Increasing wifi range a tad?

[Bgradid]

Well, I was in the lecture hall at school today, our school is made of pretty much solid concrete, and , in the lecture halls, they don't bother boosting the Wifi signals. I can't get any signs of a connection in there.

But today a friend of mine pulled out her acer laptop (or some other brand, I can't really remember) and managed to not only detect the wifi signal, but, connect to it.

I was wondering, is there anything I can do to boost my wifi signal a bit without carrying around some kind of cantenna? I think I've tried everything software wise I can do (set the signal power to maximum in the windows drivers)

I have a newer intel ABG wireless card sitting around, would it help to switch to that over the IBM atheros card I have in my t42p?

[FTC]

Hi, try to move to a different place in the same room, maybe closer to a window/door ?. Also play with the display position (normally as vertical as possible works best), since the antenna is inside it.

Other than that, and besides adding hardware (another wifi card with an antenna) I can't think of a solution...

[Bgradid]

Humm, curious, we were both in the same part of the lecture hall..

I shall experiment with orientations while my prof gives me weird looks the next day I have a boring lecture

but I'm guessing switching to the intel 2915ABG i have isn't going to do much as far as wifi strength goes

[Roy_W]

I don't know if you have already done so or not, but verify that your card is not running on "low" energy settings. Certain drivers allow you to change the power settings of the card according to the Power Supply in current use. I presume that in your lectures your are running on the battery.

Roy

[smids]

Same for me. I run on full power wireless with low power savings yet my friend's vaio comprehensively connects with a 'Good' signal to my Uni network whilst I barely manage a 'Very Low' with frequent disconnects.

[davidspalding]

It frustrates me that some of these utillities don't let me see what power output my card is at. With the Cisco cards I use with my work laptop(s), the Cisco software allows me to tweak all kinds of things: power saving mode, transmit power, antenna setting, etc. Maybe the software for the Intel card will help you adjust these things.

Yes, power saving setting in Access Connections may show that you're running max power savings (makes sense to extend battery life, but at what cost).

Also ... what kind of computer and wireless card does she have? Might your card just "isn't as good" as hers....?