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Boost Your Wireless with a Free Antenna

November 29th, 2007 · by David Bradley >> 3 Comments

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Earlier this month I re-mashed top ten tips for improving your wireless network. But, one of the simplest, incredibly lo-tech things you can do, is to print out a template, glue some aluminum foil to some card, fold tab A into slot Z, and fit it to your router antenna for a major serious signal boost. In fact the guys in the video below got a 12 decibel (dB) signal boost, which was way over the boost they got with a $50 antenna, and not a soldering iron in sight.

If you want more info on how to improve your signal the cheap and cheerful way, check out Free Antennas site and look for the EZ-12 parabolic reflector template.

I’m just digging around my kids’ craft cupboard right now looking for a glue stick and some sheets of card.

3 responses so far ↓

  • Phil // Apr 6, 2009 at 12:49 am

    Just tried it. Got a gain of 7 dB but it’s all rippled. I should get a little more by working it a little.

  • Samantha Wulff // Dec 18, 2009 at 5:12 am

    Do u know of any hacks that will boost my signal strength without having a wireless router? I am using the built in wireless card on my laptop and using the wireless network that the manager of my apartment building is on and my apartment is too far away from the managers office so I get a really weak signal and I afford to get my own internet router??

  • David Bradley // Dec 18, 2009 at 7:40 am

    @Samantha You’d have to hack into your apartment manager’s system, which would be illegal. But, physically you could add an antenna to your wireless card.

    But, that said, do you actually suffer because the signal is weak? What kind of transfer rates up and down do you get?

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