How Can I Connect To WiFi w/o Being Near It? Help me solve this.

[HappyDude20]

I just moved into my cousins house, which is a lot closer to my university. For the past year have lived about 20 miles away and fortunately now am under 3 miles away.

My current situation (don't wanna call it a problem, hoping we'll find a solution) is that his WiFi network is located on one end of his house, while i'm staying on the other side. His house isn't somewhat big, def. more vast than anything i'm used to...but the WiFi is on the south side of the house. My guest bedroom and small work area is on the north side, i'm guessing 40 or 50ft away.

He had WiFi using Charter Cable and won't budge drilling another hole in the middle of the house so I could get reception. Nor will he have a long cable from the south side go to even the middle of the home.

& I can't take my mbp to the south side of the house cause honestly there isn't a place to get my work done. There's a childs bedroom there ...long story short...i gotta find a way to be able to connect.

my wifi on my mbp cant find it even when i search for it and need to. any help is appreciated.

 

[madog]

You can get a repeater for the router. It's basically another small wireless unit that you only plug into a power outlet and it extends the wireless signal. If he uses a wireless router provided by Charter it may be more difficult (as it's most likely a 2WIRE unit, I'm sure it's possible but may not be as easy as a linksys/dlink/airport). Placing that at a solid point towards the end of the wireless signal (near the middle of the house) should be able to get to your room just fine.

You could try lowering the multicast rate in the router settings. If you are at the very fringe of the wireless signal, it may help your machine connect (albeit at slower speeds), however, there's not much else you can if you are too far away.

You could also try positioning the router just out of the room it's in and into the hallway or something similar. 50 feet isn't that far for a wireless signal out in the open, but when you factor in walls, electrical equipment (mainly your kitchen), and other wireless signals it can decrease quite a bit. Not necessarily putting the unit in the middle of the house, but just out of whatever room it is in now if possible.

In my house, I can go 40ft to one side of the house, but can't connect in another room 15ft away for whattever reason. Wireless signals are odd like that.

 

[Bill Gates]

Any router supported by the DD-WRT firmware can function as a wireless repeater. I recommend checking on their forums for what they currently recommend that you buy, as some routers may be better suited to the task than others.

 

[Drumjim85]

You can also get a really strong wifi antenna ( about $60), but it would probably make more sense to get a repeater.