Wireless Range

Toadvine said:

Until I go back to school in late august I’m forced to play off of my neighbor’s wireless that I can barely receive from my house, and it has proven to be a poor substitute for an actual connection at best. I was wondering if there are any tricks to making one’s wireless reception better. I have an IBM T43 (power comp) thinkpad and kind of pictured something like tin foil wrapped around the top of my computer with antenna sticking off, truly ghettofied. However this seems far too ridiculous to actually work… I know very little about computers obviously. I appreciate any suggestions…

Well, the best thing to do is this. Go to office depot or your local big business for electronics like bestbuy. Buy a wireless range extender. They are about 80 bucks. Follow the directions contained on the little papers in the box. Voila.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk…d=1083711426745

Toadvine said:

hmm, so I wouldn’t need to tinker with the actual router that belongs to my neighbor at all to set up the range extender? because they don’t know i’m leeching off their wireless… the price is somewhat offputting but if it works well it could be a useful product to have…

You don’t need any info from them other than what you already have.

Deathspirit said:

However, if your ever discovered doing this your neighbor could press charges and you would be had on multiple charges considering your are illegally amplifying their signal thereby exposing them to more threats and other snoopers, stealing their bandwidth and potentially creating networking issues for them. Be forewarned, its usually cheaper to get DSL than to pay for normal phone line + dial up. (This is because if you or your parents make alot of calls, especially outside of state, all long-distance calls within the continental US are considered local so money they would have spent making calls instead goes to the broadband connection)

Very true. A guy over in Minnesota? I think, just got arrested for stealing someone’s wireless and I think he’s going to go to jail.

Chances are that if your neighbors are too stupid to realize that they’re unsecured they wont notice. However, you could always do the “neighborly” thing and drop by, tell them, and ask if you give them 10 bucks a month or something if they mind if you use it since your only there for another month or two.