How to Boost Wifi Signals with a Wifi Repeater and antennas

If you are having trouble connecting to a wifi hotspot, your home wireless network or another person's network such as in an RV park there are a couple of different means of boosting the signal.

Instructions

1. Relocate your router or wireless adapter. There are three main ways to boost a signal from a wifi network. Adding a wifi repeater, adding a high gain wifi antenna at the receiving end or boosting the signal from the router from which the signal is originating.
   First, if you have a home network, try placing your router as high as possible, say on a shelf at head level first and see if it improves the signal throughout the house.
   You can also purchase an external antenna for most brands of routers. I won't go in to product sources in this article, but all of the products mentioned are for sale on e-Bay or Amazon.com at any given time. If you add an external, outside antenna to your router you will be increasing the range of your home network. This may not be desired if you are worried about someone hacking your network (always protect your network, never leave it open!) However, this may be an acceptable solution to cover a large office building or warehouse, farm or RV park where you grant access.

2. Add a high gain Wifi antenna on the receiving end . These are available with gains up to 38 decibels. You typically mount them outside the home, on a pole and aim them in the direction of the Wifi network you want to connect to. Many RV'ers and truckers use these to connect to wireless access points that may be up to a mile away.

3. Use a WiFi repeater. The third method to increase Wifi range in you home is to use a wifi repeater. These pick up the signals from your home Wifi network and resend them. You normally place a Wifi repeater halfway between your computer and the router. For example if the router is located in the kitchen in the far end of the house you would place the wifi repeater at a midpoint in the home to get a better signal to all areas.

Tips & Warnings

• When boosting your home wifi network in any of the ways described above remember that you need to enable your security settings. Enable WEP or similar encryption keys that keep others from stealing your wifi. Check with the manufacturer of your router or wireless adapter for compatible high gain antennas that do not violate FCC rules.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• More on Boosting Distant Wifi Signals