Reminds me of this guy who used the same technique on the receiver:
https://youtu.be/VZKc3PBs67c
I amplified my home's Wi-Fi with aluminum foil
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Re: I amplified my home's Wi-Fi with aluminum foil
#42Do not tilt the antenna though. Maximum emission of an dipole is perpendicular to its axis.
That seems intuitive and useful.
Re: I amplified my home's Wi-Fi with aluminum foil
#43The geek in me loves stuff like this. The old and jaded techie in me says just get something designed to solve the issue like: https://eero.com or the UniFi Mesh :)
From eero’s site: “From the window to the wall” — using pop culture references is risky when you don’t understand them.
Re: I amplified my home's Wi-Fi with aluminum foil
#44The geek in me loves stuff like this. The old and jaded techie in me says just get something designed to solve the issue like: https://eero.com or the UniFi Mesh :)
From eero’s site: “From the window to the wall” — using pop culture references is risky when you don’t understand them.
Skeet skeet skeet.
Re: I amplified my home's Wi-Fi with aluminum foil
#45I was thinking of doing something similar a few days ago but came to the conclusion — perhaps wrongly — that the inevitable creases in a DIY aluminium foil sheet would render it ineffective as a dish, due to the scatter created. Anyone more knowledgeable able to chime-in on the effect of creases here? I couldn’t find any mention of it in the article...
Most of the DIY's I've seen on this use aluminum cans. You could try that.
Re: I amplified my home's Wi-Fi with aluminum foil
#46Put 'em just behind the antenna like a dish aimed toward where you want to bend the signal to. It's not great, but it's cheap and easy.
I am using my neighbors WiFi, which I can only catch in my balcony. He stays above me, but diagonally opposite, so the source is quite away. Any way I can amplify the WiFi strength? So I need the source to be around in order to amplify?
You can put the dish on either end, although if you don't have some sort of external wifi antenna, it'll be trickier
Re: I amplified my home's Wi-Fi with aluminum foil
#47The geek in me loves stuff like this. The old and jaded techie in me says just get something designed to solve the issue like: https://eero.com or the UniFi Mesh :)
The consumer and frugal shopper in me sees the $400 price point, and doesn't think it compares favorable with a few dollars worth of aluminum foil.
Re: I amplified my home's Wi-Fi with aluminum foil
#48Aha I did something similar to this a while back. Had an ancient computer with a $2 WiFi dongle very far from the access point.
It could barely sustain a connection, never mind actually doing anything. So I cut up the neck of a bottle, covered with aluminium foil, and even added a little reciever at the focus point of the dish.
Signal bars went to a solid usable III.
Re: I amplified my home's Wi-Fi with aluminum foil
#49I don't think this is working the way he thinks it does.
What he's likely do is shielding the wifi receiver from co-channel interference, which is likely reducing the noise floor at the AP - which is giving him effectively more range, because now the AP can hear stations that are further away with greater ease.
I don't think this is giving expanded tx coverage lobes as his diagram indicates, its likely a function of lowering the noise floor that gives the extra coverage.
Re: I amplified my home's Wi-Fi with aluminum foil
#50I don't think this is working the way he thinks it does. What he's likely do is shielding the wifi receiver from co-channel interference, which is likely reducing the noise floor at the AP - which is giving him effectively more range, because now the AP can hear stations that are further away with greater ease. I don't think this is giving expanded tx coverage lobes as his diagram indicates, its likely a function of…
Yeah, something so imprecise isn't likely to work as he thinks. Proper shielding can do a lot more. If you made your house/apartment a Faraday cage and eliminated neighbors' AP's that would already solve most problems.