Cheap Wi-Fi signal booster DIY hacks tested

[Jan]

The cheap way to improve your Wi-Fi performance

MyBroadband tested a few low budget DIY options to improve your Wi-Fi reception, and one of the cheapest options — simply adding a reflector — produced the best results.

If you want to improve the reception and range of your Wi-Fi service, you have a few options.

 

[Peon]

Anyone remember the war driving with antennas in pringles cans?

 

[Sapphiron]

Anyone remember the war driving with antennas in pringles cans?

Brings back memories

I wonder if @TheRoDent also still has his Sentech MyWireless modem.

I was also running around with my Pringles antenna connected to my 256kbps Sentech Connection. All the ADSL People had their 3GB monthly caps. We were running around with the first uncapped "broadband" connections in SA. It was great for a few months, then the service got congested. for me it was good for a few years. It was the original iburst/Rain experience. Wonder if @TheRoDent still has backups of www.poopband.co.za?

Back in those days, MyADSL was just a forum (no formal news site) and the big talking points were 3GB caps, lack of coverage, where to get mp3 ringtones, how to joint your local WUG and hosting counter-strike servers.

 

[mercurial]

Pfft. Just get the COVID-19 vaccine. You'll be a walking wifi hotspot.

 

[Peon]

Brings back memories

I wonder if @TheRoDent also still has his Sentech MyWireless modem.

I was also running around with my Pringles antenna connected to my 256kbps Sentech Connection. All the ADSL People had their 3GB monthly caps. We were running around with the first uncapped "broadband" connections in SA. It was great for a few months, then the service got congested. for me it was good for a few years. It was the original iburst/Rain experience. Wonder if @TheRoDent still has backups of www.poopband.co.za?

Back in those days, MyADSL was just a forum (no formal news site) and the big talking points were 3GB caps, lack of coverage, where to get mp3 ringtones, how to joint your local WUG and hosting counter-strike servers.

aaahhhh the memories.....

 

[gotaway]

Brings back memories

I wonder if @TheRoDent also still has his Sentech MyWireless modem.

I was also running around with my Pringles antenna connected to my 256kbps Sentech Connection. All the ADSL People had their 3GB monthly caps. We were running around with the first uncapped "broadband" connections in SA. It was great for a few months, then the service got congested. for me it was good for a few years. It was the original iburst/Rain experience. Wonder if @TheRoDent still has backups of www.poopband.co.za?

Back in those days, MyADSL was just a forum (no formal news site) and the big talking points were 3GB caps, lack of coverage, where to get mp3 ringtones, how to joint your local WUG and hosting counter-strike servers.

Before my budget allowed the luxury of Pringles, I just placed the MyWireless modem inside a big cooking pot, pointing all of that at the window.
Connection was good enough to run a trivia channel on IRC.

And then... Sentech phoned me, moaning about the 20GB of data I used the previous month. We had a long discussion about abuse, them allowing the usage, the uncapped nature of the product. It was fun while it lasted.

PS: I used 20GB again the next month

 

[Willie Trombone]

Hart frying pan and double diamond 2.4 ghz antenna to link up the neighbors. Like the tin can phone equivalent in WiFi.

 

[TheRoDent]

Brings back memories

I wonder if @TheRoDent also still has his Sentech MyWireless modem.

I was also running around with my Pringles antenna connected to my 256kbps Sentech Connection. All the ADSL People had their 3GB monthly caps. We were running around with the first uncapped "broadband" connections in SA. It was great for a few months, then the service got congested. for me it was good for a few years. It was the original iburst/Rain experience. Wonder if @TheRoDent still has backups of www.poopband.co.za?

Back in those days, MyADSL was just a forum (no formal news site) and the big talking points were 3GB caps, lack of coverage, where to get mp3 ringtones, how to joint your local WUG and hosting counter-strike servers.

Haha, memories.

Wayback Machine

web.archive.org

Wayback Machine

web.archive.org

Sentech was good for a while, but in the end ended up in SEO fail.

Private internet connectivity in the form of "unregulated" fibre is what has made the change.

I remember still fighting with ICASA for being able to cross the road with WiFi (which Telkom vehemently opposed) , so that we could run JAWUG.

We won. And so did .za telecommunications in general. Hats off to Altech for fighting the minister (Ivy) at the time. It was a seminal change in policy when all licensees could self-provide,

 

[TheRoDent]

Before my budget allowed the luxury of Pringles, I just placed the MyWireless modem inside a big cooking pot, pointing all of that at the window.

Lol, good times. The cantennas and other reflectors worked a charm.

 

[TheRoDent]

I wonder if @TheRoDent also still has his Sentech MyWireless modem.

I still do, actually, but only to check if the driver I contributed to the linux kernel still works (occasionally).

It does. But there's nothing to connect to

 

[Swa]

Funny, I tried all of these homemade cantenna stuff with HSPA and could never make it work correctly. Always got worse signal. In the end the best option was to simply cut out a piece of wallpaper and stick the modem there.

 

[r00igev@@r]

Just came here to mention, extenders = spawn of Satan

 

[now05ster]

Haha, memories.

Wayback Machine

web.archive.org

Wayback Machine

web.archive.org

Sentech was good for a while, but in the end ended up in SEO fail.

Private internet connectivity in the form of "unregulated" fibre is what has made the change.

I remember still fighting with ICASA for being able to cross the road with WiFi (which Telkom vehemently opposed) , so that we could run JAWUG.

We won. And so did .za telecommunications in general. Hats off to Altech for fighting the minister (Ivy) at the time. It was a seminal change in policy when all licensees could self-provide,

Haha

Sentech and MyWireless sucks. Bad performance, bad customer service and bad broadband. - Helldesk Quotes

South African walls and cement are different to cement walls 'overseas' - they contain some kind of carbon that overseas cement walls dont have, so this may be blocking your signal.

 

[Sapphiron]

Haha, memories.

Wayback Machine

web.archive.org

Wayback Machine

web.archive.org

Sentech was good for a while, but in the end ended up in SEO fail.

Private internet connectivity in the form of "unregulated" fibre is what has made the change.

I remember still fighting with ICASA for being able to cross the road with WiFi (which Telkom vehemently opposed) , so that we could run JAWUG.

We won. And so did .za telecommunications in general. Hats off to Altech for fighting the minister (Ivy) at the time. It was a seminal change in policy when all licensees could self-provide,

Todays kids wont understand that back in the day, when you had something to complain about, there was no twitter. You had to create a whole website and without any of the easy tools or services available today.

If somebody made a website to complain about your company, you know you really screwed up.

 

[Sapphiron]

Funny, I tried all of these homemade cantenna stuff with HSPA and could never make it work correctly. Always got worse signal. In the end the best option was to simply cut out a piece of wallpaper and stick the modem there.

The issue there is likely the frequency used. Cellular signal is all over the place. a 900mhz antenna wont really work on a 3500mhz signal and vice versa.

wifi cantena's tend to be tweaked for 2.4ghz specifically. Its why you need to follow measurements exactly.

 

[Peon]

Todays kids wont understand that back in the day, when you had something to complain about, there was no twitter. You had to create a whole website and without any of the easy tools or services available today.

If somebody made a website to complain about your company, you know you really screwed up.

Yeah I did this. Created a blogspot account about ADSL issues in Harties. Asked some very difficult questions about UMC's and why a certain estate had 2 of them, and the estate was under 1km from the exchange.

 

[gotaway]

Todays kids wont understand that back in the day, when you had something to complain about, there was no twitter. You had to create a whole website and without any of the easy tools or services available today.

If somebody made a website to complain about your company, you know you really screwed up.

www.neverflysaa.com ?

 

[Swa]

The issue there is likely the frequency used. Cellular signal is all over the place. a 900mhz antenna wont really work on a 3500mhz signal and vice versa.

wifi cantena's tend to be tweaked for 2.4ghz specifically. Its why you need to follow measurements exactly.

True and I admit I probably screwed it up or didn't try hard enough. Sometimes it would work and then at other times not and you could never find the exact position for the modem.