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Cardboard WiFi Antenna Upgrade

Posted by michael on from the don't-get-it-wet dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A British company called Tritium is marketing a piece of cardboard with metal foil on one side. You order it for under US$25, shipping included, and you get a flat envelope with the cardboard. Cut it out, shape it into a parabola and snap it into the little stand. Then slip it over your current antenna. It is advertised to extend the range of your current antenna by 2 to 3 times. See their website for more information on the cleverly named Tritium Flatenna."

3 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Great, but.. by noname3 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does it work? Yes, this advertises a boost, but so do a bunch of products for cell phones that are purely decorative.

    I had to sell these for a small retail store, and to this day I feel guilty. A local newstation did an expose where they found there was zero conductive material at all in these stickers.

  2. Or you could... by Pedrito · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You're probably in the minority if you don't have a semi-parabolic pan or pot lid lying around your kitchen (though, this is Slashdot, maybe you're not in the minority here). That's what I used for to focus the signal at my last place. Just used a pack of CDs to prop it up behind the antenna. It was a fairly signficant boost. I was impressed. And it didn't cost me anything I hadn't already paid.

  3. Been using it for a while by crapnutassneck · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I built one based on this http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/ind ex.html and it increased coverage in the back of my house by %26 according to the Cisco Aironet Desktop Utility when connected to my Qwe(r)st issued all in one Actiontec DSL TA/802.11G AP/Router. Given, it is not "increasing gain" just making it directional, but for 20 minutes work and no cost it was worth it.

    --
    .-=Wit is educated insolence=-. -Aristotle