How to Improve WIFI Signal?

[dealmaker]

Hi,
I live in a place where there is one free hotspot nearby. It's really intended to be free since I got it from a free hotspot website. But the signal is always about 33%. I would like to know how to improve the wifi signal strength. I am using a laptop with pcmcia netgear wg511 card. Is there a way to increase the power to the wifi card? Any setting that I can tweak to make the card to receive signal better?

Many thanks.

[David Becker]

Originally Posted by dealmaker

Hi,
I live in a place where there is one free hotspot nearby. It's really intended to be free since I got it from a free hotspot website. But the signal is always about 33%. I would like to know how to improve the wifi signal strength. I am using a laptop with pcmcia netgear wg511 card. Is there a way to increase the power to the wifi card? Any setting that I can tweak to make the card to receive signal better?

Many thanks.

Increasing your own power is generally of little use since you won't increase the other party's power that way.

In general, the best option is to use a different/better antenna for your netgear card (if available). A directional antenna would be nice if you know the approximate location of the access point.

David

[hollywoodb]

does the card have an external antenna or is it a builtin wireless with an internal antenna?

I've heard of people using tinfoil to cup external antennas towards the signal source so that the antenna looks like a little radar, the antenna vertical with a sort of tinfoil cup around it aimed at signal source.

I've also heard if its an internal antenna that laying a bunch of tinfoil around helps... i think a show on British TV called 'Brainiac' did that and claimed it helped.

I have no idea if any of this works, but I'd like to know

[kcchoong]

I think you PCMCIA card does not has a external connector to connect to a external antenna, but if you don't mind, you could get a PIGTAIL with suitable connector for your external antenna, and soldered it on the card itself.

But you will have a TAIL laying outside of your card !!

For me, I have a PIGTAIL that connects to my internal WIFI, and when I need to boost my recieiving range, I hook it up with my external directional antenna.

Hope it help. andgood luck.

[gala_dragos]

Word of advice: don't play with your hardware if you're not trained to do so. If there are no boosting accessories for your card then settle for what you have. Tinkering with the hardware by untrained people will void your warranty and usually results in human injuries and/or property damage. Remember that badly modified radio frequency devices may expose you to radio frequency irradiation which leads to diseases like cancer.