Double Your WiFi Range For Zero The Cost
Posted in Random by Evan at 4:37 pm
This post was published 2 years 3 months 27 days ago which may make its actuality or expire date not be valid anymore. This site is not responsible for any misunderstanding.
WIFI Antenna Hack! – video powered by Metacafe
Anyone going to try this and let us know just how much of a difference they are getting?
Yes it works! I tried it right after I saw it on digg. I have 2 spare routers, a 3com and a 2wire. When I tried to diassemble my 2wire’s antennas I noticed that the antennas were not the same as in the video (they look exactly the same but the inner parts are not), I had better luck with my 3com router, I didn’t had a screw around so I used a thin pen. Soldering was no easy job because you need to make sure that the inner part of the antenna doesn’t make contact with the outer part.
I did a test before and after the antenna mod, before the mod, there was a 55% of interference at 8 feet, after the mod there was just 23% of interference!, oh and I don’t know why, but covering my modded antennas with a straw reduced the interference 2% more.
I did this hack. I don’t think it doubled the range but I did get a better signal than with using the original antenna. The wire I used was from a coax cable I had laying around. I used a razor blade to strip away all the shielding and to extract the wire from the remaining insulation. It a little stiffer than what is used in the video but it did the job.
My signal went from poor to fair after adding this to my PC. In my instance I believe more of my signal problems is with heating duct in the way. My wireless router is in the basement sitting just under the first floor center of the house. So I think that the metal sheeting from the duct work is deflecting a large part of the signal.
How does this compare to just using a windsurfer?
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html
I’m tempted to do this as well, but am wondering whether it’s worth it.