Taking a Shot at Extending a Wi-Fi Signal for Almost Nothing
Who wouldn't take a shot at getting something for nothing, or at least in this case something for next to nothing, when it comes to the pile high tech toys we all have strewn around our houses. With that in mind here goes...
In an age when it increasingly seems that a gadget is only as good as its embedded wireless functionality, how can one not obsess over their home network's wireless coverage? Myself, I've been stuck with a free, but sub par wireless router in the basement for a few years and so my personal brand of obsession has been going on for, well let's see now, that would be a few years. Sure, I could bite the bullet and invest in a new router, get the old one out of the basement and/or look into one of the many wireless extender options out there, but any of these would cost money now wouldn't they. Then the other day I came across the video below that looked like it might be a short-term answer. It's from a two-year-old Life Hacker post, containing a video that claims that in minutes you can dramatically boost your wireless signal by creating your own parabolic reflector antenna for your router out of paper and aluminum foil. Quite the claim. I can attest to the fact that it does only take a few minutes to make the antenna, although it only made a modest improvement in my signal, and only in a limited part of my house. True enough, more often than not you get what you paid for, which in this case was nothing, but my skills with glue sticks and construction paper are not what they used to be. If you have some time to kill and/or want to put your kid to work check out the video below. You might even get a better wireless signal. Myself, it looks like I'm extender bound.
--Tom Milnes
Johnson Yip on April 19, 2010 at 08:59 PM
Wow, I want to give this a try later. I'm not sure how my parents or sister will feel about this since they are both kind of anti-tacky and messy people. I'm sure they won't like something so weird looking in the living room. lol Thanks for the article!
You can also try adjusting your Wifi router, or Wifi adapters antennae power output in power management advance settings or the control panel of your router.
I also heard repositioning the router away from fridges, big objects, metal walls, and motors also can help out with improving signal strengths.