OT: Improving laptop wifi reception

[Tim]

On Wed, 2011-08-24 at 13:27 +0100, Paul Smith wrote:
> Is there some device that can boost a laptop wifi reception? In the
> library where I spend some time studying, I usually get a signal with
> a quality of about 20%.

Well, is that really a problem?  Some of the signal meters don't mean a
great deal.  They can show a combination of strength and/or quality,
where the threshold of goodness could be anywhere.

Generally speaking, the only way to improve the interface's reception is
to replace the antenna.  That's not easy to do in a laptop, where the
antenna is usually buried somewhere inside the cabinet, and may be
little more than a wire draggled around the screen.

The alternative is to replace the wireless interface with an external
one, one with either a better antenna, or a removable one where you can
fit a better one.  You can get USB wireless interfaces, or ones that
plug into the card slot.

A simpler thing to try, first, is sitting in a different spot in the
library.

Better reception may not help if they have a poor network, anyway, with
too many clients simultaneously using a low bandwidth network.

-- 
[tim at localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.  I
read messages from the public lists.