On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 1:01 PM, Austin Leeds <[email protected]>wrote:
> Well, I was pleasantly surprised at a turn of events that happened > recently. > I have terrible reception on my AirPort card from the top floor of > our house down to the main floor (where my AirPort Extreme-G base > station [with dialup] is). All around our house are high-speed > wireless networks, but they're either locked or too faint to reach. > One is reachable from our backyard, but I look really stupid trying to > get to it with my laptop. > Much to my surprise, I found I was able to reach that particular > access point from my bedroom yesterday. I wasn't quite sure what had > happened until today. > I have a trick of boosting my range by putting my left hand on the > left side of the Pismo (near the AirPort card). My first thought was > that I was sitting in just the right place on my bed, with my hand in > just the right place on the Pismo—so I didn't move a muscle as I > browsed (except in my right hand). > Soon, though, I found that there was more give to it that I had > originally thought. As it turns out, my big jointed desk lamp was > acting like an antenna for me, echoing the connection. As I move it in > different directions, the strength of the signal will increase or > decrease, depending on how far I move the lamp from the Pismo. The > reason I discovered this was that I had kept my lamp in the same > position until Friday afternoon, when I moved it around a bit. > I've heard of other range boosts (involving Pringles cans, kitchen > strainers, and USB wireless adapters), but this is the first time I've > experienced (or heard of) a built-in wireless boost with an AirPort > card. > Has anybody else had anything like this happen? > > -- > What kind of bulb is in that lamp? Perhaps it's acting like a passive repeater, sort of like an RFID? --ryan -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Books, a group for those using G3 iBooks and PowerBooks (we run a separate list for G4 'Books). The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g-books Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/
