I want to share my cable connection wirelessly with other students in my building. Which antenna+pc combo, or AP would suit my needs best? Also, would placing the antenna on the balcony be more effective, since glass is more wi-fi signal permissive than concrete walls?
The second question is the easier one. Yes, placing your antenna in a way that there are no microwave-absorbing materials between it and your neighbors will give you the best signal. Anything with metal (including rebar and aluminum framing), and anything that absorbs (paper towels), contains (trees), or is often covered with water (roofs) between you and your neighbors will cut down the signal they see.
For the former, there are a number of variables. First, what is your budget - shoestring, $500 or less, or anything goes?
If you are on a shoestring, stop here. Just get a Linksys WRT54G. It's under $70 and works pretty well.
If you are not limited to a shoestring budget, ask yourself how much unreliability can you deal with. Some APs crash and do not automatically restart (I have a Graphite Airport AP that does this, others have reported this with some Linksys products). I believe the best APs in terms of maintainability and remote diagnostics are the Cisco ones (not the Cisco/Linksys ones, the more expensive Cisco APs).
Finally, if your neighbors are right next door and their computers aren't multiple walls away from you, you might not need an extra antenna. Try it without first.
For your research, I recommend Seattle Wireless's hardware comparison page: http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/HardwareComparison
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