Will aiming a wireless router antenna at my computer help signal strength?

this article seems to say that, yes, with a few tweaks, you could do it.

It depends on what you mean by “aim.” If you mean pointing the tip of the antenna at the target this won’t work. The signal radiates off the side of the antenna, perpendicular to the antenna itself. You should “aim” the side of the antenna at the target.

What would help more would be a reflector of some kind (aluminum foil), in your case above and on the left of the antenna to bounce more of the signal back into the house, and prevent the signal from exiting the left side of the house.

@eponymoushipster Thanks for the article.
@PerryDolia Good to know.

I’m pretty sure that most antennas that come on routers (the “stick” kind) send out waves in all directions, so if you had that kind, the answer would be no.

However, I have a high-gain directional antenna I can attach to my router (the regular antenna detaches). It looks like a ½-inch-thick 8“x8” square. That sends out a powerful signal in one direction, so if I pointed that at my laptop, I would have a great signal. The only downside is that the signal is pretty much isolated to one “beam” going to my laptop, meaning everyone else who isn’t near that “beam” won’t get any signal.

I don’t know a whole lot about WiFi, though…so I could be wrong.

@eponymoushipster I was going to reference the same article. You would need to create some type of dish to convert the omni-directional antennae to a uni-directional.

BTW – if your dad doesn’t think it will do anything than what’s the harm in trying. If it worked great, if not move it back if it makes him happy.

The signal would weaken due to walls and other objects for the signals to be lost in .

Yes! I did what the article said, and I have 5 bars instead of 2! I can also use my xbox again, instead of it disconnecting every (literal) 5 seconds. THANK YOU PHYSICS!

and the people who sent the article.

@limeaide You seriously don’t get how easily provoked my dad is. He will take AWAY my laptop for doing that. But I did convince him to let me do the tinfoil.

Nice results! Sorry for the easily provoked dad, good luck with that.

Generally no. The best way to get good signal strength for me, is to put the unit up high in a centrally location position relative to your surroundings, with minimal physical obstructions such as walls.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic That’s hard when the router is two floors above you.

Perhaps an additional wifi router is an option? They’re fairly inexpensive.

@The_Compassionate_Heretic That was my dad’s suggestion, but I don’t think there are any other ports in the house.

They have kits where you can wire an Ethernet network over your existing electrical wiring and I hear they’re very easy to set up. Maybe you could try that to get a wired connection to your room. Then you could even connect a wireless access point to that.

Well, it sounds like the foil trick is working if your xbox is staying connected and you’re getting five bars where you once got two.

@eponymoushipster I did a wifi check, I’m getting a -80 where my laptop is and a -76 where my xbox router is. I’m not sure if this satisfies me.

@fortris oh. well, maybe it’ll do until you can spot an extender?

How much for an extender?

on amazon looks to be about $80 or so.