[SOLVED] How to Strengthen Signal?

[optionalfigure]

I live in a student apartment building and the router I’m on has just terrible speed and connection for pc gaming. Since I do not have a wifi adapter for my pc, I am currently connected through Ethernet to a wifi extender. Is there anything I can do/buy that will boost my signal and get me better ping when gaming?

 

[bill001g]

Not much you can do. The signal levels are regulated by the government and even if they weren't you don't have any control over the central router.

Make sure on your extender it is running only as a client you do not want it run as a repeater...ie you do not want it to transmit a duplicate radio output. In effect you have a wifi nic you connect via ethernet. It likely works slightly better than a internal card because it gives you more placement options. It also likely transmits at full legal power which many USB cards do not.

You might try a directional bridge. This is very similar to what you are doing except it concentrates the signal into a narrower beam. This works well when you have direct line of sight and when you can put directional equipment on both end it can go huge distances. When you are going through walls and do not have direct line of sight no way to predict if this will even help compared to what you have now.

You are pretty restricted in your options when you are not directly paying a ISP for connectivity. Many people actually put the type of internet access high on their list of important things when choosing where to live.