improving wifi signal, brick building

Hey i have a Toshiba a200 mr4 notebook and im connected to the school network via a wireless g connection. Im living in a dorm room and the whole building is brick. Theres a router down the hall along with a repeater somewhere. Sometimes my signal gets really weak and internet is pretty slow. I was thinking about getting a pcmcia or usb wireless adapter along with an antenna ran outside my door(approx 15feet). Do you think this would help me out?? any other suggestions?

 

If you know where the repeater or AP is located at, a beam antenna would be a big boost. To use the different antennas you must have a client card (or usb) that supports removable antennas. The beam antenna may work from inside your room if you find out where to point it. With most you do not want to add an additional coax to the antenna pig tail. If you do you you will have to much signal loss.

The beam antenna is the best choice because it will reject noise/interference for the surounding area.

 

hey thanks for the reply! you say a beam antenna would work well but would my whole room being brick make a difference??

another thing that happens to is whenever im running my microwave my signal drops completely (streaming music stops, messenger signs out) would the beam antenna help this as well? im guessing that's what you mean by noise/interference.

I was thinking of making a "cantenna" from a tutorial on the internet for my desktop before.. would one of these work fine as a beam antenna? ( http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html)

 

This is a type of beam antenna. With these type of antenna they reject noise & signal from all but 1 direction. Any walls you go through will decrease the signal, so you want to minimize the walls.

As to microwave interference it's hard to tell, if your trying to pickup the AP in the direction of the microwave probably not. If it's a different direction testing will only tell.

 

cool, thanks for the advice ill check it out