Kinda cool wi-fi extender trick

[Bogie]

http://www.break.com/index/how_to_boost_wireless_signal.html
 
Vid's safe, site's not.
 
Basically, wrap about 20' of ethernet cable from your wifi dealie to your computer around your cell phone, and it'll boost the signal. Parabolic tinfoil dish may improve things a little.
 
Kinda cool.
 

[m1911owner]

Umm... I don't think so...

[RevDisk]

 
Basically, wrap about 20' of ethernet cable from your wifi dealie to your computer around your cell phone, and it'll boost the signal. Parabolic tinfoil dish may improve things a little.
 
Kinda cool.

Uh.  No? 

First off, he plugged the cat 5 cable into the ethernet port.  Ethernet ports do not understand wireless protocols.  Might as well plug it into the SVGA or sound card ports.

Attempting to use a cat5, random salad bowl and aluminum foil to make a collector is a waste of time and perfectly good aluminum foil.   Parabolic reflectors need to be a specific shape to work, and you have to calculate the focal point.

See http://www.binarywolf.com/249/diy-parabolic-reflector.htm 

Not sure why he chose to wrap the cat5 around a cell phone.  Might as well use a pencil, magic rock or bottle of mountain dew.  Cell phones do not act as magical db amplication devices for 802.11.

[roo_ster]

A reply from my across-alley neighbor, who has spent the last ~30 working RF programs for Uncle Sam:

The phone idea does work, but true signal boost, signal to noise (S/N) would suffer during high traffic periods.   The best bet is to increase the routers output, increasing true signal without increasing noise. The DWRT Linksys router is capable of 70 to 80 dbm output without cooling, over 100 db with cooling.  Given the standard routers output is around 17 to 19 dbm, it is a minimum 3dbm  signal increase with no, or little, increase in noise. The antenna is a parabolic arrangement.  As stated in the video, only a small signal gain and it captures more noise.
If you want a thesis on why this work, let me know.  Otherwise, I going back to mopping floors