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You'd need the pringles can hack to get that far.

How could internet-type connectivity be kept limping along in the event of jamming and POTS going out? Packet radio? ZigBee? Wireless community network and pringles cans? Something on Android?

Super Cantenna SCB10
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2859

The best homemade one according to this article is fabricated from a Nally chunky soup can.

http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html

even better than buying all the fancy antennas: http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html

There are many documented accounts of the use of a Pringles can to construct a directional antenna. Rob Flickenger made one in 2001. Gregory Rehm did one in 2003 and was Slashdotted. G4 TV's Patrick Norton posted one in 2002 on The Screen Savers. Andrew S. Clapp has a lot of technical information on his website as well as several links to others. I wonder if he is, in any way, related to Eric Clapton.

I've heard of people using Tin Cans at both ends as an antenna - really cheep with not too much work - Look at http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html Have fun

You can buy or build a cantenna. They're illegal. But with a bit of work and patience, they function well. I dunno if a simple can-based setup can handle half a kilometer (and if it can, it's going to need a good solid connection to the house to keep it aligned) but I do know that a cantenna operated at the focal point of a used satellite dish will work fine up into the several kilometer range.
They're really cheap to build. You generally need to find reverse-polarity RF connectors to hook to the card in the computer. Digikey.com, newark.com, and mouser.com all sell reverse-polarity rf connectors. Traditionally people put n-type rf connectors on the antenna but that's a pain: I built mine using a bnc bulkhead connector on the can, and a rp-sma-to-bnc converter connector on my wireless adapter card, and just ran bnc cable from one to the other.

Mine only runs 40 meters through a couple of walls. Hopefully other people will correct this if it's the wrong solution for 500 meters.

Find some way to mount the satellite dish next door and use a point-to-point WiFi link. WiFi range can be greatly increased with a homebrew tin can antenna or Cantenna.

You might even offer to split broadband costs with whoever hosts the dish. If you have a yard, then put it in a shed out back.

Wow! Now I can make a macro amplified Wireless antenna :-)

reflectors don't work unless their diameter is at least on the order of the wavelength you're trying to reflect. for 802.11b/g that's about 12cm - way bigger than most people would like to carry around.

A better alternative is the modern waveguide cantenna design - far more compact than the original Yagi pringles can designs.

What you need is an antenna.

If you really want distance, get an antenna with a very small beam width.

I have two WiFi antennas. A homemade cantenna I built using these instructions. I've experimented with adding a funnel with limited success.

I get pretty good distance with it (big improvement over standard Omni that came with my D-Link 802.11b card, but nothing like what I get using my parabolic grid antenna. It's about $50 after shipping, but the 15 degree beam width is worth it over the 35-50 degree beam width you'll get out of a home made antenna.

I strongly advise against home made pringles can's. They are nothing compared to a simple wave guide, and cost a lot more. Sure they work, but not as well. I'm not sure about that more professional pringles can you posted in your question...

my former instructor has a page that was Slashdotted a year or two ago.. Gives instructions and good info to make your own for very cheap. http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/

Second to that, I'll take the Internet. While it isn't free, it's damn cheap, and arguably more relevant than TV or radio.

Get a Wifi card and make a Wave Guide Antenna

Chances are that if you live in a city large enough to have both apartment complexes and broadband interent you can find some free internet near you...

Cheers,

Erick

I meant the low budget wireless booster cans, with the extra spicy cajun flavour. Our research team spent a weekend determining which cans were more efficient (the original flavor, sour cream and onion, sweet mesquite BBQ, or cheese and onion). So far, there seems to be no difference due to flavor. However, we may have to repeat the experiments, just to make sure weather conditions didn't have any influence on the results.

The pringles can antennas work really well. I've built two of them. There's plenty of really good guides on how to make the antennas and how they work.

I can only hope and pray that wireless USB will be very very secure. The thought of someone with a nice high-gain cantenna and a datalogger is none to comforting.

I can also see all many nasty opportunities for system flakyness when a computer gets intermitt-tt-ttant contacts with other wireless USB devices and tries to establish a connection.

Err- apparently I'm an idiot- here:

http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.ht ml

If 802.11g didn't make you want to stick your head in front of a Cantenna to get a preview of brain tumors to come, this new standard certainly will.

for the google illiterate there is also this

Nice try, but I'm sure Cowboy Neil's bright enough to be using Pringles cans for antennas!

Whereas Microsoft's will perform more like the Pringles themselves. I have this nightmarish vision of poor design and flakey code causing these things to ramp up their transmission power and frying their owners.

There's a fine line between doing what you like and liking what you do.

How many professional sports players do you think don't enjoy playing a friendly game at the park with their friends when they're not "at work"? Some people love the game, some people just play the game. The same principle applies just about everywhere.

To a real hacker, programming isn't about writing code, it's about solving problems. And when solving problems is your passion, chances are you probably do it at home too.

When my day's work is done, I work on my car, I build R/C airplanes, I tweak my wirless networks I solder things on to my computer, and yes, I write programs. And somewhere in there I have an exciting social life too.

I like building things, and I love learning. Writing code, reading manuals; It's all a means to an end.

If you come across someone who enjoys writing code when he's not getting paid for it, chances are you're dealing with more than just a technician. This is the stuff that hackers are made of.

Now the question is, do you want a hacker working for you? Hackers can be tough to work with if you don't provide challenging projects, and absolutely impossible if you give them secretary-style assignments. But if you have difficult problems to solve, they can be invaluable.

first they outlawed handguns, i guess the next thing that's going out the door is Pringles. Get them before they make you register them, Aussies!

here should be the right link for radio shack...

If that fails go to this page, and find the link "screw on type" a little ways down the page. That's the part.

In addition, check these pages for more info:

Bake-off

Howto (be sure to see all the links at the end of that page...)

Waveguide theory HTH, Enjoy!

here should be the right link for radio shack...

If that fails go to this page, and find the link "screw on type" a little ways down the page. That's the part.

In addition, check these pages for more info:

Bake-off

Howto (be sure to see all the links at the end of that page...)

Waveguide theory HTH, Enjoy!

here should be the right link for radio shack...

If that fails go to this page, and find the link "screw on type" a little ways down the page. That's the part.

In addition, check these pages for more info:

Bake-off

Howto (be sure to see all the links at the end of that page...)

Waveguide theory HTH, Enjoy!

Per this BBC story 'war drivers' are using Pringle potato crisp(chip) tubes as directional antenna boosters to more easily spot open wireless access points.

this page actually does a head to head test of Pringles tubes, coffee cans, and soup cans. The site also provides instruction on how to build your very own "Cantenna".