Question Boost phone and laptop wifi w/o access to router?

[blueangel42]

Hey!

So I have a boat on a mooring a bit away from our community pier, and I wish I put it a bit closer. The pier has public WiFi for the boats there, but still, about 400+ feet away from the pier, I can usually get at least 1 WiFi bar from my phone. Luckily, somehow, with only an 802.11n, my smart TV on the boat hasn't had any connection issues yet with YouTube, but my phone and laptop lose connection all the time.

My question is, is there something I can get for my boat that will boost my phone and/or laptop's WiFi reception and improve it's signal, without doing anything to the router? It's not my router and I don't even know anything about it, aside from the fact it must be pretty good to still get a bar from 400+ feet away.

If nothing can be done, or will be uber expensive, I suppose I can go unscrew my mooring and walk it over closer to the pier, but that's my last resort.

 

[bill001g]

What you need is a big antenna to attach to your phone..which obviously you can't do.

What you want to do is build your own repeater. You first need a outdoor directional bridge to receive the signal and then bring it inside via a ethernet cable to a cheap router acting as a AP.

You can get a large selection of outdoor bridge devices from ubiquiti. It depends if you need 2.4g or 5g. The inexpensive (about $50) nanostation loco should be fine, just get the proper frequency. Inside you can use any router you have or buy a $20-30 router. The outdoor unit is powered over the ethernet cable so you can put it pretty much anywhere and it is fairly small.

 

[blueangel42]

okay, im a noob at networking, but are you saying that ill need to install both a router on my boat and a "bridge" for the router, and then using those devices in conjunction will allow me to get a better signal from the docks public router wifi?

Another thing to consider, my boat swings around on the mooring so it will be difficult to use a device that is meant to be pointed in a certain direction to be effective

 

[jsmithepa]

This is more Radio than Networking.

"Directional" is the keyword here, just like aerials for rooftop TV antenna albeit smaller due to higher WIFI frequency.

Swings... directional doesn't mean a fiber-thin laser beam. You will be within the "cone" to capture the signal although strength may swing by a few decibels. Should be better than what u currently have.