DIY: Boost your WiFi signal using a beer can

January 20, 2016

Lara Lopes

In case you don’t know how a WiFi signal works, it simply uses radio waves, just like TV or mobile phones. You could think of your wireless router as a mini radio station, which receives information from the internet via your broadband connection and converts the information into a radio signal and broadcasts these signals. The ‘audience’ for these transmissions are your computers and smartphones which receives the radio signal allowing you to use the internet.
This is the reason why WiFi signals are stronger closer to the router, and weaker in more distant parts of the house: the signal is affected by both the distance and by the obstacles, especially walls and appliances. To extend the reach these signals, the antennas on your router are made of materials that amplify the signal and transmit them more efficiently. However, sometimes that’s just not enough to reach the whole house, is it? So YouTube channel KipKay teaches us a very simple hack that uses aluminum cans to boost your WiFi.
All you need for this DIY project are scissors or a knife and empty beer or soda cans – 1 or 2, depending on how many antennas there are on your router.
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After you wash out the empty can, use the knife or scissors to cut out the bottom. Then, repeat the process at the top of the can, but this time, don’t cut all the way around – leave a one or two inch space at the top of the can.
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Then, on the opposite side of where that space is, cut down the middle of the can and fan it out into a U shape.

Now use that opening at the bottom to put the booster over the antenna of your router, you can even use blu-tack to stick it in place. Now repeat the process if you have another antenna on your router.
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