Boost a Weak 3G Modem Signal, With a Saucepan

modeca writes "Using only commonly available kitchen equipment this guy demonstrates the amazing powers of an ordinary metal pan to boost the 3G reception of his USB modem. It really seems to work, check the right hand side of the graph in the video." It's not that crazy: cheap antenna boosting (for USB WiFi dongles, Bluetooth, and more) has been elevated to a fine art in New Zealand.

Easily done

[earnest murderer]

You can find plans for aluminum foil and cardboard reflectors in many places as well. Here's one now!

http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template/ [freeantennas.com]

They work great.

Re:Who knew?

[drinkypoo]

Who knew that tinfoil hats actually _boosted_ reception.

everyone but you [mit.edu]

Re:Top This! (no pun intended)

[Tehrasha]

Yes, we do. It is akin to a full body version of the Jewish yamacha, which is lined with tinfoil of course.

*facepalm*

Re:Hijacking advantage

[ShooterNeo]

Welcome to the club. People have been doing this since wi fi was first publicly available. There are special antennas available that are much better than improvised ones, as well as special wireless radios that are hacked to give a stronger signal. For a long time, everyone was using WEP for security so that basically anyone with the right equipment also had access.

Dim-sum scoop works on modem antennas too

[stimpleton]

I came accross the USB Wifi site [orconhosting.net.nz] by accident a couple years back. I recalled seeing the dim-sum scoops in the local chinese mini-mart up the road, so I went up and bought one (NZ$4.50), and leaned it behind my modem's wireless antenna, then went to my garage sleepout for guests, which previously was out of range. Using NetStumbler, I watched the graph while a friend adjusted the scoop in the house. It went up to a usable "Good/Excellant" signal.

I havent investigated why, but a wire mesh scoop seems better than a sold dish(Engineers will know I am sure).

Works well for WiMax

[Coert]

The approach works equally well with WiMax (clear.com). I am 5 miles from a tower, but get plenty of signal using a simple Al foil reflector. Boost was about 6 dBm.

Old time ham radio guys

[nurb432]

Already knew about this sort of stuff.. Kids these days ..

Re:Pots and pans ain't nothing new...

[rantingkitten]

Depends on the application, I guess. Years ago, I was out of work, and so my phone got shut off, along with my DSL, leaving me with no useful way of communicating with the world. If I put a laptop on this certain part of the kitchen counter I could get a really weak wireless signal from one of the neighbors, but not enough to be useful. So I put a wok next to the antenna of the computer, and with a little adjustment in direction here and there, got a signal that way, decent enough to actually stream video most of the time.

It was an ancient 233mhz laptop with Windows 2000, so I enabled ICS and ran a cable from it to my router, which then fed the rest of my network. I did this for two months, which was very useful for sending out resumes and such. Without the wok, it didn't work at all; with the wok, it was fairly reliable.

So, yes, you may be better off with a wok or something similar, if your needs are modest. I did have a cantenna, built by my friend, but didn't feel like opening the laptop case to figure out how to connect the wires properly, and that would have been even more directional than the wok with no good way to prop it up to aim.

Re:Most likely

[GrpA]

And fairly simple physics at that... The pot attenuates some signals and may even amplify others... The end result is a better S/N ratio and less lost packets due to errors.

I do the same, except I use a mesh spagetti strainer ( a big sieve ) and I've mounted a USB cable extender just below the focal point... Add my 3G dongle and away I go... up from 1 bar to 4 bars reception and my download speed doubles.

My neighbor now uses one for his mobile phone and then he uses bluetooth to take the call so he can leave his handset in there.

They are kind of directional though, but it's very repeatable.

GrpA