Extending my Wi-Fi reception

I work out of my car and often leech off of free Wi-Fi spots like Panera and Starbucks. Also, most of the time I am on and off the phone and don't like being inside of those places because of the noise so I sit in my car in one of the closest parking spots I can get. My problem is that here in Florida it can get real hot in the sun even with the a/c on so I try to find one in the shade but that can't always happen. A lot of times those spots are full or just aren't there so is there a way to extend my W-Fi reception on a laptop? I have seen the cell phone boosters that make my car a "cell phone zone" or something like that but no Wi-Fi versions. Has anyone tried something like this or have any ideas?

I would need to give reception to a laptop with built-in Wi-Fi and can't install any software or hardware that needs drivers because it is a work pc. If it matters it does have Bluetooth as well. Thanks for the help!

There's powerful USB wifi controllers you could use, they get good range.
From cheap TP-Link to high end Ubiquity.

However... since you can't install drivers you'll may want to by a little ethernet access point... TP-Link and Ubiquity come to mind again...

Add a smc connector to your lappy, screw in a big 16-17dBi antenna, or one with a magnetic base and cable and put it on the roof of your car when you are parked.

Shell said:

There's powerful USB wifi controllers you could use, they get good range.
From cheap TP-Link to high end Ubiquity.

However... since you can't install drivers you'll may want to by a little ethernet access point... TP-Link and Ubiquity come to mind again...

Click to expand...

Do you mean just a standard access point like we use in our house?

Add a smc connector to your lappy, screw in a big 16-17dBi antenna, or one with a magnetic base and cable and put it on the roof of your car when you are parked.

Click to expand...

Because it is a company laptop I can't add anything to it and the only ones I see are plugs. Am I looking at the right thing? Because this is the kind of idea I was thinking of if it could be done.

BugFreak said:

Do you mean just a standard access point like we use in our house?

Click to expand...

Basically, a lot of them can work as repeaters and ethernet bridges.

BugFreak said:

Because it is a company laptop I can't add anything to it and the only ones I see are plugs. Am I looking at the right thing? Because this is the kind of idea I was thinking of if it could be done.

Click to expand...

There are 3 ways you can go about that. All 3 ideas imply you getting a nice big antenna for it.

1. Find a usb (or pcmcia) wifi stick that has a smc connector on it, they exist.

2. Normal wifi stick, and add a smc connector it it.

3. Get a router with ddwrt on it, use it as a client.


Actually, that gave me an idea for a project. Mount an antenna on a car, run the line into a router in the trunk, and a network cable up to the front to config the router when needed. Not that I would do this... unless I have a reason.

Actually, that gave me an idea for a project. Mount an antenna on a car, run the line into a router in the trunk, and a network cable up to the front to config the router when needed. Not that I would do this... unless I have a reason.

Click to expand...

This was my thoughts exactly. I wasn't sure the router would really extend my reception but it's worth a shot. I think I will give it a shot with a simple DD-WRT linksys on the shelf behind my back seat to see if it gives me a better reception. That way I don't look like a total geek while I geek out.

BugFreak said:

This was my thoughts exactly. I wasn't sure the router would really extend my reception but it's worth a shot. I think I will give it a shot with a simple DD-WRT linksys on the shelf behind my back seat to see if it gives me a better reception. That way I don't look like a total geek while I geek out.

Click to expand...

WRT is pretty weak, any laptop with a good card and antenna integrated gets similar range.
You want a router that has good sensitivity and fairly high wattage.
But ya, basically any router would work, or access point, it just needs good firmware so it can act as a repeater, to connect it to networks you just log into the router and connect.
You could also have a VPN on the router so all your traffic is secure on unsecured wireless networks.

Shell said:

DD-WRT is pretty weak, any laptop with a good card and antenna integrated gets similar range.

Click to expand...

Doesnt that depend on the router? Cant you increase the transmission power on a wrt-54g v1?


On my old laptop, I added a smc jack, and with a 8-9dBi antenna, I easily got double the range. I always though a laptop was severely limited by the internal antenna.

Oroka Sempai said:

Doesnt that depend on the router? Cant you increase the transmission power on a wrt-54g v1?
On my old laptop, I added a smc jack, and with a 8-9dBi antenna, I easily got double the range. I always though a laptop was severely limited by the internal antenna.

Click to expand...

Whoops, put DD-WRT instead of WRT54G, DD-WRT firmware works well as repeater firmware.
Laptops really vary, some have decent antennas that go around the screen, some have terrible ones, a better antenna definitely helps downstream, upstream, not as much unless the stock antenna is so lacking that it can't run efficiently.
My TP-Link runs openwrt and Ubiquity the stock firmware, they get extreme range with a good antennas.