Okay, first off I know that a lot of you have probably heard of folks already doing this.
I wanted to do this to see if it actually worked and it did.
Here is a list of parts you will want:
- USB WiFi dongle (for this I used the one from my XBox 360)
- A long enough USB cable to reach outside your RV. (I used a 6 foot extension for this)
- A satellite dish (of the unwanted and preferably FREE persuasion I got mine off CraigsList and it came with the outdoor mount)
- The electronic doohickey you wish to have better internet on. (I used my XBox 360 because it was the only thing I have that has a external WiFi Dongle)
This was totally easy to do. All I did was set up the Xbox as usual put the wifi dongle out the window. Then I went inside to see how many WiFi spots I could pick up, including the one from the house.
I pulled in 9.
Next I took the WiFi dongle and then set it onto the arm part that holds the LNB or Low Noise Block converter that points at the Dish.
This time I pulled in 30 WiFi signals.
This tells me that this actually works. So if you were wondering if this works, and wanted a very inexpensive way to improve your signals, it does.
Here is a pic of the dish.
(https://www.classicwinnebagos.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1282.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fa531%2Fcoachmanm500%2FMobile%2520Uploads%2FIMG_20140501_123648_767_zpswyommv4k.jpg&hash=3ee13b8bc9ea90b57fe77d35c4628cd4191b8680)
At the time I had the base taken apart and used a milk crate with two ten pound dumbbells in it to hold it up.
Here is a link to the short vid I made. http://youtu.be/FAXqmM_WGb0
WOW, wish I had known about that before, I always have an extra dish and I have cousin-in-law that has a pile of junk dishes
Hmmmmm. I wonder if that would boost the signal to a T-Mobile hot spot device? Just put the device where you put the dongle.
Kev
Lets see, all sorts of variations to this theme
http://www.usbwifi.orconhosting.net.nz/ (http://www.usbwifi.orconhosting.net.nz/)
http://tag.wonderhowto.com/build-a-diy-wifi-antenna/ (http://tag.wonderhowto.com/build-a-diy-wifi-antenna/)
Dave
I don't know about incoming cell signals.
I have full bars all the time where I live.
However today I thought I would see if putting a cell phone in the same spot on the Dish as the wi-fi adapter from the Xbox 360 would help the cell phone get better reception.
Sadly it did not.
I tried setting it in, in different ways, but there were no significant results.