WiFi Signal Boosting (Parabolic Reflectors)

[Kyoji]

I get an average WiFi signal in my room from my router situated in my family room, so I did a bit of research to see what I could to make it better. I had read about the various "can-tennas" that people have made out of Pringles and soup cans, but I needed something free, and that didnt require pig-tails and connectors. So after a bit of digging, I found this:
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template/

Make two of these, slip them over the antennas on your router, and it will boost the signal in the direction they face, while decreasing it in the direction they dont-great for increasing the privacy of any given network. For kicks, I made a quick--and I mean quick--set of my own:

They are no where near perfect parabolas, but they took me about 10 minutes to make and prove the idea works. My signal increased by 10%, and the link quality increased as well. I plan on making a higher quality pair soon, when I get the materials I want.

Just posting this for those who might suffer from mediocre signal strengths like I do--enjoy!

 

[5uck3rpunch]

Awesome! Thanx!

EDIT: I forgot to ask if you see a huge difference & better performance!?

 

[Kyoji]

I do, actually. My Transmit and Receive rates are higher now, so the Internet is noticeably faster. Combine these with some of the options you can enable in HyperWRT(A firmware replacement for WRT54G routers) like Frame Burst, and there are definitely noticeable improvements, not just numbers in some spreadsheet.

 

[5uck3rpunch]

Wow. Awesome! Great work & thanx for posting it!

 

[Kyoji]

No problem, hope it helps!

 

[mr_blonde_88]

WOW, awesome stuff
Deffo have to give this a go
My Router is downstairs and the other side of the house
lol

 

[HelloKitty]

interesting... think it'll help going through walls ceilings and floors?

 

[Kyoji]

interesting... think it'll help going through walls ceilings and floors?

It most definitely will.

 

[mr_blonde_88]

well, it'll concentrate the signal, meaning more signal will be heading in one direction, meanin that even tho signal will be lost, ur still guna get more signal

 

[HelloKitty]

well, it'll concentrate the signal, meaning more signal will be heading in one direction, meanin that even tho signal will be lost, ur still guna get more signal

So, you're saying you have to "point" it where you want the signal boost.. say at the floor?

... if you want your basement to get more signal...

 

[mr_blonde_88]

haha, yeah, but i think the floor between a basement and the ground floor is ALOT thicker than a ground floor/1st floor floor

 

[fischju_original]

i made a perfect one...but it fell off and my dad stepped on it

 

[yatzr]

one thing that a lot of people don't realize is that the signal basically forms as a donut around the antenna. I've seen a lot of people point the antenna (literally so the tip is pointing there) toward the room they want and then complain cause they get a bad signal. I've also seen people put their routers in the basement and point the antenna straight up and again complain that they're not getting a good signal. Just knowing how the signal is formed helps a lot in getting a good signal to the areas that need it.

with the reflectors, you obviously won't be making that mistake