{"id":3831,"date":"2014-07-01T12:58:08","date_gmt":"2014-07-01T04:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/?p=3831"},"modified":"2016-03-11T15:36:28","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T07:36:28","slug":"extending-my-wifi-signal-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/extending-my-wifi-signal-coverage.html","title":{"rendered":"Using Aluminum Foil for Extending my WIFI Signal Coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trying to get wired and connected should have been a easy thing to do. Not so if your home or office has blind spots where the WIFI signal coverage is so poor you get zero connection!<\/p>\n

I decided to find a way to extend the WIFi signal coverage in my house. Being a 3 storey house it wasn’t an easy thing to do. My fiber optic UNIFI broadband connection was placed right at the top of floor in a corner of my computer study room. Granted it was not the best of the location for a router and WIFI placement as there was no way the signal could reach from the top floor all the way to the ground floor. <\/p>\n

\"Using
\n<\/p>\n

Coupled with the strong concrete walls, floorings and cupboards, even a distance of one floor just below my PC study room made the WIFI signal drop by more than half!<\/p>\n

During the renovation phase, I did a LAN cable extension from the top floor all the way to the dining hall which was located at the back of my house. Due to cost reasons, the LAN cable was not optimally located in the central part of the house as that would required lots of wall hacking. My idea was that at least there would be a cable running to the ground floor and using a WIFI hotspot to extend my ground coverage. At that time I didn’t know the concrete walls and floors were so solid that it would reduce my WIFI signal by so much!<\/p>\n

In the end I have to use another repeater and place in the central location of 1st floor. So altogether I\u2019m having about 3 sets of WIFI hotspot within my very own house!<\/p>\n

Using Aluminum Foil to reflect the WIFI Signal<\/h4>\n

I came across some posting and videos how some home user used the aluminum foil to reflect back the WIFI signal back into the house. I thought that was cool and was rather cheap method. Even if it didn’t work, it wasn’t very costly. All you needed was some aluminum foil that you use for wrapping food and place it by the router WIFI antenna and reflect it back. You could easily shape it into a parabolic shape for better reflection.<\/p>\n

\"Placing<\/p>\n

I decided to give it a try. My idea was to place it against the wall since it was no point to have my signal send over to my neighbours and to reflect it downwards to the floors below my PC study room.<\/p>\n

The idea was simple, and it was a quick job placing the aluminum foils around my router WiFi box. I did a check on the WiFi signal for a \u201cbefore and after\u201d to gauge the effectiveness.<\/p>\n

The Final Result of Aluminum Foil WiFi Extender<\/h4>\n

I didn’t really see any great increase, perhaps a \u00bd bar to 1 bar increase, maybe. I\u2019m seeing the signal bar flopping up and down and the ground floor is still having zero WiFi signal. Although it worked for those who tried in the posting and YouTube videos, but it was not quite working for my case.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the concrete walls and tough flooring coupled with cupboards filled with items were still too much for the WiFi signal to penetrate through. Additionally for a signal to get through at an angle through the walls would actually make the wall thicker (same theory as the armoured military tank sloping hull).<\/p>\n

Anyway, there was no harm trying as it was a very low cost solution and if it works for you, great! If it didn’t, then I guess for me, I just have to find another method to extend the WiFi coverage in my house.<\/p>\n

\"Did<\/p>\n

In the end, I decided to try using the TP-Link TL-ANT2408C Omni-Directional Antenna to boost the WiFi signal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trying to get wired and connected should have been a easy thing to do. Not so if your home or office has blind spots where the WIFI signal coverage is so poor you get zero connection! I decided to find a way to extend the WIFi signal coverage in my house. Being a 3 storey …<\/p>\n

Using Aluminum Foil for Extending my WIFI Signal Coverage<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,174],"tags":[46,50,51,111,115],"class_list":["post-3831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-devices","category-home","tag-computer","tag-device","tag-devices","tag-online","tag-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1bS5F-ZN","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3853,"url":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/tplink-tl-ant2408c-extending-wifi.html","url_meta":{"origin":3831,"position":0},"title":"TP-LINK TL-ANT2408C Antenna Extending the WiFi Signal","author":"Jan","date":"24 July 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Since my previous project attempting to use aluminum foil to enhance the WiFi signal in my house didn't bring much fruition, I decided to give this TP-Link TL-ANT2408C antenna to boost my indoor WiFi signal coverage. 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To set it up, I downloaded the Android App: Internet Speed Test by V-Speed.eu version 1st August 2014 and installed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computer Devices"","block_context":{"text":"Computer Devices","link":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/category\/computer-devices"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3881,"url":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/maxis-lte-4g-speed-test.html","url_meta":{"origin":3831,"position":2},"title":"Maxis LTE (4G) Speed Test","author":"Jan","date":"15 September 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Since while I was doing some 3G speed test comparison, I may as well did the LTE \/ 4G speed test from Maxis. However my Nokia Lumia 925 is a Windows Phone, I decided to share the internet connection to my other devices instead of directly testing it. This may\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computer Devices"","block_context":{"text":"Computer Devices","link":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/category\/computer-devices"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":446,"url":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/restored-back-to-ie6.html","url_meta":{"origin":3831,"position":3},"title":"Restored back to IE6","author":"Jan","date":"15 February 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Alright! Wasn't too difficult to revert back to IE6 from IE7 beta preview 2. Instead of using uninstall, I used one of the restore points in the Microsoft System Restore program. And now, my McAfee Viruscan 9 is working properly again. Trust Microsft to always go their own way against\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computer Devices"","block_context":{"text":"Computer Devices","link":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/category\/computer-devices"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4191,"url":"https:\/\/www.janleow.com\/life\/ssh-from-pc-to-raspberry-pi0-project.html","url_meta":{"origin":3831,"position":4},"title":"SSH from PC to Raspberry Pi0 Project","author":"Jan","date":"30 November 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I came across this project to SSH from the computer to the Raspberry Pi Zero using the USB RNDIS ethernet gadget with a self made USB addon board. From the various videos, it looked easy and I decided to give it a go. 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