Wifi with external aerial?

[BLL]

Hi,

Like many people, I have tried to use a RT5370 chip set wifi dongle, which was SUPPOSED to be RasPi compatible. It is plugged into a verified hub, which has a good 5V, 3A power supply.

Instead, it shuts itself off whenever it feels like it and won't restart unless it is powered off (unplugged or RasPi shut down). Even a reboot won't correct it.

Interestingly, it shows the same behaviour on my WinXP laptop, so this suggests that it's not a driver problem. I have installed the latest driver in WinXP and no change. I have tried the solution of disabling power management with a line in the interfaces file but it makes not one iota of difference! It does set power mgt off, but the modem still powers down when it feel like it. I have also fed it with its own 5V 3A power supply and again, no improvement on either platform.

I have 3 of these dongles, all identical (from 2 companies). All exhibit the same problem. They work 100%, if configured as an AP. They have no maker's name on them and are specified as RT5370 RTL8188CUS, but shows up in lsusb as "148f:5370 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT5370 Wireless Adapter". iwconfig shows power management as off.

I then went right through the verified usb dongles and drew a blank! All I want is an 802.11n which works reliably. has an external aerial socket and doesn't require modifications to the kernel.

Has anyone found such a device?

I have a little Tenda W311M which is rock solid on both platforms but it doesn't have an aerial socket! Oh that it did!

Any help much appreciated!

[sprinkmeier]

I used 2 of these
http://www.ubnt.com/bullet
with 24dB parabolic dishes to create a link between offices.
It's about 1km, almost line-of-sight, and we get 1MBps.

[EDIT]
and a Sierra Wireless AirCArd with an 18dB yagi to get 3G way outside normal coverage...

[BLL]

That's some setup! My requirements are somewhat more modest! I have a 15dBi vertical, weatherproof aerial for 2.4GHz which goes on a short mast next to my caravan. I have a good quality Aircom low loss coax feeder into the caravan. Soi all I want is a reliable wifi modem with an aerial connector. The ones I have, which are supposed to be fine with the Pi are useless as they keep cutting off, often during a download. They are the same on a PC, so they are clearly Chinese muck! I obviously don't want to use a dish and it looks as though that is what the bullet is for, although the description is not very comprehensive. Last night, I took my little Tenda WL311M (which NEVER misbehaves), disconnected its internal aerial and fitted a short coax cable with an RPSMA socket on it and that seems fine, so this might well be the solution!!

Thanks for your reply.