anything to get better wifi out there?

[homersipes]

So I am out here in north Dakota working in oilfield and got wifi at man camp, but in the room I am in I don't have good signal which stinks, I cant watch movies or anything on days off unless I go up to the front computers.  I know some of you work away from home and stay in hotels and stuff, I was wondering if there is any signal enhancer I could buy to get better signal??  Really sucks watching a movie, it will play 2 mins MAYBE then pause for 5    any help would be appreciated, should add that I am not on a laptop so I have no usb ports to work with.  I am not a big tech guys so I don't know much.  been looking online, I could buy a usb dongle and a travel router and set up a "hotspot" for wifi? something like this router
http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/?model=TL-MR3020#down
and this dongle
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/networking/wireless-usb-adapters/abcat0503007.c?id=abcat0503007
to make this

I don't know but this makes sense to my not tech savvy mind

[DubiousKB]

The problem might not be your "signal strength", but more so you're one of many guys attempting to do the same thing.

Sounds more like the pipe is clogged up a bit with so many different users attempting to access the wifi point. Think of any free wifi service in a public place, you're not going to get upload/download speeds at any consistent high rate due to the high number of users on the same service.

I guess the question is:

Are you reliably connecting to the wifi access point? If so, are you just not experiencing the upload/download speeds you'd like. If the answer is the latter, then you might be S.O.L.

Signal strength is not indicative of the speed at which you're transmitting/receiving. It just tells you whether or not you're reliably connected. 

IMHO.

[GScholz]

There are wireless extenders available. I use one to get a good signal everywhere in my house.

I have one of these. After it has been configured you just plug it in a power socket somewhere it has a good signal to the wireless router/access point, and it will extend the signal from there.

[homersipes]

If I sit by my door I get great signaland can watch anything I want full bars, but over at desk I get 1 or2 bars which is about 10 feet

[DubiousKB]

hmmm... 

I'd say go with a range extender device like above.

[homersipes]

I saw those and wasn't sure if they actually worked.  That'd be perfect, I have an outlet right next to door.  Thanks for input

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Slap this bad boy in your wifi router:



Gives 8-12db amplification to your signal so it will pass walls etc much easier. The antenna lets you 'beam' your signal so you can point it towards a remote location or a remote 4G antenna for example. Even better results can be had using a pair of comb antennas:

[Estes]

Looks like all the serious good suggestions have been offered, but I remember someone posting a link on here a long time ago to some eBay page that was selling air in a can and making the claim that it would improve your WiFi. 

[Bizman]

Don't forget this good old ghetto mod:

[DubiousKB]

Don't forget this good old ghetto mod:

(Image removed from quote.)

This is brilliant!      

[Bizman]

And if that is not enough, a cantenna might do the trick:

How to use:


How it's built:


Seriously, a tech magazine once tested various types of directional antennas and this model was clearly the best!