DIY Tinfoil antennae really work!

Deadspots in my work area had left me desperate for signal, to the point where I would perform ritualistic signal dances before attempting to use my laptop in them, and on several occasions risked my hardware by cranking up the router antennae gain to over 104dB until it became unstable (probably saving me from the FCC SWAT). Even still that gave little more than a few extra Mbps.

Ready to give up and buy a repeater, on a whim I recalled the numerous DIY tinfoil antennae I had seen on the net (which I had always regarded as mere rumour) and decided to jerry-rig a simple one. I cut a 10cm square piece of tinfoil, and because I needed to broadcast the signal up through a few floors, I placed it on the floor next to the router, then pointed one of the antennae down so that it was parallel with the tinfoil and floor (theoretically acting as a highly-non-parabolic dish).

Suddenly, the deadspots normally idling between disconnected and 11 Mbps, now gave a steady 36-48Mbps. That's roughly a 400% or 6.4dB increase in signal strength, all from a mere 10cm piece of tinfoil paper!
So if you're experiencing deadspot issues, I highly recommend considering your tinfoil options!

 

Would this work with all routers?

I made an anntena dish out of foil and cardboard for my xbox router and it seemed to help a little bit but nothing incredible.

 

can you point to a specific DIY guide that seem close to what you did ?

i might need to to this to cause i have a dead spot right where my computer is located -.- it works everywhere around

 

There are some factors you might consider if your xbox router has one or two antennae (i.e. transmit and receive) or where they are pointing (finding the right direction is key, for example mine was pointed parallel to the floor to broadcast upwards). You can try moving it around and observing the signal readouts from your xbox.

Unfortunately it's been a while since I've read any of those DIY articles and no single one inspired me, just the idea in general that it could be possible. Mine really wasn't worthy of an article since it was literally just a piece of tinfoil on the floor underneath the antennae. I was lucky, it was parallel to the floor, which saved me from having to construct an upright dish out of cardboard.

Here's another site I've recently been perusing: Do-It-Yourself Wireless Antennas Update and Resource Center
They probably have an article on tinfoil antennae.

 

"antennae gain to over 104dB" that would be a bit big antenna like a huge satellite dish and a really big one

I'm fine from 2-9dB a 24dB antenna could reach 10Km

You must mean cranking up the router and adapter mW
Custom firmware tomato/.. can unlock a lot higher mW from the routers.
And usb adapters up to 2W (2000mW) atm using 1W ones. (need linux to unlock the maximum)
Its fcc nightmare and wardrivers dream ^^

Some custom antennas can give a lot longer and better signal, most of them working going from omni to directional to get rid of the background noise.
And to make them doesn't take long or hard.

 

Yep sorry, meant 104 mW (about 1.6dB gain from the usual 71mW in DD-WRT).

 

I think you can go as high as 4000mW b4 needing license.
The higher mW we go the higher noise it will generate too and that will degrade the connection quality and speed, will get disrupted/disconnected by outside noise,
unless the signal is concentrated/pointed to exact direction.

Windsurfer/tinfoil to direct signal/filter noise:


My router default uses 40mW atm. running it with 120mW but max is 251mW tomato firmware wrt54gl.

Alfa awus050nh is N compatible 500mW adapter but still poor linux implementation (couldn't get it to max out 20dB) still a lot stronger then the builtin because external antenna.
Alfa awus036h 1W new version since it is just a bit upgraded then the first version fully compatible and can go 30dB gives extreme range to scan ..
The 2W version not fully compatible yet either.

 

I did a similar mod but I used an usb wireless card with a 6ft extension. I then bought a cheap wire strainer that I cut a slit in the middle of. I put the wireless usb card in it (with some electrical tape around the usb so it wasn't touching the strainer) and put the usb extension on the other side. This made a mini satellite dish and cost about $2. I have also made one out of plastic Tupperware and tinfoil which didn't do as well as the strainer. I'll try to find the links to this and edit this post with them.