External wifi antennae for tablet?

General
1

Hey I’m at theracetrack and the tower’s wifi doesn’t quite reach the camping area. ( can juuust see but not reliably connect) Can anyone suggest a solution to increase the reception and transmission? Perhaps an external antenna? Or some other method?
Something that would work with my laptop or tablet.

Nancy

2

Dual radio access point with openwrt / ddwrt / tomato / etc. Put the antenna on that, rebroadcast. Can also do the same with 2 access points and a crossover cable.
-D

3

I do not have access to the transmitter, this is something from the user side… though a battery powered repeater might be possible. I was more looking for some solution on my end… like an external antenna that can pick up and broadcast better.I can SEE the tower’s wifi, but it’s so weak it can’t connect and it drops on and off the network list. I thought some sort of directional antenna? I also have found out theyv’e got OpenDNS running on it now (someone getting clever) So I’ll have to figure out a workaround if I want to check mail on certain sites.

Nancy

4

I think what Dave suggested is to use the wireless router with an antenna to receive the weak wifi and then rebroadcast at a different frequency locally for your tablet.
http://androidforums.com/android-lounge/498423-wi-fi-booster-android-tablet.html

5

Ya, I do something similar to this with a MIFI to provide internet over a 4G connection for a friend’s shop. Nothing stopping you from using another wifi instead of a 4G as your network source. A lot of APs run of 5VDC or 12VDC, both of which are battery friendly.
-D

6

You can google up the 'cantenna' style hacks for creating a waveguide antenna using a pringles or soup can. These do require an external antenna connector though, so you're probably out of luck with the tablet. If the laptop is using a PC card or similar, that might be a viable approach.

I've seen some people soldering an antenna to a tablet's internal connector, (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1916898) but I assume that's more invasive surgery than you're willing to attempt in the field.

7

If you're looking to reach out and grab a wi-fi at or just beyond the extreme periphery of usability, consider getting a PEP WAVE SURF MINI... look it up. $ 70 I think.

Rich