[P1] Networking from Across the Street

[Signhelpers.com]

Even better:

http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/Primestar/Primestar.html

>Short question: does anyone know how I could  boost my neighbor's 
>wireless signal, so that I can receive it in my own home? (Note, 
>this is something my neighbor suggested to me, I'm not trying to 
>illegally tap into her wireless network).
>
>Long background: Our ISP (Comcast) just cut off the use of more than 
>one computer on a single modem. So about a week ago I purchased a 
>AirPort base station (too bad I couldn't wait for the new AirPort 
>Express). I have an AirPort card and the other computers run off the 
>base station from an ethernet connection.
>
>A few days ago I walked outside with my iBook to see how far from 
>our home I could wander before the base station signal faded. Not 
>very far, as it turned out. However, a message popped on my monitor, 
>telling me my neighbor's network across the street was available. A 
>couple days later I saw our neighbor and told her about tapping into 
>her network. She told me that she works for a cable company (not 
>Comcast). She also said she wondered herself how cable companies 
>would make any money once people realized the power they had to 
>network their communities on their own.
>
>My neighbor told me to tap into her network anytime I wanted to, and 
>to cancel my own Comcast account. However, I can't pick up her 
>wireless signal inside my own home, and I spent too much money on 
>and I'm still having too much fun with my own base station to give 
>it up.
>
>Still, I'm tempted to at least think about how I could join my 
>neighbor's network. I fantasize about our block linking all of our 
>computers together, with a few base station-equipped homes and/or 
>ethernet cable strung between houses.
>
>So again my question: how do I boost my neighbor's wireless signal 
>so that I can receive it in my own home? Is there something I can do 
>in my own home to make my iBook's AirPort card more receptive to the 
>wireless signal coming from my neighbor's home? Could my base 
>station somehow pick up my neighbor's signal, maybe by adding an 
>antenna (right now of course my cable modem is plugged into my base 
>station)?
>
>Or do I need to make it happen from my neighbor's home, boosting the 
>output from her wireless network so that it can at least reach my 
>home-office, which is in the front of my house? Could I, for 
>example, add an external antenna to my neighbor's (PC) base station, 
>or could I take my own antenna-equipped base station across the 
>street and somehow add it onto my neighbor's network, to serve as a 
>relay/booseter/networking bridge? If that worked,  but if my 
>neighbor's signal only reached to the front of our house, could I 
>add an AirPort Express to our home, to boost/relay/bridge the signal 
>to the rest of our house?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Dave

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Signhelpers.com
Mike Urseth
P.O. Box 237
Ridgeland WI 54763
715-837-1120