I just got a g4 ibook. I dont know too much about the apple scene yet so bear with me if I'm a noob. I was wondering if anyone knows how to make a high-powered antenna to hook up to the wireless card. I really wanna get some distance on this. I was wondering if anyone had any advise on what to do, or where to go. Reason being, I want to be able to reach a wireless hotspot which is somewhat far away. I was wondering if that was possible.
Thanks!
Ibook G4 Antenna
May 12, 2005 - 8:42pm
#1
Ibook G4 Antenna
If you pick up the latest copy of MacAddict they have a guide to makeing a very cheap, high powered antenna. Or you can probally find it on their website.
The hardest part will be finding a good place to run the cable.
There are several mods for a USB WiFI dongle that can be modded to be a very long range directional setup. With one of htose you won't be modding your iBook directly, and if something does go wrong, you're only out the $40 USB WiFi dongle and any other parts you use, not the whole $1k+ laptop.
This is a good idea.
Or... There are lots of high-gain antennas out there — I've even seen instructions for building a homemade one from a tin can and spare parts — and it'd be a simple matter to hook something like that up to a wireless router. With the router set up to act as a wireless access point or bridge, that'd be pretty slick. Just run an ethernet cable between the router & the Mac and you're set.
You don't mention what your budget on this project is, but this would still be a pretty affordable deal.
Can I have a link for the USB WiFi mod? I have one of these, and I get horrible reception.
Googling for "usb wifi antenna" gets here quick: http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/
THe best advantage fo the USB adapter hack is that you don't have long runs of cable from the antenna to the WiFi device. Thus you have a nearly loss-less link as far as you want ot run the USB cable. For direct antennas for PCI or PC Card wifi the cables runs are best kept very short to minimize signal loss. The USB hack is much better in that case.
but the MacAddict antenna's are crap.
http://wireless.gumph.org/articles/homemadeomni.html
http://flakey.info/antenna/omni/quarter/
http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html
I've made each of these. Just remember, wifi is 2way. If you add a really high gain directional antenna to your laptop, you might be able to "hear" them but they might not be able to "hear" you.