On Wed, 18 Dec 2013 06:25:36 -0800, Amanda Riphnykhazova wrote:

I am not accusing you of working for Ubiquiti

Heh heh ... I *wish* I worked for Ubiquiti! But, if I did, I'd probably
know what I was doing!

you cite laptop use which implies mobility:
Can this setup actually be used ad hoc in some public space to extend range?

Yes. And no. Depends on what you mean by "mobility".

I've tried the classic USB WiFi range extenders, for example, and their advantage
is small size (some are dongles, which don't even need AC power while others are
small boxes about the size of a pack of playing cards which also need 120VAC).

The problem I had with these classic range extenders is that they were miserable
to set up on Linux. Absolutely horrid support for the Linux drivers. The reason
is that they're consumer equipment; and the consumer is on Windows or Mac, for
the most part.

So, *for you*, these $100 solutions (give or take $25) *should* work fine to
extend the range of your laptop for a few hundred feet.

On the other hand, the solution I tested out, costs the same (roughly), as
that consumer gear, but, the Nanobridge feed horn solution has far more gain
(both in the transmitter and in the antenna) than the puny consumer gear.

The beauty of the Ubiquiti equipment is that it costs the same as the
consumer gear (give or take a few). But, it's far more powerful.

Personally, I think we're all idiots for buying the consumer gear, mostly
because it's too expensive for too little gain, so everyone has to extend
the range with even more crappy consumer gear.