A DIYer's Quick Guide To Cheap Wireless Extension

An anonymous reader writes "This piece is described in one of the comments on it as 'a little piece of genius'... and I have to agree! Although Peter Cochrane seems a bit of a crack pot, the ways that he comes up with to get connected when he's out of range in the sticks are pure genius and he makes them appear really simple! Think old satellite dishes, USB dongles and plastic bags and you'd be on the right tracks to upping wi-fi signal by 4 bars." A perfect excuse to link to one of my favorite sites, if you want more details and photos on similar jury-rigged long-distance connections. However, your meterage may vary — I've found USB Wi-Fi devices to be pretty fickle under Linux, with some distros working way better than others.

Comments

Citywide Wireless

[billy901]

Wouldn't it be nice if this technology was used to make a free citywide wireless internet? We just need a bunch of people with this ambition and it could be done. I once read a book, called When A Strange Comes To Town, in which some people had the same ambition. You can get the book from Project Gutenberg if you look around. It's a newer book that has never been copyrighted.

Re:Citywide Wireless

[Anonymous Coward]

It would be much more helpful to protect people from litigation when they open up their wireless networks to strangers. The only thing preventing me from providing free wifi is the tremendous risk of being sued and eventually having to pay for someone else's crimes.

If you've been wardriving lately, you know that we don't need more access points, we need existing access points to be opened.

Free... Really?

[gamanimatron]

I get nervous when folks start talking about "free" services. Seems that more often than not, "free" actually means that I end up paying for power, bandwidth, and the army of bureaucrats that makes sure those bills get paid on time, and that their uncle's brother's company wins next year's bid.

So, please, count me out. I'll rig my own parabolic signal booster if and when I feel like it.

Re:Free... Really?

[stranger_to_himself]

...I'll rig my own parabolic signal booster if and when I feel like it.

That's my new sig sorted out then.

Try this.. the strainer WiFi.. cheap too!

[i_want_you_to_throw_]

I found this great instruction on Instructables (pops new) on how to create a usb wifi out of a 2.00 strainer from WalMart. Works like a champ!

My friend lives across the Ohio River and we're able to send the signal across the river that way.

Can I draw your attention to...

[Gordonjcp]

... my own comment, yesterday?

How to get long distance WiFi to work with ease

[viking80]

10 years ago you might have had to improvise, but today you can get cheap high quality antennas and amplifiers that is a lot better than a USB dongle in an old satellite dish.

My favorite source is http://www.hyperlinktech.com/
and you can do your link analysis here:
http://cgi.gbppr.org/wireless.main.cgi

If you really need big distances, you can use an old 12' sattelite dish, but otherwise stick to the formula above. It will save you a lot of time and trouble.

I have reliable links over 10km with 10mW running at 50Mb/s

MOD THIS UP!

[Iron Condor]

I rarely do this, but this AC is making the only point that needs to be made here. My own home router could comfortably serve a block of my neighborhood including the nearby park (I tried) but I'm not going to open it up because under US law I will go to jail if someone uses my open WiFi to download childporn or some such.

The cost to me would be minimal and I'd set the QOs such that the freeloaders wouldn't interfere with my own activities -- and if everybody did that, we'd already have free ubiquitous wifi in all cities in the US. Because there's always some server around somewhere -- it's been forever since I truly got a "NO networks found". They're just all locked down like crazy because of the absurd US laws that hold a communications provider (me!) responsible for what clients do with the services they provide for free out of the goodness of their hearts...