<div>$20 seems reasonable to me. </div><div><br></div><div>one time i was trapped on a mountain top in a hurricaine, nearest wifi connection was visible but too weak to connect. I did this:</div><div><a href="http://i.imgur.com/9JxMn.jpg">http://i.imgur.com/9JxMn.jpg</a></div>
<div>It's a pie tin reflector a few inches from the suspected location of the wifi antenna (they're generally along the edge of the monitor). It produced like 8db gain, enough for a stable connection.</div><div>
<br>
</div><div>but I'd pay the $20.</div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 21:38, Dan Kegel <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dank@kegel.com">dank@kegel.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
(Not sure if the socal wireless users' group is still alive.)<br>
<br>
I am one of the happy few to have a time warner hotspot<br>
*right outside my house* (there's a map at<br>
<a href="http://www.timewarnercable.com/socal/learn/hso/wifi/" target="_blank">http://www.timewarnercable.com/socal/learn/hso/wifi/</a> ),<br>
but can only connect from the kitchen, it doesn't reach to<br>
our living room.<br>
<br>
I recently noticed that Culver City has free wireless near<br>
Culver and Venice (for coverage map, see<br>
<a href="http://www.culvercity.org/en/Government/IT/WiFi/WiFiAccess.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.culvercity.org/en/Government/IT/WiFi/WiFiAccess.aspx</a> )<br>
and could see the ssid, but wasn't able to connect to it.<br>
<br>
So I looked around to see what I could do to increase range.<br>
The very cheapest usb wifi adaptor with a connector for an<br>
external antenna and said to work in Linux<br>
is the noname <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VX0GJY" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VX0GJY</a><br>
for $9. It worked with Ubuntu 12.04 first try (yay!),<br>
but didn't improve my range at all over the laptop's builtin wifi. Happily,<br>
replacing its included antenna with a real 5dbi antenna<br>
( <a href="http://aaxeon.com/products/industrial-wireless/accessories/bluetooth-zigbee-accessories/464" target="_blank">http://aaxeon.com/products/industrial-wireless/accessories/bluetooth-zigbee-accessories/464</a><br>
)<br>
I had for a bluetooth card gave me a range boost,<br>
and let me connect to the Time Warner hotspot from my living room.<br>
Dunno yet whether it will let me connect to Culver City's wifi,<br>
I'll check next time I'm over that way.<br>
<br>
Total cost, something like $20.<br>
Does anyone have a cheaper solution?<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">- Dan<br>
</font></span></blockquote></div><br></div>