Boosting wi-fi signal?

[painball]

So I have a wireless network now. The bad thing is that I am across the house from the base station (about 3 or 4 walls). I am always getting signals ranging from low to very good. It just seems random. None of my cordless phones are interfering with it as they are 900Mhz (I have 802.11g). I've been looking around for ways to boost the signal and get a better reception but I am getting mixes results. Although Internet works fine even with a low signal I doubt online games will get a very good connection.

So. What do you computer geniuses (sp?) reccomend I get to boost the signal? I was thinging just a longer antannae. A (forgot thename of it. Gets better signal to otherwise dead spots) might work I think, but those are expensive.

[e mag]

You can either build a better antenna or buy an access point. With a well built antenna you can get the range up to a few miles apparently. From what I read it seems like if you live in a city or an area with good visibility of a lot of other houses it can be pretty easy to hijack someone elses signal, as many people dont have WEP or even change the router passwords.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=802.11+boost+signal+yagi&btnG=Google+Search

edit: The cheapest method may be to build an antenna from a pringles can. I haven't read much about it but i've heard that it does work.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22pringle+can%22+antenna+802.11&btnG=Google+Search

Here's a sit on how to build your own antenna from a can:

http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/has.html

[RT pRo AuToMaG]

Tech TV's 'The Screen Savers' show had an artice on their website a while back on how to make homebrewed antenna's. You may want to check that out (www.techtv.com)

[krafty]

Move the base higher (see if you can put it in the attic or highest floor in the house.) That usually will get you a better signal.

[Butterfingers]

Move closer to the base

Just kidding...

I have WiFi. The signal strength dosent seem to degrade connection speed so it seems. After all you are sending digital signals.

It seems to be just as fast on low than it is on Very good.

I think you will be fine as long as you have a signal.

[gimp]

Old primestar dishes make perfect directional antennas. I think they can reach 10 miles if there is line of site. I know for a fact that they go a little over a mile. They're tricky to aim. I helped my friends put one up. I plan on using one for my sugarhouse over the summer. I'll be able to connect to the network in my house without running the 300' of cat5 underground. Unfortunatly, I live in the boonies at home, and can't steal the signal from other people.

I do have one of those old school satellites, you know the real big ones. That could probably reach pretty far.

*edit - post number l337. Cool

[painball]

Well my signal is currently low with a pretty slow speed. It hasn't made it above 30Mbps yet today. It's been gettin pretty close to 10 lately. Time to build an ultra antenna. When building antennas you guys mean a new antenna for the PC correct? My microcrap base station antenna is not detachable.

I found something cool. I can join my neighbors unencrypted network if I wanna. Heh. I could easily change all their router settings if I wanted to. Yet they will never break my 128-bit encryption! I'm also gonna limit MAC adresses to my PCs only. Wireless security is suprisingly easy.

[painball]

Any more ideas? My signal is pretty bad now. 24mbps. I'll probably just go with the pringles can thing though.

[painball]

Could I just rig a booster up to my base station to boost the signal? I read on TechTV that the linksys PC cards aren't compatable with any antennaes. Is this true?

[e mag]

I'm not exactly sure about building your own antenna but I think it would involve removing the one on your wireless nic and then attaching the homemade one. You can also buy an access point. An access point is pretty much like another antenna that is wired to your router, so your comp which is far away will send the signal to the AP which is close, and then the AP sends it to the routher over the cat5. I think AP's can also be wireless, but im not sure.

[e mag]

If your card doesnt have an external antenna connector you will either have to get one that does or solder the homemade one onto the card.

http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html

building the can antenna

http://www.saunalahti.fi/elepal/antenna2.html

using a primestar dish (10mi range with direct line of site)

http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/Primestar/Primestar.html