Aluminum foil to boost your wifi...BS?

[SAWYER]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqnHz75dmQY&feature=related

 

[xSauronx]

yeah, its just a reflector, and itll work...poorly, odds are.

I worked for a WISP in kansas a few years ago, and the company bought another WISP and I was sent to upgrade them to the Motorola Canopy equipment we used. All the customers were on 2.4ghz equipment, and the AP was on top of a water tower.

Im not sure what the AP was....but in one home the customer equipment was a linksys wireless bridge, zip-tied to a rafter in the attic of the house, with the antenna aimed out parallel to the water tower, and stapled to the rafter a few inches behind the bridge was some chicken wire in the shape of a parabolic reflector...

the customer was ~3/4mi from the AP. the bridge worked, but only sporadically. i wish i had taken a picture of that shitty setup :-/

 

[Emulex]

http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/Ez-10/

tell the wife to make you some antenna's

 

[ScottMac]

A CD is a nearly perfect WiFi reflector.

Just adjust the distance from the radiator/antenna for a peak signal strength in the forward direction.

 

[JackMDS]

Of course some times there is No real signal to Boost.

Or it Boosts the Noise creating even worse SNR.

The reality is that most people knows Wireless as much as or less than they know History and Geography.

The topics keep changing but the Mentality did not change since the Salem Witches' Burning. It is much easier to blame something unknown rather than to bother to learn.

 

[cparker]

I built these guys http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html

One for each of the antennas on my linksys wap 54g access points. Then I set up the two access points at close to 1000 feet apart, line of site. It's been working non stop for several years now. And yes, the reflector is supermarket aluminum foil taped to paper folder stock cut out according to the template at freeantennas.com.

 

[spidey07]

That's all an antenna does. It focuses the radio energy and changes the gain pattern. You only have so much power available in the radios so to achieve more gain you have to change it from a truly omnidiretional antenna to something else. That's what this is doing.