Signal Boosters

[1MoreFish4U]

I am going on a cross country trip and plan to play poker regularly using my laptop in hotels that offer free wireless.

The last time I did this the signal strength was pretty hit & miss.

Do any of the 'signal boosters' or similar equipment sold on ebay or any computer shops actually work, or are they just gimmicks?

I guess I should add that I have an Acer Laptop and it says I have "Acer Signal Up High-efficiency antenna technology". I do not know how to find out what kind of card it has - am not real computer savvy.

Thanks a lot for any responses.

[Beavis68]

I set up a Belkin wireless range extender for my dad in July and it works flawlessly. We set up the wireless router in the house, but he wanted to use his laptop in his aluminum construction shop. The signal was very weak and would drop regularly. I set the range extender in the window where the signal was strong and it broadcasts a powerful signal throughout the shop. It boosted the signal enough to get a good signal in a travel trailor that was about 150ft away from the extender.

If the hotel has a LAN connection, I believe you can also use them to connect wirelessly.

As long as there is a one spot in the room that gets a good signal the range extender will work nicely. If the signal is crap everywhere I probably won't help.

[1MoreFish4U]

Thanks for the reply Beavis. I googled it and did some reading, and it doesnt appear that this will solve the problem - primarily because soemtiems the whole room gets a minimum signal.

[Beavis68]

you are right that won't work. you still use it if there is a LAN connection in the room.

[pokergrader]

I'm not sure exactly what a "signal booster" is, but I can tell you there is only 1 way to get better wifi reception: Get a better antenna.

I have not researched this at all, so don't actually buy these things without research, but back in the day a lot of "wardrivers" used to get the orionco card and plug an external antenna to it to get huge reception. I'm not sure if those still exist, but 5 seconds of googling showed me a 5 dB gain antenna (you can get a higher gain antenna for better coverage connecting to this usb adapter with antenna plug would do the job.

[1MoreFish4U]

I dont know what a 'signal booster' is either - just a term I came across.

What you linked me to is what I was looking for. Going to order 1 today - thanks very much for taking time to respond.

[Beavis68]

it is basically a repeater for wifi. it picks up the signal from the router and rebroadcasts it.

[UbinTook]

i am actually building a "wok-fi" set-up...
http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/
But the reality is you want to just try using an external usb wifi adaptor. Disable your internal and use some thing like this...
http://computers.pricegrabber.com/wi...h=usb%2054mbps
You may want to get an extension cable so you can move the adaptor around to find the best signal.

That is for use with wireless G systems, which are the most common now (54mbps) you can spend a little more on a 108 MBPS ( wireless N, the NEW standard) that will extend range dramatically, but ONLY if the system is using N, but that is the direction manufacturers are going.

[Beavis68]

actually, the boosters may pick up the signal better since they have a larger external antena.

[UbinTook]

also look up "cantenna" there is a guy on ebay who builds and sells USB versions that are guaranteed a 14 DBi gain.( your regular antenna is 2DBi)