1. What's in it for you?

To setup Internet access it took us a month to get the Internet broadband up and running. Our ISP was not the incumbent otherwise things might have gone much smoothly. We were virtually living in the dark in the first few days without Internet access, pretty much like no TV, no radio, no phone and no electricity. There were many WiFi networks in the neighbourhood. Although a few of them were unsecured, we didn't want to get on a free ride without their consent. Luckily most of our neighbours were so friendly that we were able to connect to their secured networks at the expense of a few bottles of good wine.

However, the catch was that the nearest WiFi network was 300 meters away, not that the internal WiFi of our laptops could cater for. We brought along with our strongest +18dBi Yagi antenna, at about 1 meter long with pole mounting. It was a highly directional antenna with a narrow beaming aperture. So when we held it in our hands, the signal strength climbed to the peak in one direction. As our hands got tired and move slightly away from it the signal dropped sharply. The signal also wobbled when vehicles passed by since it is too focused to get distracted. We couldn't put it on the roof under restricted access, and it could have taken a long and costly RF cable with lightning arrestor even if we were able to do so.

The indoor mounting was also a problem. There was no convenient pole anywhere suitable for mounting the long Yagi, not to mention we need to put the Yagi at a sweet spot close to the window with minimal obstruction.

To cut the long story short, we decided to design a new handy Yagi antenna standing on a mini tripod, having a wide beaming aperture to capture the direct and reflected signals without being distracted by the passing vehicles, and more visibility to other wireless networks nearby, yet strong enough to maintain a high power connection blending the best of bith worlds.

It had gone through verious tests under indoor and outdoor environment with excellent performance, including penetrating walls as signal booster, sharing secured Inernet access from neighbours, picking up WiFi from remote Municipal FREE wireless networks on the road, repeating the signals from ashore as an ACCESS POINT in a boat, as well as replicating the mobile broadband data service to several WiFi client computers and smartphones.

The NextG Wardriving USB-Yagi WiFi antenna was thus conceived. Every one of them is precisely tuned before we ship. So far there are already many satisfied and happy buyers around the world who are benefiting from this NextG High Power antenna for Internet access.

2. Plug n play with Windows 10 and Debian Linux

The USB-Yagi is easy to use. Most laptop and desktop computers don't have an external antenna interface, and this has been a problem when the internal WiFi is not strong enough to maintain a stable connection. The USB-Yagi solves this problem by providing a direct connection to any USB port of your laptop or desktop PC using the 2 meters cable supplied in the kit.

The USB-Yagi also comes with a CD-ROM software drivers for the Windows 10 8/7/VISTA/XP X86 64Bit and Linux, although it is Plug n Play with Windows 10 and several Linux Distirbutions including Ubuntu, Kali, Wifislax, Raspbian, etc.

No additional WiFi adapter is required to get it to work.

There is absolutely no need to worry about the cable compatibility.

What's more? The USB-Yagi is equipped with the High Power WiFi RF Amplifier in its power plant.

Simply Powerful !!

3. The range

The USB-Yagi is a handy and high performance directional antenna which delivers a remarkable power sensitivity in the direction it is pointing with a HPBW (Half-Power BeamWidths) of 56 degree.

It connected to the WiFi signal 3.8km away from the University in direct line-of-sight and maintained a stable wireless connection at a sensitivity of -54dBm, which is amazingly powerful and have more rooms to go further than that.

You might double the range by using two USB-Yagi pointing towards each other.

4. No external power supply is required

The USB-Yagi does not require an external AC/DC power adapter.

The DC power is fed directly from the USB2.0 cable. It can also be programmed to regulate its power consumption against the instantaneous signal peak and data throughput. This allows us to fit in a high power RF amplifier to the USB-Yagi for boosting its signal penetration power and yet economy enough to conserve battery power while you are wardriving on the road.

5. Light n handy

The DC power is fed directly from the USB2.0 cable. It can also be programmed to regulate its power consumption against the instantaneous signal peak and data throughput. This allows us to fit in a high power RF amplifier to the USB-Yagi for boosting its signal penetration power and yet economy enough to conserve battery power while you are wardriving on the road.

6. No-loss and seamless integrated design

The WiFi USB dongle is seamlessly integrated into the Yagi's driver loop element (BALUN) for perfect impedance matching. Hence NO-LOSS.

Coaxial cable incurs loss. Therefore, use only the Ultra Low-Loss RF cable such as the LMR-100A or LMR-195 and keep it short if you really have to do it.

Although each USB-Yagi is made of the standard components, the loop size of BALUN and its inner geometry are tuned by us for ultimate performance - a key differential advantage that is difficult to copy.

7. Migration path

Long broom Yagi are mostly deployed for fixed outdoor installation. We understand that you might want to add flexibilty and protect your investment since you never know when you need to mount it in a hall or put it on the roof.

1) A Long Broom Kit with Pole Mounting option;

2) A Long Broom Kit with Lightning Arrestor and Pole Mounting option.

8. Still hungry for power?

Simply turbo charge your USB-yagi with the RF amplifier kit although you really don't need this but it's there just in case you need some extra horse power.

9. Tethering with handheld smartphones

We received many enquiries on how to pickup WiFi signal ashore and broadcast it to other computers on a boat. It's been a difficult task in the past but now you may simply get it done by using the USB-Yagi antenna to pick up the remote signal and share it with the local WiFi clients the long range CnSR Extender upgrade kit.

It is extremely useful if you have a number of laptops, for instance in a hotel room, wanting to share a single Internet subscription.

We tried this successfully in the Travelodge UK by catching the WiFi signal from the SPECTRUM UK using the internal WiFi of one laptop and sharing it with the USB-Yagi as an ACCESS POINT.

We have also tried sharing the freeWiFi successfully in Paris, France.

The success story echoed fast, many buyers purchased a pair of USB-Yagi to catch and share the Internet with neighours at home and in the office.

In additon to this, we have newly launched the completely standalone Catch n Share Repeater without the need to run on a computer.

10. Packet monitoring and injection

The NextG USB-Yagi hardware was tested to support both the Packet Monitoring & Injection modes on Ubuntu, KALI Linux and Raspberry Pi

Older generation chipsets have lower RF output and are confined to detecting the 802.11b and 802.11b/g wireless networks; whereas the chipset incorporated in the family of High Power TurboTenna Plug & Play antennae work with both older and the current 802.11n wireless standards.

The High Power NextG YSB-Yagi antenna has recently been equipped with a power amplifier to deliver a remarkable signal penetration and range. Why do you need such a horse power?

Apart from the obvious reasons of reaching out for more WiFi signals, you might need to detect both the wireless router, as well as the client stations to facilitate and speed up the monitoring and injection processes. Read more on Linux Setup for WiFi Security Audit