Since I am technically stupid, which is better for picking up weak wifi signals, an amplifier with a wilson antenna or a router?

I think you are mixing up wifi signals and cellphone signals. You need completely different equipment to get wifi and cellphone/aircard signals, they are not the same. Do you have an aircard?

Well, let's be sure we're talking about the same thing. A cellular amplifier and Wilson trucker antenna will boost a cellular signal for cell phones and cellular air cards for internet. But they won't help you much with Wi-Fi which is a different type of signal (radio vs cellular). If it is a Wi-Fi signal you are trying to boost, rather than a cellular signal, then there are several retail Wi-Fi boosters/antennas/amplifiers out there. Geeks on Tour recommend the USB-type adapter/antenna to boost range for RVers. It just plugs into one of the USB ports on your computer. A really good one will be in the $150 - $200 range. There are also exterior Wi-Fi boosters/antennas and some folks may recommend those. I don't think you need a router, but I won't confuse things by getting into that discussion. Contact Jim or Chris at Geeks On Tour and they can walk you through what you need for your situation.

For WiFi I picked up a little antenna (looks like a very small satellite dish) made by Hawke industries at Best Buy store or website. This antenna sits inside the RV and plugs into a USB port on the laptop. In one campground the signal went from weak to very strong plus we saw three other WiFi services in the area that we could access.

For the aircard, I use a cradlepoint router to distribute the verizon signal wirelessly to the laptop. The aircard plugs into the router and there is a port on the aircard where I connect an external antenna to help pickup the verizon cell tower signal in remote locations.

Verizon has widespread coverage around most major and secondary highways and most cities throughout the US. It's very impressive. And the service works well.

A good source of information is at www.3gstore.com (little confusing) or www.jackdanmayer.com (very good information and easy to understand).

-- Edited by thebearII at 10:52, 2008-12-09

Let us know which you want to boost....cellphone and its related aircard, or wifi and I can expand a little on the choices and how you might want to approach the issue. You should also go to our website that was mentioned above and look in the communications section. That might help you some.

I have an AT&T Air Card. When I open it up as Communications Manager it locates both the cell signal and wifi signals. I click on either GSM if I want to use the cell data signal or Wifi if I want to use the wifi system. I currently have a Wilson antenna to increase my cell signal. So what I am looking for is something to boost the wifi signal.

Interesting.  I suspect the Communications Manager is using your built-in wi-fi capability.  But I could be wrong and the aircard is a model that also provides wi-fi. 
Most wi-fi adapters do not have a place to attach an external antenna.  What most users do is buy a high power USB wi-fi adapter like the Hawking which is on the end of a cable and add an extension USB cable so they can put the adapter high up where it will get a better signal.  Then they disable the built-in wi-fi and use only the USB one.  You do not have to go through Communications Manager to get wi-fi working, you should have built-in support for it.
Using a router is a way to create your own wi-fi signal from the aircard or other internet modem, like satellite or cable, but will not get you a better wi-fi signal.  There are some routers that can be reconfigured to work as repeaters, where you put the router somewhere that gets a better signal and it boosts your locally, but doing so is fairly techie and not for amateurs. 

Bill is correct - the communications manager that ATT uses is looking at all of your available connections and offering you a choice. Verizon works the same way, if I recall correctly. So you are seeing your inbuilt wifi. The first thing to do to try to improve your signal is what Bill suggested. Get the antenna up in a window facing the signal, or on the roof of the rig. The most PRACTICAL way, and cheapest way, to do this is to use a USB adapter like Bill suggested. Why? Because the USB adapter is a digital signal and does not degrade over the 15' of USB cable that you can attach to it. An analog signal - like an antenna extension - will degrade over distance. You can buy a little USB adapter with an inbuilt antenna on it for about $50 at Walmart. That usually solves the problem if you are in an RV park with wifi. Use double sided tape and put it high in a window where the park wifi AP is. If that does not solve it, try putting it in a Glad storage container and put it on top of your roof or slide. That almost always works. If not, there are other, more complex solutions that I won't go into now....

The Verizon communucations manager also looks for all available connections, including dialup if you let it. You can program it to only use a specific connection at startup. I have mine set to use the router/ aircard arrangement. I have switched over to WiFi just to try it and it worked. Side note, my wife just received a mini laptop from Acer... it has no disc drive. Uses memory sticks for installing software. Feels weird just like when we changed from floppys to CD's. This new laptop is WiFi and 802.11 N equipped so that's kinda neat, except I have to figure out how to get the aircard software onto the memory stick to load into the Acer. Hopefully, it's just a matter of copying it to the stick.

I was interested in the Wi-fi antena you referenced as Hawke that looks like a dish.  I have been trying (unsucessfully) to find something to help me get weak park signals.  Best Buy sold me a netgear antena booster. Had a devil of a time with the instal and ended up talking to the netgear tech support guy in India.  He indicated that their product does not improve wi-fi reception (it didn't) and that there was no such thing.  When I returned it to Best Buy they also said that the wi-fi source (in this case the rv park) was the only one who could improve the signal and that there is no such thing as a wi-fi antena or booster.  Where can I get what you have?

"This new laptop is WiFi and 802.11 N equipped so that's kinda neat, except I have to figure out how to get the aircard software onto the memory stick to load into the Acer. "

Why not just get a Cradlepoint 350 router, plug the aircard into it, and you can both use the cellular data connection at the same time. No need to put VZAM on the Acer.....

I have one of those Acer's, mine is an Aspire One running XP and Intel and journalists like to call these mini-notebooks "netbooks". I use a blank 1GB USB drive, clone the CD to it and then install from USB. So far I haven't needed to change the volume name on the USB drive to match the CD volume name, but I can handle that if required. I just bought two 8GB USB drives from Fry's Electronics for $30 + tax so I am set if I need to install from DVD. I do reuse the USB drive for each install since none of the software has asked for the CD again.
Jack, I have had to "activate" my aircard twice now to update roaming and use VZAM on my main notebook computer. I am also thinking of putting VZAM on the netbook both to do those occasional activations and to carry in the car when I have no cell phone signal and want to get online in town. The netbook is much easier to carry around than my notebook. I also figure the netbook can be recovered easier than my notebook if VZAM messes it up.
(Note: I am in one of those places where even with an amp and external antenna I have no Verizon signal, WHR Ramona Canyon RV Resort in Ramona, CA. Luckily I have a Hughes.net tripod and it is working. )

-- Edited by bjoyce at 19:08, 2008-12-10

Jack, Good suggestion and I'll give it a try. If I know my wife, she'll want to take the Acer away from the house or RV and want to use the aircard. So I need to get the software into the acer through the memory stick. Going to give it a try this weekend. Igotjam, Here's the URL for the BestBuy antenna for a mac. Didn't see the windows version listed. Maybe look at Hawking Tecnologies website for other suppliers. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8477702&type=product&id=1185267958518 Sorry, I had the name wrong, my original post showed Hawke and it's actually Hawking Technology. Senior moment strikes again.....

thebearII

Thanx