Hi. I'm ignorant about wi fi, but I am sure many of you aren't! My wife has wi fi at work which has very poor reception at her laptop. Is there a way to boost the signal at her laptop? I am hoping one of those USB antennas may do the trick, but I am deferring to the experts here. Thank you!
There are cards with better antennas. USB is good because just moving the antenna to a different position can improve reception a lot. In extreme cases, you can use wifi repeaters. I've done long range rural links with these but it's been a few years so I'm not current on what's available on the market now. D-link and Linksys both make them. For an office situation with a wired network, you can add extra access points in weak spots. If there isn't a wired connection, a wireless repeater is required.
get one of the alfa's. Alfa 36neh is best all around and cost about 20.00. The alfa 36nhr is more expensive at about 30.00 but once it connects stays connected. These have small antennas which is all that is needed at the office. Even with the small antenna they will pickup even routers from across the street. With optional corner antennas the range is even further. Go to data-alliance.net for more info on the alfa's they have all the version's there. Also check amazon for reviews from actual users. I myself use the alfa 36nhr and alfa 36neh. With both I can get wifi from the parking lot of the library without even going in. They are very powerful. I tried many usb adapters but rely on the alfa's. Bestbuy etc usually dont carry these but amazon and ebay etc have them. You can also find adapters that use the same chipset example the alfa36neh uses the ralink 3070 chipset. If bestbuy has something that has the ralink 3070 chipset it should operate similar to the alfa.
