Chromebook External WiFi Antenna?

[Guerrero]

Does such a thing exist?

When the 'Pocky-Clypse hit, I bought Guerrera a Chromebook to help facilitate the working from home, as that's what she wanted and it seems to fit her needs. However, the thing seems to have a poor wifi antenna (and Guerrera has a knack for finding wifi dead zones in our house). I just completed a multi-week fight with our ISP to get us better service, move our gateway around, and comp us wifi extenders, so those things should be out of the equation.

However, in her chosen workspace, the Chromebook gets poor wifi, even though the desktop right next to it has good signal. I see you can buy USB wifi dangles for Windows/Mac laptops, but I can't find if these would work for a Chromebook?

Any ideas? Answers involving "Tell her to move" or "Get a new wife" will be disregarded.

Thanks

[RJ]

What is the specific model of your Chromebook?

Also, what is the model / type of your current internet Wireless Access Point aka router?

[RJ]

This one was referenced in a two year old "what Wifi Dongle works on Chromebook" discussion on Reddit.

https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Adap...eywords=rt5370

No clue if it works with ChromeOS, of course. But for $10...

[Guerrero]

This one was referenced in a two year old "what Wifi Dongle works on Chromebook" discussion on Reddit.

https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Adap...eywords=rt5370

No clue if it works with ChromeOS, of course. But for $10...

Just found that, too. I think I could stomach a $10 risk.

Guerrera has an ASUS Flip C434

[RJ]

Just found that, too. I think I could stomach a $10 risk.

Guerrera has an ASUS Flip C434

Not familiar with ChromeOS, but I am familiar with Linux, a flavor of which Chrome OS seems to be based on.

In that regard, I can go locate the WiFi dongle I bought and installed on my Linux machine this year. I have an older Dell e6530 which lacks a highspeed WiFi connection, so I bought the dongle and installed it and now have the higher speed WiFi on it

Be right back with a link to that one.

[RJ]

Be right back with a link to that one.

This is the dongle I currently have in use right now:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I can append the installation instructions I used if you think it would help...it's not exactly plug and play though...

[RJ]

The reason I asked about your Router/WAP is that it may be an option to upgrade or re-site it, or purchase a better (i.e. more distributed) router which has multiple repeater stations as part of the standard package.

I saw several at Costco the other day that are designed for exactly this function, i.e. cover dead zones in your house which have poor WiF service.

This solution would be more plug and play than say trying to install a WiFi Dongle on your Chromebook, and make life better for everyone using your WiF (I have my spouse on her own separate exclusive 5G 1200M 802.11ac internal network connection on my router. hint: Happy Wife, Happy Life ).

[Guerrero]

I have AT&T, and I just installed a supposed "new" gateway two weeks ago. The gateway is about 15' from where Guerrera works, through one interior, non-load-bearing wall.

[RJ]

I have AT&T, and I just installed a supposed "new" gateway two weeks ago. The gateway is about 15' from where Guerrera works, through one interior, non-load-bearing wall.

15' through a studded drywall wall should return pretty close to max download/upload speeds your WAP is capable of?

Have you tried speedtest.net with various WiFi devices to see how they are performing, as opposed to say the Chromebook?

Typically WiFi networks on most of the newer WAPs I've seen (I have a Netgear R7900P Nighthawk https://www.netgear.com/support/product/r7900p.aspx) allow definition of one "low speed" connection and two "high speed" networks? That being the case, can the Chromebook connect to the high speed side? That would improve download speeds quite a bit.



Edit to add: Specifically, what is the model number / type of the "gateway" that you installed? Does it serve as your Wireless Access Point as well as being the interface from your Internet Service Provider's network (commonly there are two devices; one is a "Cable Modem" which interfaces to your home to provide service, usually a dedicated ethernet line, and a separate "wireless access point" which interfaces to your cable modem via an Ethernet cable (typically yellow) and then provides encrypted WiFi (and optionally physical Ethernet ports as well))

[Guerrero]

PS did you get the WiFi stuff sorted out?

*Sigh* not really. Doing housework today, but I'll rant soon enough.