Easy, Inexpensive Ways to Get More Out of Wi-Fi

March 5th, 2008 (4:00pm) Samuel Dean 5 CommentsTweet This

I’m always surprised at how many tech-savvy folks who have home Wi-Fi networks don’t extend the reach of their Wi-Fi using easy, inexpensive tools. It doesn’t cost much to get great performance inside and outside a home, and if you use Wi-Fi when traveling, you can pack lightweight tools that will make it much easier to work efficiently. In this post, I’ll discuss a couple of low-cost devices that can make your wireless life much better.

If you ever run into Wi-Fi performance problems in certain locations around your home, a single $70 Wi-Fi range extender can make a world of difference. Belkin has one for just under $70, and you can get them for whatever brand of router you’re already using. My home router is upstairs, but with one of these downstairs I can get good Wi-Fi speeds 75 yards away from my house, in the backyard.

If you want to quickly add printers, digital cameras, external hard drives or pretty much any device with a USB port to your Wi-Fi arsenal, consider a network USB hub. These are typically in the $100 to $140 range, so they’re not dirt cheap, but the convenience of wireless printing and the like makes the cost worthwhile.

Finally, one of the best received new Wi-Fi accessories in a long time is the Eye-Fi card, which is great if you don’t currently have a Wi-Fi-enabled digital camera. This card won best of show awards at more than one of the last few big technology tradeshows. It’s an SD card that you can get from Amazon and elsewhere for under $100, and it makes it easy to shoot your photos to a computer or online, or both without the hassle of wires.

Do you know of any useful ways to get more out of Wi-Fi?

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Comments (5)

Eye-Fi sounds like the perfect candidate for a hack to Wi-Fi enable my cell phone that uses sd for photos and music. Not just for syncing music and photos between it and my computer but for mobile browsing from hotspots, and who knows depending on the openness of the phone perhaps even VoIP calling. Would pay for itself in no time…

Hack Crazy — 5:02 PM on March 5, 2008 Reply
You can print out a free Parabolic Reflector Template to boost your household wifi. I haven’t tried it but the idea seems sound.

Eric — 5:38 PM on March 5, 2008 Reply
Wi-fi has become a important part in all the meets for call it demos, music, code and extends beyond that. Its common in Cafe’s to have Wi-fi and attract customers.

–Srini
http://codingweb.blogspot.com

Srini — 1:33 AM on March 6, 2008 Reply
Eye-Fi sounds wonderful but I’m wondering about the news that imaging devices are capable of being shipped out with a virus to retailers. By extension, could sd cards wirelessly transmit viruses to PCs ?

frdmilltx — 7:37 AM on March 6, 2008 Reply
I have tried this out and it surely extends range very well as well as boost speeds…a low cost high gain antenna on your access point. normal antennas are 2db gain and if u use 8db gain, u do not need any other device for range booster etc, no extra power and most of all, it costs hardly 10 to 15$. contact me if u want it in India.

Bhuvnesh — 6:02 PM on March 17, 2008 Reply