Boost Your Wi-Fi Signal Using Only a Beer Can 229
First time accepted submitter AmyVernon writes with a small hack that "is supposed to boost signal strength by at least 2 to 4 bars," and which requires little more than a can of beer (or Orangina). She writes: "What you need: scissors, a utility knife, some adhesive putty and an empty beer can. The brand doesn't matter for the router, but I suppose it would be cooler looking if it were Asahi or Stella Artois than if it were Budweiser." Perhaps this will be added one day to my favorite (and very extensive!) list of low-budget Wi-Fi amplifying rigs.
Even better... (Score:3)
...if you have a satellite dish (which neighborhood doesn't?)
you can just place your WiFi Dongle right in the focus area, or even various other places in front of your dish, and you'll have more hotspots than you EVER dreamed of.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
They indeed are. Sat dishes are fantastic for leeching wifi from a location where you can see half the city, because you can *literally* reach wherever you can see, but you'll have to move the dish around a lot. And if you live in a second-floor flat you won't be doing much leeching at all. Also keep in mind that you need to keep
Re:Even better... (Score:5, Funny)
that you need to keep
Someone elbowed that sat dish again, didn't they? ;)
Beer booster (Score:3, Funny)
The attractiveness of the opposite sex greatly increases by two to four beers.
Re: (Score:3)
"The attractiveness of the opposite sex greatly increases by two to four beers."
Which begs the question of feeding THEM the beer or drinking it oneself.
Re:Beer booster (Score:4, Funny)
That's an easy optimization problem.
Drink until they look good, continue feeding them beer until they think you look good. The problems are freeloaders (people better looking then you leaching your drunk girls), being 'too drunk to fuck', running out of money, STDs, rape issues and really really fat girls running your own game against you.
Re: (Score:2)
i guess you need to drink more then?
Re: (Score:2)
Then again, the number of bars you visit in the evening correlates with the chance to be behind bars in the morning.
Orangina comes in cans? (Score:2)
I thought its "thing" was the weirdly shaped bottle [wikimedia.org].
Re: (Score:3)
You can buy it in cans (certainly done so here in the UK). Why you'd want to is another matter.
Re: (Score:2)
cans float in water.. it's a little more difficult to break the neck off a can and use as a weapon. but more practical, a lot of event areas as well as concerned parents bar glass bottles so your broken bottle today doesn't end up causing the cut foot 2 weeks later when little sally runs across it barefoot.
But i agree, otherwise, it's not a good idea to trade a bottle for a can.
Lameness and collateral lameness (Score:2, Informative)
1. This is old news. /..
2. Amplified signal power in your direction == amplified noise for your neighbors in other directions.
3. This is probably illegal in many jurisdictions.
4. Nerds don't measure "signal strength" in "bars". Use S/N or leave
5. ???
6. Profit!!
Re:Lameness and collateral lameness (Score:5, Informative)
OTOH, amplified signal power in one direction = reduced noise for your neighbors in other directions. Granted, if you measure signal in "bars", it's safe to assume you know nothing about laying out a site for minimal interference, but for those who know and care, directional antennas of modest gain can be quite effective for making your home network work without tragedying up the commons.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Obviously you're going to measure the maximum gain and adjust the power output to avoid exceeding the allowed EIRP. Then you'll still have better reception, and if the other side also uses a high-gain antenna pointed at your access point, you can each hear the other side better (because you lowered the received noise and increased the received signal), radiate less total power and create less noise for other Wifi users. That's what you're going to do, right?
Re:Lameness and collateral lameness (Score:5, Insightful)
2. Amplified signal power in your direction == amplified noise for your neighbors in other directions.
3. This is probably illegal in many jurisdictions.
This isn't amplification. It's just a reflector.
Re: (Score:2)
S/N measured in dB.
Or signal strength in dBm.
At least this seems to be an alternative to the cantenna [uberreview.com] solution.
And there are a lot of cantenna articles on /. already: http://ask.slashdot.org/tag/cantenna [slashdot.org]
Bars (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Bars (Score:5, Insightful)
Asking for figures to be given with units which actually make sense indicates competence, not arrogance. The arrogance, if any, is the submitter assuming that everyone uses the same software as them (boosting by "at least 2 to 4 bars" indicates that it can boost by more, which would be quite impressive with software where 4 bars is as high as it goes), but I think it's fairer to assume ignorance than arrogance.
Re:Bars (Score:5, Insightful)
Asking for figures to be given with units which actually make sense indicates competence, not arrogance....
Not really. For the person asking the question "Will this mean I can get reliable wifi in my bedroom now?" the qualitative experience of "I'm seeing two to four more bars" is a relatively meaningful unit. The little 'bar'-type displays of wifi signal strength, or battery life, or whatever other electronic property one might wish a consumer to be aware of virtually always have between 4 and 6 bars at full scale; one doesn't have to be familiar with a particular brand or device in order to interpret a 2-to-4-bar increase as significant-but-not-magical.
In contrast, saying "The reflector provided me with a 4 dB gain" isn't helpful to the average individual ("The router is how loud now?") and shrug-worthy to any competent electrical engineer ("Meh; that's about what I would have guessed. The gain is going to depend quite a bit on exactly how the can is placed and shaped - and on the design of my router - anyway; I'll just fiddle with mine until I get the best signal.")
Demanding precise measurements in technically-correct units characterizing a one-off device held together with Blu-Tack isn't an indication of competence, it's an indication of arrogance and pedantry.
Re: (Score:2)
Depends what you are measuring. Signal to Noise ratio can be more important than signal strength. It would also be helpful to see how this affects reception on the WAP end.
Re:Bars (Score:5, Funny)
Or beer for that matter. I mean, Stella Artois?
First time accepted submitter? Hopefully the last time too.
Re: (Score:2)
Wife Beater (Score:2)
"Initially marketed as a premium, ever-so-stylish French lager (even if it was actually Belgian) aimed at the upmarket drinker, it rapidly became "a success story beyond anything the beer trade had seen", says Graham Holter, editor of Off Licence News.
The advertising campaign was hugely successful in increasing awareness of the brand. And this was soon coupled with huge price promotions. Despite the "reassuringly expensive" tagline, Stella Artois is very often anything but.
Says one advertising executive who
Re: (Score:2)
Lol true. In the UK Stella Artois is referred to as "wife beater"
Re: (Score:2)
Actually it is, all the more so when compared to the alternatives available there.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually it is, all the more so when compared to the alternatives available there.
As a Belgian citizen, i second that.
Though it's a matter of taste i guess : i'm sure some beer which is loved here, won't find a market in the US.
Re: (Score:3)
I guess you're not familiar with the heavily-booming US microbrewery industry.
Once we were legally allowed to brew at home again, people started it, and some people discovered that they made some killer beer, so they went into business. There's been a trend towards more "extreme" sorts of beer, but that's subsiding -- but was and is a pretty good agent for change and the creation of new and delicious beer. The US is a little less... mired in tradition, let's say.. than European brewers. That basically
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The microbrewery industry began in Egypt (if current archeology is correct).
It never died, so going rah-rah for particular nations is stupid.
I prefer going rah-rah for particular brews. Obsidian oatmeal stout! Rah rah.
Re: (Score:2)
It only really began in the US after we were once again allowed to brew beer at home ;) We had that whole Prohibition thing for a spell -- which is why American beer is considered shit beer, incidentally -- and I think it was 1976? that common citizens without license were allowed to make beer at home... yeah, fucking weird, huh? I'm off on that year I'm certain.. but it was relatively recently.
Prohibition.. ugh. It set our liquor industry back decades, and beer.. yanno. Back in the day, American be
Re: (Score:2)
The thing is, weak export versions of boring European beers seem to be considered strong, special and/or hip in the US. Same thing with Heineken.
Re: (Score:2)
It does not "boost" the signal at all. It directs it. Basically it makes a directional antenna out of your omnidirectinal antenna. How much it helps, depends on your home and the placement of your wifi access point. If your wifi ap happens to be in the center of your domicile (where a reasonable person would put it) this cantenna does more harm than good.
Re: (Score:2)
I thought the placement of the reflector was odd. They intentionally tell you to place the antenna as close as possible to the back of the dish (since the antenna goes through the "drink hole"). The focus point is definitely nowhere near there, they should have cut it so that the drink hole would be as far as possible from the back of the dish.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Bars (Score:5, Funny)
My iPad displays its WiFi signal strength in kilopascals, or you can change this in the settings to display millimeters of mercury.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Don't be silly (Score:2)
This story is about beer cans, so I thought it would be obvious, but I'll spell it out for you: It means that you can see at least 2-4 more Pubs' WiFi hotspots from your flat.
Re: (Score:2)
Real nerds measure 'pressure' in (kilo)pascals
Re:The SlashDot Experience (Score:2)
On Saturday, it's not even nighttime yet, judging from the Scoring 5 on Informative, I'd say the Slashdotters have started drinking WAY too early, sheesh...
Other possible uses ? (Score:3, Funny)
Does it work with the iPhone4 ?
Re: (Score:2)
Does it work with the iPhone4 ?
The Iphone ís the beer can! [mshcdn.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Does it work with the iPhone4 ?
Yawn. Actually Holding the [iPhone 4] with no case actually improves WiFi signal strength by a measurable 5 to 10 dB. [anandtech.com]
And if you're not a redneck... (Score:4, Informative)
you could run the freeantennas.com template [freeantennas.com] through your printer, cut out the bits, glue them together, slap a bit of tin foil on the back, and off you go. It really takes less than ten minutes to make one. That's an easy 8..9dB extra gain.
The thing that's critical to beer can and paper-and-tinfoil construction is a reasonable parabolic shape and positioning the antenna at that parabole's focal point. Though a nice square angle will do too, but there again it's the focal point that does it.
News? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, and no. If you cut up a pringles can and use it like this cut-up beer can, then yes. But the trick of the pringles can was that you could use it as a waveguide, or you could put a yagi inside it. It's pretty poor as a circular waveguide for 2.4GHz actually as it's too small; dunno about the yagi inside.
Building a good waveguide is a bit trickier than this. It starts with most materials expecting you to do all the horrible math yourself (it boils down to two constants, eventually, after you've fed the r
Re: (Score:2)
I was thinking the same thing, and a Pringles can is easier and cheaper. This is kind of like a higher form of dupes.
Bottles (Score:2)
Proper beer comes in bottles, or barrels, you insensitive clods!
Needs to be formed to a parabola (Score:3)
So it would be better with a beer can *and* a couple of pieces of foamcore cut into parabolas...
Re: (Score:2)
Actually that is false since you're assuming the receiver has no gain. A typical small antenna found on wifi routers have significant gain horizontally as you rarely have a computer sitting above or below one. By combining the cylindrical shape of the beer can with the horizontally streched doughnut radiation patern of the receiving antenna, the result actually looks like a parabolic dish with a point receiver. A parabolic dish would provide some additional gain but no where near a much a people commonly th
Boosting Signal is Not Always Good (Score:2)
The Day That Slashdot Died (Score:2)
A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How that tech news used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those geeknerds dance
And, maybe, theyâ(TM)d be happy for a while.
Re: (Score:2)
When taco announced the he'd be leaving
Bad news on the front page
Geeks left in fits of nerd rage
I cant remember if I cried
The day this site would no longer provide
But something touched me deep inside
the day... slashdot died.
Re: (Score:2)
slashdot should roll back a bit.
like, having to to go to "options" for checking no karma bonus sucks big time.
sucks even more when you come back from that options menu and see slashdot reloading the page for no apparent reason and the already written text disappears into oblivion.
slashdot doesn't need ajax, especially when it's done fucked up...
Deja vu ? (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure this was covered years ago via http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template/ [freeantennas.com]
Also, pretty sure the signal is not amplified, just directed.
But that's ten cents!!! (Score:2)
Ten cents is ten cents in this economy...
Expensive beer? (Score:2)
I thought the whole point was to go cheap.
Re: (Score:2)
All the author is trying to do is impress us that he/she/it is old enough to drink. That falls down flat as all the beer reference says is they're not old enough to know a decent brew.
router brand doesn't matter? (Score:2)
The brand doesn't matter for the router, but I suppose it would be cooler looking if it were Asahi or Stella Artois than if it were Budweiser
I didn't know Budweiser made routers!
Visualising radio waves (Score:2)
Speaking about radio waves, I always have a hard time visualizing how they fly through the air, what shields them, what reflects them, what is transparent for them, etc. So does anybody know images that demonstrate how the world would look like when seen with radio waves instead of regular light, how a room would look like just illuminated by your WLan router? For IR one can find a few nice pictures such as these [nasa.gov], but for radio waves I haven't been able to find anything, aside of course from astronomy pictu
'Pringles' Rule OK (Score:3)
Even easier (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There's an antenna guy who put up designs for a parabolic wi-fi reflector that had the correct geometry for reflecting and focusing wi-fi signals. You printed it out on card stock, cut, folded, glued and covered the reflective surface with foil. The part which held the reflector in the correct shape had a hole you used to slip it over the access point's antenna that would position the reflector just right. The effect of this thing was quite dramatic.
Don't have the link still but people could probably stil
crap antennas (Score:2)
What utter useless crap. This is just a reboot of the Pringle's can antenna, which may have some use for war-driving but is not so great for actual communication. When you use such an antenna to narrow your signal's transmission pattern and to focus received transmissions, you need to have some sort of accuracy to match its precision, and that accuracy and precision have to be repeatable, and survive the environment they are installed it. This is not the days of old, where good antennas cost a few hundred d
Only works on external antennas (Score:2)
Question ? (Score:2)
Are you fucking kidding me? (Score:2)
Hello...?!? Early 21st century called and wants its' DIY project back.
Cantennas have been around for over a decade.
In fact a really simple search... of /. , shows it was first mentioned
(Pringles) on August 27th, 2001:
http://slashdot.org/story/01/08/27/172225/Wireless-Freenets-As-The-Parasitic-Grid [slashdot.org]
I'm glad we are getting more "frist tme pissers" but it would be nice
if we get some fresh articles with it.
-AI
Re: (Score:2)
Took me forever to remember/find who created the Pringles cantenna,
Andrew Clapp
http://www.netscum.com/~clapp/wireless.html [netscum.com]
-AI
Re: (Score:2)
Do you really expect a list?
Re: (Score:3)
It's so we know who to start hating, should the need arise.
Re: (Score:3)
In the UK it's nicknamed "Wifebeater". The premium marketing here is nothing more than a desperate ploy by InBev to link it with prestige and class, as opposed to domestic violence.
It's not very nice lager anyway. Mind you I drink Budweiser* so who's kidding who here?
* it's a light, refreshing lager which is ideal for summer evenings, and it's a damn sight better than some of the pisswater we have over here like Carling. That said I'd rather have Innis and Gunn all things considered.
Re: (Score:3)
Wait... You're calling something pisswater compared to Budweiser?!
Jesus. That crap is pisswater compared to...well... water
Re: (Score:2)
Carling is worse than Budweiser by a long shot. It's standard cheap British beer for people who drink to get drunk. It tastes like shit. Budweiser is just an easy-drinking, decent (not great) tasting refreshing beer.
Re: (Score:2)
If you think you have tasted the worst the beer world can offer, you clearly havent tasted Emu here in Western Australia.
Re: (Score:2)
If you think you have tasted the worst the beer world can offer, you clearly havent tasted Emu here in Western Australia.
You guys drink birds? You're doing it wrong.
Re: (Score:2)
no, Emu is a brand of pisswater (jokingly labeled "beer" by its manufacturer)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Nope, I am talking about the American Budweiser and not Budvar (which perversely I haven't tried - and probably won't for the foreseeable future, thanks to my diet plan I can't drink beer). Mind you, this is when I want lager - if I drink beer (which I will probably celebrate with when said diet is over) I'd rather drink ale. Aforementioned Innis and Gunn probably.
Re: (Score:2)
My wife and I observed (when we lived in Harrogate) that people who drink to get drunk in England choose cider. We called them "cider kids". They wanted to get drunk but weren't grown up enough to appreciate beer.
Re: (Score:2)
lol keep digging :D
Re: (Score:2)
someone who has never tried natural light
Re: (Score:2)
Lol , being a Belgian citizen i suddenly feel great : we certainly have beer much is much ,much better than stella artois ( which to me , is pisswater ).
If you ever come to Belgium, let me know . I'll introduce you to our finest beers.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If you want a low-end session beer, I recommend Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Not much bittering hops, a fair amount of flavoring hops, and the price is right.
Re: (Score:2)
Bud isn't even consistent in the USA.
St. Louis bud is watery but drinkable (barely, if their is nothing else but Carona or Coors), just like Michelob (all from St. Louis). N. Cal east bay bud is unbelievably vile. I'd rather die of thirst. When beer is that watery, the water has to be good.
3.2% beer is awful, no matter the brand. Likely what you got in Fl.
The Canadians have traditionally upped the alcohol content 1% on beer they contract brew. It's a matter of 51st stater pride and anti-freeze. They
Re: (Score:2)
In the UK
A Brit commenting on beer? Call me when you discover drinking your beer cold.
Joking, I lived a while in the UK and enjoyed more than a few pints of bitter...
Re: (Score:2)
The only reason you'd ever drink beer *cold* is if it tastes so disgusting it has to numb your tastebuds before they register what it actually tastes like.
Beer should be drunk at cellar temperature, somewhere between 6 and 8ÂC.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
A little perspective please. In comparison to awful Anheiser-Bush American Piss Water lagers, Stella is a fine lager. In comparison to the fine craft-beer American Ales made by a myriad of quality brewers, Stella is indeed ordinary.
"Premium Beer" might be a marketing term in Europe (I never saw it when I lived in England or Germany) but in the US it is code for "super-extra-piss-water". It is used by Anheiser Bush, Miller, Coors, et. al. to fool Bubbas into thinking they are drinking good beer, when they ar
Re: (Score:3)
Maybe a cell repeater with a directional antenna... might be worth it if the signal is better somewhere close to/around the house in a spot where you could safely place such a device.
Pretty expensive though, like $250 and up...
Re: (Score:2)
. . . image that the Internet is a series of beer can tubes . . . running from your house to the 3G masts . . . how many beer cans that you will need depends on your distance from the masts, and the signal strength that you want, measured in bars . . .
Re: (Score:3)
Hate to break it to you, but Napoleon lost. That boring bit that used to be the Spanish Netherlands is independent again.
Re: (Score:2)
Where did it all go wrong for the beer they call 'wife beater'? [dailymail.co.uk] (The Daily Fail had a win for a change)
Re:"cooler" with Stella Artois ?? WTF ?? (Score:4, Funny)
Last time I checked Stella Artois was a Belgian brand.
Yes... but why stand in the way of this kid's bizarre (and entertaining) self-hatred?
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, it is. But the manufacturers have deliberately confused the issue by marketing it with adverts based on French cinema, and shot at locations in France. I can only assume the idea is to make us assume it's French (although why they'd do this I have no idea -- my experience of French beer is that it's uniformly poor).
Re: (Score:2)
I suppose the awfulness of American Budweiser is lost on you, otherwise you would have modded my post +1 funny.
I suppose the fact that "Czechvar" and "Budéjovicky Budvar" on the can everywhere else in the world is lost on you? Budweiser appears on the cans in the EU only. But yeah, as a beer fan, and somebody who has been to the brewery, I'm fully aware that Budvar is the original "Budweiser".
Then again, as a fan of beer, I generally don't drink it out of a can (few exceptions being some craft brewers
Re: (Score:2)
(Smug) Herp. Derp. I guess we can't all be electrical engineers (/smug).
It is indeed a 2 way street. Any change to an antenna that increases its tr