Boosting Wifi signal

[yourfateissealed]

Hey guys...

I'm not sure what happened...i practically lived on these forums a few summers ago!  But i came back (had to register new, though?) because i have a problem/question.  Networking is my weak point!

Now that i'm in college, i'm poor.  Flat out poor.  I have my own apartment now, and in searching for connections, I found one that is unsecured and accessible.  In my bedroom, i can get between one to two bars of signal.  Elsewhere: nothing.  I can get it to work, but occasionally it won't connect, or it disconnects me.  How do i boost this signal?  Is that even possible?  One of my friends mentioned something about a "repeater" but i'm confused.  I tried reading online, but i don't want to just into a purchase blindly.  Essentially, i am okay with the low signal on my laptop, but i'd love to have a stronger connection that would be recognizable and usable by my wii and ps3.

In searching, the signal isn't too far away.  My room is on the bottom floor, but a trip down to the basement underneath my place presents me with 4-5 bars of signal strength.

Thanks in advance, everyone!  I appreciate your help!

[mroilfield]

I am not entirely sure here as I only have limited networking experiance myself, but I think the person that owns the router that is sending out the signal would have to use somthing to boost it as it is broadcasting. I don't know of anything you could hook to your computer that would remotly make the router broadcast a stronger signal.

If you know who owns this connection talk to them and see if they are interested in boosting it. If you don't know who owns it then there is a good chance you shouldn't be using even if it is unsecured as that is illegal in most places.

[hiloed]

Try boosting your receive signal. See here.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Wifi-Signal-Strainer-WokFi/
There are many other sites for making an antenna cheap.
Follow this thread it's interesting
http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?topic=61817.0

[alexK]

Hey yourfateissealed,

You always could sit on the staircase and there do the Websurfing .
By good chance you could even look in guts of your neighbours machine.
At the same time your neighbour, by good chance, could look at your private stuff.
Nothing to it, if it is an unsecured Network.

Now to get to real terms, I have a secure Network, but occasionally get an unknown Wireless MAC Address listed on my Router. (Was connected, but not getting past my Router). So I know there was somebody (neighbour, drive-by, worm) that was trying to get a free ride. I rely on the settings of my Router to block that MAC and dump it by restarting the router. 
In my case the ISP service cost > $30 per month. I would not like to share my connection with the neighbours.

To be fair you should talk to your neighbour, and see if you could "share" for a few bucks. After all, he/she is the Owner of that signal.
I am not familiar with repeaters, but I am sure it must first know the "Signalling IP Address" before it will properly will pass the Signal.
If your neighbour declines, your repeater investment will be for nothing.
If your neighbour agrees, he/she must install it. Then you should study-up on "how to secure" your own data.

[andwatfool]

i dnt wanna b da lil goody good but "borrowin" wifi aint ryte (even tho i do it still wen i aint home 4 my ds lol)
but im tryin 2 cut bak!
ne way yea da cheap antenna soundz like ur best bet

[BC_Programmer]

If they are leaving it unsecured, they deserve any bandwidth consumption stolen by leechers.

If anybody cared enough to researcj it they would learn what they should do, which is implement one of the security features of the router; I, for example, have WPA2 set up on my router. If I wanted to be really secure, I would also implement Mac Address filtering to only allow those computers I want connected.

You always could sit on the staircase and there do the Websurfing Grin.
By good chance you could even look in guts of your neighbours machine.
At the same time your neighbour, by good chance, could look at your private stuff.
Nothing to it, if it is an unsecured Network.

The ability to inspect shared folders and so forth on PCs connected to the same network is entirely dependent on the security of the PC itself. if the PC has low security, it's security is only as great as the network it's connected to.

[andwatfool]

lol yea i feel ya
i leave mine open 2 lol
it dnt matter soon the whole world gonna have itz own giant wifi connection (kant w8 2 c dat)
so yea let us kno if ya ever figure it out