Easy Wardriving Wireless Antenna Booster- Wifi - Wlan

In this instructable i'll show you how to build a very easy wireless antenna for practically no money. I made it by recycling some stuff that we were otherwise just throw away. So it's kind of green too! =)

The idea is to catch the wifi waves that pass near your laptop without reaching it, and make them bounce into your wireless antenna.
I use it standing behind my laptop when i'm.. reading my mail..
..to make it.. load faster..
**hmm...**
..yeah..

It actually nearly doubled the signal strength i got from a certain access point.

It's really easy you'll see, so get into it right now!

Step 1: Gathering Materials

What you're gonna need is:
-Aluminium paper
-A big cardboard sheet
-some light pipe
-Duct tape
-Some other cheaper adhesive tape
-some screws
-a wood bit
-some (pretty soft) metal parts you can cut and bend
-tools: screwdriver, saw

Step 2: Make a Stand

Make a stand for the antenna:

-I screwed three metal parts i founded around, to a wood circle i got from a previous project. Nothing fancy, just make shure it holds.

-Roll a long sheet of metal around your pipe. To make shure it'll hold make the inner loop a bit smaller than needed.

- put everything together and make shure it holds

NOTE: do not screw together the pipe to the base. This way u will be able to tear the antenna apart and save it under your bed or something like that in case you need to.

Step 3: Prepare the Super-parabolic-wave-bouncer =)

1- Roll two metal sheets like in the first picture. These will hold the pipe and the "bouncer" together

2- Use duct tape to put fasten them to the sheet. Cover the upside part of the hole created by the holder that will be on top. That way your pipe won't come out there and your antenna will stay in place.

3- to glue the aluminium paper to the sheet i did like this: first put some tape along the sheet with the adhesive side facing up

4- secure these with some tape across like in the fourth pic

Step 4: Glue the Aluminium Paper

1 - Now put the aluminium paper onto the sheet.

NOTE: make shure you start with ONE side of the aluminium sheet. You will otherwise be doing a complete mess, and risk destroy the previous step if you do this wrong.

2- Secure one side first, and then slide your hand over the aluminium paper to make the eventual bubbles dissapear.

3- Fix the borders with some duct tape so it looks better.

Step 5: Curving

Use some cord to curve the antenna in the angle you desire.
It should be a bit shorter than the long side of the antenna. Secure with tape one end of the cord onto the back of the receiver.
Put a clip on the other end so you will be able to take the cord away when you want to save the antenna.

You will have to test to get the ultimate angle configuration, the one that gives you the best signal reception. =)

Step 6: FINALLY!

Finally, put everything in place and you will have a really effective semi-parabolic wireless signal reflecter that you can use to share your wireless connection with your neighbour. (not the other way! ;)

I'd like to read your comments!
Have fun people!

Peace out.