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Want more WiFi distance, range, power?

You can build up your wireless LAN at home so that it doesn't just reach downstairs - it can reach next door, next door but five, and even all the way to the pub. All you need at some antenna extenders from the Wireless Kit Site.

The wireless kit site is operated by members of Consume.net, a group of amateur enthusiasts who share broadband Internet connections with their neighbours and friends. [note: as of August 2002 this link died, so check at the new URL for updated info.

Simon Gunning, who works for Digilog doing anti-hacker software during the day, sells antenna boosters that are within the law in the UK, at night.

The site has a pretty full catalogue; it's worth asking for prices, though, because they keep changing. But (for example) a "pigtail" to connect your wireless card to a co-ax LMR-400 cable would cost about £20 to £25; while an omnidirectional rooftop antenna to attach to the cable would be around £250-£300 now, but likely to drop rapidly, he says, as new designs come into the market.

And a laptop-extender antenna would be about £ 20, compared to £80 for a commercially-available "brand name" device.

Prices to consume.net members will be much lower, too; so it's worth joining that first.