Building a wifi booster DIY style
I recently purchased a wifi router and managed to set it up without a problem. I am able to roam all the areas of my house perfectly, but when it comes to the outside room, the signal dies in the exact position I would like my laptop to be placed. I took a look online for various equipment I could purchase to boost my signal and everything seemed like a mission and quite pricey. It was at this point I decided to build my own booster based on some simple signal principles.
Required: Cardboard, Tinfoil, Scissors, Pencil and some Glue.
That’s it. Get yourself the following items and you are ready to begin. Simple cut out the carboard in the required shapes, cover them with tinfoil, join them together and that’s it. No jokes, it’s extremely easy and yes, it DOES WORK. I am now able to surf the Internet over wifi from the outside room. The signal isn’t amazing or anything, but there’s a signal and there never used to be.
After Googling around for some time trying to find dimensions and the likes for the rader, I came across this PDF file, which you may print and use – saved me hours of work!
 
That’s it. It took all of 20 mins, including the searching for the dimensions of the parabola based design.
Give it a go, it really does work :)
Christopher is the founder of iMod - Most of his time is spent building websites and pushing the limits with Search Engine Optimization. You can follow him on Twitter @ChristopherM
Chris M has written: 4127 posts.
Dec 14th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Makes you think how much those waves effect your brain lol!
NICE one mate!
Dec 14th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Ye man, it was interesting looking into it, I would love to have some more time to read about signals and frequencies matched to the shape of the parabola, because the better matched, the better the signal would ultimately be!
Thanks!
Dec 17th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Im impressed to say the least. From constant queries on how to setup a router and a basic home network – to building and implementing a DIY booster. Thats a quantum leap in IT skeelz for j00!!
Dec 17th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Hahahahhahahhaha, classic Ian, ya man, grrr, I just don’t get bridges, amplifiers and midway hardware components, so I figured boosting the signal antenna wise would be a simplest option for me.
Haha, good comment :P~
Dec 17th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Found this funny YouTube video on how to increase your Wifi signal
Dec 17th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY8Wi7XRXCA
Dec 17th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Hi Arne,
At the end of the day, what he showed in that movie is not totally fake. Your mobile device sends and receives signals quite a bit stronger than average network cards, and the use of a salad bowl or a chinesse sieve for that matter would position and target signals in a more accurate direction.
There’s a bunch of tutorials online showing how to use a salad bowl accurately to increase signal strength, I read a few, just didn’t have a bowl I wanted to use.
He’s a super geek, there’s no doubt about that and I did have a chuckle while watching :)
Thanks for this one!
Jan 3rd, 2008 at 7:34 am
I’ve done my share of researching the DIY signal boosters. If this method does the job then good for you.
There’s one out there where the dudes take copper wire and extend the size of the antenna and then use straws that are painted black as the new antenna. That’s the one I’m eventually going to try.
Jan 3rd, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I actually spent some time yesterday looking into other methods, but methods which are a little more complex. I’ve found a few, but I’m looking for one which requires quite a lot of work but proves to be really successful, I guess I’ll continue my search.
Good luck with your project!
May 19th, 2008 at 1:56 am
hahahaha
May 19th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Jame.. why ‘hahahaha’ ?
Jul 7th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I went from 1bar to 4bars… **thankyou!!!**
Jul 7th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
WOW, that’s an incredible improvement, you must have done a really great job!
Sep 27th, 2008 at 9:00 am
I can’t get the template to fit..
Sep 27th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
That’s strange Pofi, have not heard anyone having a problem..
Dec 6th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
thanks alot…
Dec 6th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Sure thing!
Jan 27th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
My template also does not fit. Are you sure you’re not supposed to make the rectangular bit bigger? I just printed out the pdf file and cut them out and now I can’t get them to fit together. The rectangular piece feels too small. Confused. ):
Jan 27th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
So strange, I used the template and it worked perfectly on my side :(
Jan 27th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
It’s a great looking simple design, but I admit I am sometimes not very good with practical things. Perhaps I’m just sticking the wrong thing in the wrong place. It’s just that, well, looking at your first picture on this page, it really looks like your rectangular part is longer than from the tip of the two small halfcircles on the right of the other piece to the tip of the two small halfcircles on the left of the other piece. Yet if I look at the PDF picture, that same rectangular piece just just reaches from the tip of the halfcircles to the tip of the other halfcircles. Your rectangular part definitely looks bigger. When I try to put mine together I can get the first two pokey bits in, but then I just can’t get the other two slits far enough around to get the last two pokey bits through. The rectangular part simply doesn’t seem to reach far enough around.
Secondly, and here I really show my ignorance. Once it’s all together, does this contraption go on the receiver at the device connecting to the router or on the transmitter/router itself?
Jan 28th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
It will go on the transmitter, ie. on the router aerial..
I’m also not brilliant at practical things and have to admit that I didn’t get it first time, but after playing around I managed to succeed. Remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to reflect :)
Jan 29th, 2009 at 9:14 am
OK, now I’m really confused. I still cannot get the bloody thing to line up. I tried from many angles and possibilities. Stood on my head looking at it through welding goggles, while waving my feet around as if doing a rain dance. Alas, nothing.
I then tried measuring.
In your top picture where you laid them side by side on the laptop, the rectangle reaches about 7cm from left to right (side to side) on my screen and resolution.
The circular part measures 5.5cm from one “ear tip” to the other (maximum horizontal distance on the picture).
That means the rectangle is about 27% longer (wider) than the circle thing. Now look at the PDF. The rectangle is almost identical in width to the circle part! (15cm each when I had printed them.) They line up in the PDF. I don’t see how looking at the PDF for you could be so different to looking at it for me.
Yes these are not precise measurements and screens distorta little, but there is definitely a significant difference! What gives??
Then I tried to get more practical with the actual PDF printout I was using. I measured from the outside of one Cut Slot on the rectangle to the outside of the other Cut Slot on the rectangle. (i.e. from the ends of the black lines closest to each edges). 11.5 cm. This is surely as much distance as I could possibly cover without cutting into the paper beyond the Cut Slots. Then on the circular bit I measured from the “upper side” (i.e. the end furthest from the dotted part) of the Cut Slot to the “upper side” of the other Cut Slot. To do this I used a piece of flexible wire and bent it along the top of the circle. Then straightened and measured that. 15cm. Now pray tell, how am I supposed to get 11.5cm of cardboard to wrap around 15cm of distance?
Am now about to A) go crazy. B) re-print the rectangular part to be about 30% bigger than it is in the PDF, while leaving the circular part the same.
What are your thoughts?
Apr 26th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
http://www.datalinkantennas.com.
Sorry the last comment didn’t display the site url.
My husband, an RF engineer, just published this site, but the products won’t be available for a while
May 4th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Vertigo,
The correct template is at:
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-WIFI-Antenna-Reception-Booster/
May 5th, 2009 at 1:05 am
Thanks bajr!
May 5th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Oh my goodness, it fits now! Thank you thank you. And there everyone was telling me I was just putting it together wrong and should fiddle with it till it worked. Well that’s step one done. Now I need to get some aluminium foil, wrap it up, stick the thing on my router and see if I can get a signal from the router all the way to my bedroom (which only just gets 1 bar sometimes and drops the signal often). I’ll let you know if I get any interesting results. Thanks for your help everyone.
Jul 30th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Totally worked for me using the instructables template (direct pdf link here: http://www.instructables.com/files/orig/FMB/QJJ2/T6XEXCFFSFP/FMBQJJ2T6XEXCFFSFP.pdf ). Used it on a Netgear DG834N modem-router (with two small antennas) and managed to get great signal in an upstairs bedroom and groundfloor office and even to the street in front of the house, where it had never worked before. I was feeling a bit like Tim Allen in “Home Improvement” while building it but the science looked right and it proved to be working indeed.
Thanks!
Oct 28th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
[rant]
- If you copy the template from someone else DO IT RIGHT (see the former posts).
- You shouldn’t wrap aluminum foil around the part where fit the antenna like on the fotos (that would block the signal)
[/rant]
Oct 29th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Actually, I did this myself and it worked brilliantly, so my instructions are not incorrect.
Go rant elsewhere please.
Thanks!
Nov 19th, 2009 at 6:10 am
Do you know if this will work to increase the signal strength of a WiMAX connection?
Clear High-Speed Internet to be specific?
http://www.acreativedesktop.com/clear-high-speed-internet-help.html
Nov 19th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Hi @AustinTasker – To be honest, I’m not 100% sure, perhaps someone else with more understanding will have a good answer for you. However, I’d imagine that anything that transmits via signal, can be increased by using a booster – it makes logical sense..
Dec 16th, 2009 at 1:53 am
Thanks burconsult for your input, yours is perfect.
Dec 16th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
I’m glad @burconsult came along and helped out here, that’s what this is all about! :)