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Boost Your Wi-Fi Signal Using Only a Beer Can
First time accepted submitter AmyVernon writes with a small hack that "is supposed to boost signal strength by at least 2 to 4 bars," and which requires little more than a can of beer (or Orangina). She writes: "What you need: scissors, a utility knife, some adhesive putty and an empty beer can. The brand doesn't matter for the router, but I suppose it would be cooler looking if it were Asahi or Stella Artois than if it were Budweiser." Perhaps this will be added one day to my favorite (and very extensive!) list of low-budget Wi-Fi amplifying rigs.
...if you have a satellite dish (which neighborhood doesn't?)
you can just place your WiFi Dongle right in the focus area, or even various other places in front of your dish, and you'll have more hotspots than you EVER dreamed of.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
The attractiveness of the opposite sex greatly increases by two to four beers.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
It's so we know who to start hating, should the need arise.
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
1. This is old news. /..
2. Amplified signal power in your direction == amplified noise for your neighbors in other directions.
3. This is probably illegal in many jurisdictions.
4. Nerds don't measure "signal strength" in "bars". Use S/N or leave
5. ???
6. Profit!!
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
Since when is WiFi signal strength measured in bars? It's a pressure unit.
Does it work with the iPhone4 ?
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
You can buy it in cans (certainly done so here in the UK). Why you'd want to is another matter.
I write bullshit
you could run the freeantennas.com template through your printer, cut out the bits, glue them together, slap a bit of tin foil on the back, and off you go. It really takes less than ten minutes to make one. That's an easy 8..9dB extra gain.
The thing that's critical to beer can and paper-and-tinfoil construction is a reasonable parabolic shape and positioning the antenna at that parabole's focal point. Though a nice square angle will do too, but there again it's the focal point that does it.
In the UK it's nicknamed "Wifebeater". The premium marketing here is nothing more than a desperate ploy by InBev to link it with prestige and class, as opposed to domestic violence.
It's not very nice lager anyway. Mind you I drink Budweiser* so who's kidding who here?
* it's a light, refreshing lager which is ideal for summer evenings, and it's a damn sight better than some of the pisswater we have over here like Carling. That said I'd rather have Innis and Gunn all things considered.
I write bullshit
Haven't we known this since 802.11 came out? Pringles can, anyone?
It might work, but I built one of the antennas described below for my brother, and the improvement was noticeable in terms of measured signal strength. http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template/
So it would be better with a beer can *and* a couple of pieces of foamcore cut into parabolas...
Boosting a wi-fi signal should be done only when one is having issues due to signal strength. The signal strength should be just enough to get good connection in the radius one intends to use it in (say your apartment/house). If it goes out further than that it is actually a negative thing. The stronger the signal the further it goes out and more vulnerable your wi-fi becomes as it is broadcast over larger area. Also it causes interference with other networks which reduces quality of all the interfering networks involved.
Maybe a cell repeater with a directional antenna... might be worth it if the signal is better somewhere close to/around the house in a spot where you could safely place such a device.
Pretty expensive though, like $250 and up...
Wait... You're calling something pisswater compared to Budweiser?!
Jesus. That crap is pisswater compared to...well... water
Hate to break it to you, but Napoleon lost. That boring bit that used to be the Spanish Netherlands is independent again.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Last time I checked Stella Artois was a Belgian brand.
Yes... but why stand in the way of this kid's bizarre (and entertaining) self-hatred?
A little perspective please. In comparison to awful Anheiser-Bush American Piss Water lagers, Stella is a fine lager. In comparison to the fine craft-beer American Ales made by a myriad of quality brewers, Stella is indeed ordinary.
"Premium Beer" might be a marketing term in Europe (I never saw it when I lived in England or Germany) but in the US it is code for "super-extra-piss-water". It is used by Anheiser Bush, Miller, Coors, et. al. to fool Bubbas into thinking they are drinking good beer, when they are just drinking relabeled piss water.
Given the choice of a Stella on draught in America, or any ordinary American beer (on draught or not), Stella is indeed premium.
I thnk you might be confusing teh American Budweiser with the stuff that actually comes from the river Budweis in the Czech Replublic. The American stuff is in the same league with Carling.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budweiser_trademark_dispute
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
I guess you're not familiar with the heavily-booming US microbrewery industry.
Once we were legally allowed to brew at home again, people started it, and some people discovered that they made some killer beer, so they went into business. There's been a trend towards more "extreme" sorts of beer, but that's subsiding -- but was and is a pretty good agent for change and the creation of new and delicious beer. The US is a little less... mired in tradition, let's say.. than European brewers. That basically means we're free to pretty much copy any kind of European beer, or create new weird and good beers.
I (am about to sound like a hipster, but) always order a microbrew when I'm out somewhere, if one is available. It almost doesn't even matter who makes it or what sort of beer it is, they're all pretty good and some are outstanding. Though that's riskier on the west coast, they've got more microbreweries over there that have run with the whole crank-it-to-11 idea.. east coast microbrews i've found to typically be more interested in just making damn good beer without the gimmicks (but since there's fewer of them, there isn't the competition to stand out from as on the west coast. and also less hipsters..)
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
We do things differently down here in the tropics.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Contents are strange to eat, but the cylindrical foil cans with a dipole epoxied inside are great for long distances.