Increase the range of usb wireless card?

Question

Hey guys, so last year my friend of mine tried an experiment to increase the range of his usb wireless card. The basic concept was to get the usb card and basically turn it into a mini Satellite as in he drilled a hole into he bottom of a large plastic bowl, coated the inside in aluminum foil, and super glued the usb card inside so that the the back chord would come out the other end. he then mounted it on a tripod he found. the end result was that he was able to get signals from networks about a mile away. i don't remember the exact way he did it, so if any of you have experimented with something like this or something similar can you please tell me? I'm looking for a way to get some sort of internet access at my school form my laptop, thanks again =]

Answer 1

You can do a Google search for "cantenna" and find all sorts of interesting ways to make point-to-point unidirectional wi-fi antennas. As an experiment, some workers in our electronic maintenance shop used a big baked beans can, calculated the proper length from the back of the can and proper length of the probe inside the can, and got pretty good range (two bars at three blocks) from an 802.11B network card.

Answer 2

Wrap tin foil around the usb wireless card not covering the metal chip, proved to increase range massively, saving lots of money.

Answer 3

You want to build what is called a "cantenna". Check the link for a lot of good info. Also there are DIYs on there to do it yourself.

Answer 4

Check this website.



http://www.instructables.com/id/%22Poorman_s-WiFi%22--USB-adapters-%26-DIY-cookware-refl/



I made a similar one for my mobile broadband receiver, and my signal is always maxxed.