[SGVLUG] Cheapest way to extend laptop wifi range?

[Christopher Smith]

On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 9:38 PM, Dan Kegel <dank at kegel.com> wrote:
> I am one of the happy few to have a time warner hotspot
> *right outside my house* (there's a map at
> http://www.timewarnercable.com/socal/learn/hso/wifi/ ),
> but can only connect from the kitchen, it doesn't reach to
> our living room.
>
> I recently noticed that Culver City has free wireless near
> Culver and Venice (for coverage map, see
> http://www.culvercity.org/en/Government/IT/WiFi/WiFiAccess.aspx )
> and could see the ssid, but wasn't able to connect to it.
>
> So I looked around to see what I could do to increase range.
> The very cheapest usb wifi adaptor with a connector for an
> external antenna and said to work in Linux
> is the noname http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VX0GJY
> for $9.   It worked with Ubuntu 12.04 first try (yay!),
> but didn't improve my range at all over the laptop's builtin wifi.  Happily,
> replacing its included antenna with a real 5dbi antenna
> ( http://aaxeon.com/products/industrial-wireless/accessories/bluetooth-zigbee-accessories/464
> )
> I had for a bluetooth card gave me a range boost,
> and let me connect to the Time Warner hotspot from my living room.
> Dunno yet whether it will let me connect to Culver City's wifi,
> I'll check next time I'm over that way.
>
> Total cost, something like $20.
> Does anyone have a cheaper solution?


A cantenna + an old wifi router is probably about $5. I'll acknowledge
cheating a bit by assuming the wifi router was available free or next
to no cost.

-- 
Chris