My brother would like better wifi reception on his cheap iBook. I asked a Mac retailer/repair shop, and was told that you can’t improve the signal because the wifi card and the antenna are internal.
Does anyone have ideas of how this might be done? There are those USB wifi antennas/cards, could those be used somehow? I was initially hoping that he could use a directional antenna with a pigtail to point at the wifi gateway and increase his roaming ability that way.
The USB idea would probably work, if you get one with a higher-power antenna. They do exist, though they’re fairly expensive. The AirPort cards are very good, generally speaking. If you have a higher-power card, I believe you can take apart the iBook and install that… but this is really asking for trouble unless you know what you’re doing.
Alternately, you could use one of QuickerTek’s solutions (either the transciever or the iBook antenna). I remember meeting a guy with the antenna once who was very happy with it. The transciever apparently requires AC power, so it’s not so good for an on-the-go solution.
How about the AirPort Express Base Station? Is this made to plug an ethernet cable into and get a good wifi boost? Apple’s site is so lacking on technical specifics that it’s a little maddening.
The base station provides a WiFi signal for you to access the network from, yes. I think you can use one as a super-antenna, but I’m not sure. They can talk to each other and make a bigger network, too, but I’ve never had to configure them for that. QuickerTek also makes beefed-up antennas for them, I understand, if even that’s not enough.