I get 802.11b from a neighbor through two brick walls. He has a mid-range unamplified HyperGain antenna on his LinkSys and I have a DirecTV dish in my apartment hooked to a table. On the dish's element I have a SoHo antenna mounted, but the dish itself reflects my neighbor's signal even futher & concentrated. So I can use my Newton or laptops at extended pockets.
I would think for outdoors that you wouldn't necessarily need all that much, but I would try to go the route that would require less effort for use, such as a receiving antenna with unpowered re-direct. Do you plan to lounge against the machine in a specific area, say the patio? -Jeff
