I was thinking, (ok it does not seem determined yet if if it is illegal to use another’s wireless connection so let’s say you are on the edge of a city’s public wireless access point), I know that there are a lot of older houses that have those tall arial antennas on their roofs. You know the ones where people always had to go up there and adjust to get better TV reception.
Granted that you would probably have to open up the wireless card but would it be possible to make a plug and modify the wireless card to allow you to connect to a WAP? I mean let’s say that you are on the very edge of a public WAP and the connection is spotty, would you be able to utilize a pre-exsisting TV antenna to get better reception/connectivity?
Sorry if the wording is a little messy, it is too early in the morning and I have not had my coffe yet.
801.11 operates in the 2.4 GHz range, and TV operates well below that (somewhat random frequency blocks up to 698 MHz, according to this very cool chart: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.html )
In order for an antenna to properly pick up a radio signal it needs to be designed for a specific frequency or range of frequencies. The length of the antenna conductor needs to be close to of the wavelength of the signal you want to receive*. Since the TV antenna isn’t designed for, and is thus the wrong length for the frequency that WiFi uses, it wont handle the signal very well, if at all.
However, you can buy high-gain 802.11 antennas that can send & receive WiFi signals much farther than the pathetic excuse of an antenna that’s connected to your laptop’s WiFi card. I have friends that have one on their roof that hits a public hotspot about half a mile away.
This is a gross oversimplification of antenna design. You can also have antennas that are fractions of the wavelength size and still have them work, and you can have antennas that are nothing but pure black magic, conjuring the spirts of fallen angels and beckoning forth eldridch horrors from untold depths of madness in order to receive radio signals. They tell me they’re called “fractal” antennas, but I know their dark secret.
