifi from my house. Thanks ^_^
What you want is a "pigtail" that will have SMA on one end, and whatever your USB dongle has on the other end.
You may also want to put the dongle and the antenna somewhere high up, to get the best wireless reception, if you are not already within a telkom wireless footprint. You'd probably do better with a directional antenna, rather than an omnidirectional one, but it may work if you are on the edge of the footprint.
If you provide the details of the wifi dongle you are using, we can try to identify a suitable pigtail.
Keep in mind that the pigtail should ideally be quite short to minimise attenuation in the cable (i.e. run a long USB cable to the wifi dongle on the antenna pole, in a waterproof box, obviously), or alternatively, should be the right length to allow you to place the antenna where you need it, and run a single cable without additional connectors to where you place the wifi dongle, as each additional connector will also introduce attenuation of the signal.
An alternative might be to put a Raspberry Pi or similar on the pole, and run ethernet (maybe PoE) rather than USB directly.
