Wireless reflector for PCMCIA Card

A CD as a reflector? That would be interesting to see, if you have a page reference for it. I have seen mention of people using CDs as some portion of an external antenna, but not as a reflector for a Wifi card. Some people have a couple of notebook sized sheets of aluminum or steel that they position roughly as a reflector.

You can get several different USB-client radios. The USB cable can be quite long, so you can position the units where you get good reception. The expensive ones come with larger antennas as part of the unit, the cheap ones can have reflective antennas mounted cheaply. Hawking HWU8DD is one usb/antenna unit.

#42 is the Hawking unit.

hmmm. thanks. the reason i have the pc card is that the laptop has only one USB connector (it's actually the laptop of a friend). but it looks as though usb stick would have been the better choice.

would it work to build a antenna like this (also cd as reflector...)

then simply stick/glue/whatever the cable to the antenna of the pc card. or would this provide 0 gain?

$9.95. I found a rebate to zero a year ago, and bought a few. This is a tiny thing that I carry in my laptop bag all the time.

It might provide less than zero gain, or it might give you directionality that you need. there are web pages about attaching antennas to cards that have no connector. Try a google search for the model number of your mystery card and "external antenna", and see what comes up.

Most require some soldering skill. stick/glue won't work very well.

Aluminum foil might do the trick.

I'm a big fan of corner reflectors.

See my link

If you have a corner in your apartment that roughly faces away from the source of the wifi signal, it might be worth a try to turn it into a giant corner reflector.

Just cover the wall each side of the corner apex with aluminum foil over a fairly large area - down to floor level.

Then place the laptop into the corner with the PCMCIA card near the centre line of the apex and see if you get a signal.

Slide the laptop into and away from the apex until you get the strongest signal.

Also try to position the laptop height about mid way up the foil.

Try to keep your body out of the signal path as much as possible.

Should work to some degree.

Lets know how it goes.

Rob

Your best bet is to replace the PCMCIA card with one that has an antenna connector. Actually the best bet is to use that single USB connector for a USB adapter (with an antenna jack). At least you can put the USB adapter up to 5 meters away from the laptop, and then use an antenna with a short cable if necessary (the big losses are in the antenna cable). A long cable from a PCMCIA adapter card will have high losses and you may be no better off than without any antenna.