An enterprising young man studying abroad in Russia has turned a run-of-the-mill strainer from Ikea into a Wi-Fi super antenna using little more than the aforementioned strainer, a marker, and SKOTCH tape.
How’d he do it? It actually looks ridiculously simple:
Parabolic kitchenware is well known to some as not only kitchenware, but also do-it-yourself directional dish antennae with which you can augment weak signals with the use of a receiver of some sort. Equipped with my new Swedish strainer, I used some scotch tape (all tape here, by the way, is simply referred to as “SKOTCH” in Russian) and one of my Prismacolor markers that I don’t like to mount my USB wifi receiver as close to the apex of the parabola of the metallic mesh as I could possibly eye-ball…
After fiddling around with the positioning of his finished creation, he went from being able to see three Wi-Fi networks to being able to see a whole bunch of them. The only problem now is that he has to hold the dish juuust right in order to keep connected, a problem he says he might attempt to solve by attaching the apparatus to an adjustable lamp arm. Well played.
Of note: I wasn’t able to find the strainer on Ikea’s website, so if you’re thinking of doing this maybe you could pick up a strainer wherever strainers are sold. Like Strainer Hut or Strainers-R-Us. Basically anything in the strainer complex, which is located in the strainer district.
INTERNETS! [Worth Dayley via Ikea Hacker]
That’s…ingenutity? Sorta desperate too, but hey, necessity is the mother of invention sometimes.
thanks for the reference to the Simpsons :)
I’m in the middle of constructing one now, but I could only find a rusty strainer in the kitchen. Should work but it looks like it came from the same place Frankenstein was created.
The concept is not new.
See here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WokFi
and Kiwi Stan Swan’s site, where the whole WokFi thing sparked:
http://www.usbwifi.orconhosting.net.nz/
And it works!
I don’t get it…does this only work if you have an external wifi card? Any way to boost signal if my wifi card is built into my laptop?
The problem is you need a way to LINK the antennae to your wifi card. in theory you could do this with your internet card but you would need to pull apart your laptop.
there are 2 antennae’s in your laptop main and aux that use little connectors. you should be able to directly access this card (panel on the bottom or under the keyboard) you can buy antennae’s on ebay for a few dollars.
in theory get one cut off the antennae hook the wires to your new external antennae and connect this to the AUX port of your built in wireless card.
it might work :-)
I have a similar set up. I am a radio engineer by profession and the only item I would change is the placement of his receiver. Each strainer is different in depth and diameter. Much better results can be achieved by finding the focal point of the parabolic. This is the single point where all signals entering the dish are reflected to. I think I have the EXACT same strainer in use and the focal point is at about 1″ from the “bottom” of the strainer. So, it should be poking through the back of the strainer with the usb about half in and half out of the wire mesh. There is a simple formula to find it. Good luck to all!