A PocketPC and a Pringles tube

[Chubbergott]

It would seem that, armed with a PocketPC, a wireless network card and an empty Pringles tube, you can hack into a wireless LAN from a long way away!

Click here for more

[Chubbergott]

It would seem that, armed with a PocketPC, a wireless network card and an empty Pringles tube, you can hack into a wireless LAN from a long way away!

Click here for more

[Brad Adrian]

Well, it's not the Pringles can that allows you to hack in, per se. There are ways, though, to use such stuff to greatly extend the range of a 802.11 radio.

[Jason Dunn]

Yeah, all the Pringles can does is act as an antenna - a piece of metal would do the same thing. :-)

[seanturner]

What are some of those ways to extend the range of 802.11b anyway?

[Steven Cedrone]

I have been curious about this as well...
Do you:

1) Try to extend the power at the Base station.
2) Try to extend the receive ability of the client. (Receivability, new word!!!)

I have a D-link 713P, can the antenna be replaced?. on the Client side, I have both Symbol and D-link cards, how do you extend their capabilities?

Just wondering, my WAP is at one corner of my house, my clients are one floor away (at opposite sides of the house).....

[seanturner]

Originally Posted by cedrones

I have been curious about this as well...
Do you:

1) Try to extend the power at the Base station.
2) Try to extend the receive ability of the client. (Receivability, new word!!!)

In kinda answer to my own question, I have heard of one guy who drilled a hole in his Apple Airport Base station and attached a directional antenna to it. He then somehow attached another directional antenna to his laptop and affixed it to a park bench about half a mile from his house and is able to access his network from the bench. This is a friend of a friend thing so my friend could be full of crap, but, it could also be true.

Also, I know the Orinoco cards have the ability to plug in an external antenna, and that the Linksys base station has standard sized antennas.

But, my question still stands: how have other people been able to increase the range of 802.11b?

[Terry]

http://www.turnpoint.net/wireless/has.html is a very good site to learn about increasing 802.11b range with a directional antenna.

802.11b runs in the 2.4 GHz range, so it's important the antenna length matches the wavelength. This is the same range as many portable phones, garage door openers, and other wireless devices. An interesting site with more is http://www.netscum.com/~clapp/wireless.html. Pay attention to the FCC regulations mentioned on the site if you decide to modify stuff. FWIW, microwave ovens use about the same frequency (see http://www.howstuffworks.com/microwave.htm) 8O. Imagine the trouble WiFi or 802.11b would have if vendors called it "microwave" wireless networking ops:!

Most PCMCIA 802.11b adapters have a fixed antenna...some serious hacking-up of your card would be needed to add an external antenna . One exception is the Orincco (Lucent) series.

Some "base station" access points can have their output power increased by changing software configuration (software for the Linksys series is available around the Internet). There are also commercial access points with higer outputs. I tried upping the power on my Linksys...didn't make a bit of speed or distance difference using my Linksys PCMCIA or Symbol CF WiFi so I turned it back down (always a good idea to use the lowest output power you can...think about those microwaves).

[seanturner]

Thanks, I took a look at sites on Google and your links and I think I'm going to build a Pringles Can antenna so I can be ubber ghetto nerd.

[peppejeppe]

This is a very illegal way of geting "free" broad band... but my WLAN card does has some serious problems answering packets from my "ment to be ISP" The "ISP" is using some sort of Cisco router, and my "noname" WLAN card looks like it doesn't use the same standard. Or more liley... Cisco has (as all big dudes on the market) made there own standard and my poor WLAN card is following the standard as a whiped slave, the last sentece is just my guess... I have monitored the trafic and have seen several "junk packages" coming from the Cisco.... I have problems understanding what the Cisco wants me to answer... is there some one around that knows Cisco, so I can get my lovley "broadband" working :wink:

So what I like to do is to write a "emulator" that lets my WLAN card start writing junk to the Cisco, so the Cisco route thinks my WLAN card is a nice fella (Cisco router)

[seanturner]

Are you sure the cisco card is doing this? Isn't the Cisco equitment compatible with all other wi-fi certified devices? It doesn't seem logical to me that they would do this...