Man... whatever happened to the pringles can antenna? I build 3 of them and use the all the time. The $12 pringles can antenna perform better than the $50 directional wireless antenna I purchased at Frys (Trendware TEW-IA06D). =P I admit I didn't buy the highest end antenna, but come on now... if a pringles can can beat it, that's sad. I admit not all of mine do though. Two of mine work great, one works like crap. =P Anyway, I can use my Airport AP from over a block away with a pringles can pointing to it. =P And while "war"driving I can pick AP's that are often two blocks behind the house I point the can at. Are you just too lazy to make it? It really isn't THAT hard. There are a good 50-60 tutorials online right now. I looked at that that patch antenna... I honestly don't even want to try it, it looks kinda sketchy. But I'll give it a shot and test it compared to the pringles and let you guys know how it compares. - Andrew >>i'm looking to acquire a pcmcia wireless network card AND an external >>directional-antenna to go with it.. I use a powerbook/1ghz/osx10.2.6 and >>would like the benefit of being able to modify my mac-address, as well >>as superior uhm.. range with the aid of said antenna. any good ideas? >>of course, the card must be supported by the glorious kismac! > >As far as the directional antenna goes (pun intended) I found the >easiest to do yourself antenna is the patch antenna. ><http://www.geocities.com/lincomatic/wifipatchantenna.html> >A piece of copper sheet and a can lid plus connector suffices to make >this design, which is very easy to reproduce. >I've tried many others and they usually have similar characteristics >but they are generally way larger and much harder to reproduce. A way >to make this antenna very directional, is to put it in front of a >satellite dish; that will narrow the opening angle down from 60 >degree cone to a few degree beam. You won't be able to walk around >with it unnoticed however ;-) > >Personally, I made four support poles, one on every corner, by >putting a 'slug' of silicone mounting paste between the 'lid' and the >copper sheet and minimised the thickness of the whole contraption by >mounting the socket on top of the lid, having it 90 degrees tilted >with respect to the images on the URL above and having its coaxial >axis in a direct line with the plane of the sheet. > >It then all fits nicely in the lunch box, with the wire extending >from the side of the box. The whole can be put in a backpack; the >computer sits on your back, the card sticks out on top, the wire runs >down the powerbook and enters the lunchbox from above, which is >bottom to bottom with the powerbook. An earphone plugged into the >powerbook emerges from the backpack under your arm and makes things >clearly audiable. >Plug in the USB-GPS and your walks are mapped too. >The directionality of the thing as described is hindward, in a 120 >degree cone or donut pattern. This makes a very comfortable >war-walking in densely populated areas, and it is especially fun to >walk past side streets: bells and whistles all over you.