Windsurfer Parabolic misunderstanding

[cerin]

If you have ever heard of the Windsurfer parabola cutouts to make a parabola using some card stock and aluminum foil. It's supposed to focus wifi signals. People claim up to 10 dB increase in signal. I am unsure it has done anything and my skepticism comes from the fact that it's really hard to handle aluminum foil without crinkling it up and creating about 400 different surfaces on the newly formed parabola.

I haven't seen it do much yet but my wireless signal fluctuates a lot and has very poor quality using the Linksys WRT54G router and Belkin Wireless G card. Usually around 20% signal quality and drops down to 8% sometimes.

The confusion comes when I saw some pictures of completed windsurfers that didn't look like mine. For example: http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/369...dsurferuf0.jpg

This one has the foil on the opposite side which to me seems counterintuitive because there is no parabola being formed. In this video on youtube these guys built theirs similar to mine. It looks like they just bought card stock that came with the reflective surface rather than put aluminum foil on it because it's hardly crinkled.

Along with this I was curious to see if anyone can help me better my wireless signal (the wireless was forced on me by my parents because they don't feel like running a cable downstairs). We've gotten rid of the our phone that operates at 2.4 GHz and I can't think of any other sources of interference. The router is upstairs and I am downstairs but altogether my computer and it aren't too far apart. What should I do?

[MWAAAHAAA]

Just buy a cable, its better for your health anyway.

[abachler]

word that, i wont even have my cellphone in teh same room with me when use bluetooth to connect to the internet. My phone gets really hot, and if its putting that much heat out, im sure its putting alot more energy into the signal. WiFi is still in the 'science project' stage of its development. It is doubtful you will get any useful increase in signal using a parabolic antenna, since 2.4 GHz is in the 10cm band, you would have to have a parabolic antenna 2 feet across to avoid signal blanking.

[cerin]

I would buy the cable if I didn't have to run it all the way downstairs and around so many obstacles. My parents are refusing any floor drilling to run the cable basically directly down to my room. I wasn't in favor of wireless in the first place and it has just ........ed me off. Now I feel like rubbing it in their faces and telling "I told you it wouldn't work well."

[Rashakil Fol]

So wait, you're going from one floor to another? In what direction are you pointing these parabolic reflectors then?

[cerin]

I just scrapped the one I made but...I pointed it down. No computers upstairs are on the wireless. If there were than the router has 2 antenna which means I could put one windsurfer on each.

[enmaku]

I ran across this thread looking for info on the windsurfer, and even though this is serious necromancy (this thread is long dead) I feel I need to clarify this a bit.

It doesn't matter which side of the paper the foil is on. Paper has no significant effect on radio waves, they pass through paper the same as they do walls and floors. Foil does have an effect on radio waves, it reflects them. If you tear the mirror off your bathroom wall you'll find that it's glass with a thin coating of silver on the back. This is the same principle, the light passes through the glass largely unchanged, then reflects off the silver and back through the glass to your eyes.

Also, by putting the foil on the back of the antenna you create less wrinkles since you're applying foil to a convex surface rather than concave.

[VirtualAce]

Closed.

Don't bump old threads.