boosting my wifi NIC MiniPCI card

Thread Starter

mik3ca

Joined Feb 11, 2007
189
I have a wireless NIC (wifi network card) in my laptop that can't receive signals too well. I'm lucky I can get internet on it at home (West Hamilton). As soon as I hit Downtown, I get a couple of network names, but I am not able to connect to any of them. This is even with the internal laptop antenna's connected to the "Main" connector of the NIC.

I read up on the internet that external amplifiers connected to the card have made improvements to several people's connections.

I want to make my own amplifier and hook it up to my laptop antenna. I can make amplifiers in general, and even the worst amplifier can do something, even if it means boosting the signal by 1%.

So I was wondering, in a typical wifi card, is one pin of the antenna port the actual antenna that is shared simultaneously between both the transmitter and the receiver, and the other pin the ground?

I need to know how the "main" port works on a wifi card before I can continue.

and does the "aux" port help make a difference?
 

SgtWookie

Joined Jul 17, 2007
22,230
Instead of trying to build a booster, make a corner reflector. It'll take you under a half-hour using materials you already have, among many other benefits (like not voiding your warranty.) Depending upon how accurately you make and position it, you can get up to a 10dB increase in your signal (directionally, of course.)

Basically, you put the corner reflector on the opposite side of the laptop's WiFi antenna from where the WiFi source is, sort of like this:
<-o------------|
where:
< = corner reflector
o = your laptop's WiFi antenna
| = WiFi source/router
- = some arbitrary distance

If the WiFi source/router is under your control, you could put the corner reflector on the far side of the source to make the link unidirectional, rather than omnidirectional.

You may be having problems getting an open link downtown because their routers may be secured.
See this page:
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/Ez-10/
 
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