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How to boost your WiFi signal with a beer can (7 Photos)

In: Awesome, Interesting, Tech

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  • Chris_Mason

    Makes me thirsty.

    • Rodd Hungwell

      Im going to Sha-booms!!

    • OzChiver

      First? Thirsty? I see what you did there.

  • Jesse

    Decent reason to go drink an afternoon beer….

    • That Guy

      or a good excuse for a morning beer if you need to boast your signal sooner.

  • bag

    my beer cans don't have red or white lines on them

    • max-pow

      MY BOSS JUST LOOKED AT ME AND ASKED ME IF I WAS OK….I COULDN'T STOP LAUGHING….FUCKING HILARIOUS COMMENT

    • asdfasdfafds

      They become clearer the more you drink

      • PoppinFresh

        But when I drink enough to see the lines a pair of scissors and box cutter should not be available to me.

    • TomJonesInASpeedo

      I tried to make this but it came out like this: http://tinyurl.com/3wglz8b

      • BamBam

        well played sir.

      • Auz_E

        F*** you got me good!

    • reme

      I found a can with the lines on them, but I can't get the antenna to emit red parentheses…?

    • Dave3087

      That's because you don't have Below Zero brand

    • derek

      cant tell if trolling…or just-ahh forget it

    • mtpuckhead

      Spot on. Beat me to it bastard!

    • jam

      try using a bottle

  • John Daly

    Forgot to illustrate the most important part. Drink The Beer.

    • Nicnac

      Step 1. Wash out the beer with water.

      • Tony

        Step 1. Fill beer can with water.

  • J.D.

    I was just waiting for the 7th picture to be a punchline (drink beer on the way to walking closer to signal), but alas, this was serious.

  • http://www.douggoff.com Doug

    Now I just need to find a way to get my neighbors to add that to their router.

    • Guesty

      Plus 1 for you sir. Well played

    • dub

      lol

    • Dug

      Doug doesn't have his own router?? You can't explain that!!!

    • Captain Charley

      lol good form doug, good form

    • David

      Email them a link to this page!

    • Javier

      just visit them with some beers! šŸ™‚

  • LineHog

    Looks like a good way to end up sitting in a doctors office watching them sew your fingers back together

    • Flicka

      Dude, have some basic motor skills and BE CAREFUL!

      You clumsy basitd.

    • ummmm....yeah

      Sounds like someone's pretty uncoordinated or inexperienced with basic handyman tasks. Man card effectively revoked.

      -Management

      • DDP

        Hahahaha brilliant!!

      • LineHog

        Fuck you, I've rebuilt engines, transmissions, worked on drill rigs, cranes, and bull dozers, I've had my hands stitched up more times than I'd rather count and I have the scars to prove it. I have tools in my tool box that you wouldn't begin to how to use.

        I was talking about you pussy BOYS who sit behind a desk and all you know how to use your hands for is typing a keyboard. Dish water hands are the people I'm talking about.

        And who drinks beer from a can any way? If I want to drink beer, I go over to Munich and get real beer from the tap at the local beer garden.

        • foog

          Don't you fret overmuch, you big stud. I'm sure most of the nancy-boys here can buy and sell a dozen raging knuckle-draggers like your good self to do all the can cutting they need. Rawr!!

    • Fred

      Man up, sissy.

    • ih8yourlife

      I made an account just to let you know that you spilled your stupid on the internet, and then got mad when someone revoked your man card. I consider that a win, and you a jackass.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1102047130 Thom Stokman

    Fixing the internet and drinking beer.. The two basic tasks of the man of today..

  • Guest

    Why is the thing in
    #2
    removed and then back on in
    #4
    ?

    • racerx2112

      continuity fail.

    • confused yet frisky

      IT'S A TRAP!

    • craigarlen

      you just can't explain that…

    • That Guy

      you did just drink a beer… more things won't make sense.

      • This Guy

        That Guy always says the stupidest things. I feel bad for him.

        • NAACP

          Agreed. Never fails. Or should I say…..always fails?

        • That Guy

          feel bad on chod. but i do say the stupidest things. i will give you that.

        • thedude

          No he doesn't, Doug always says the dumbest shit and then follows it up with, 'you can't explain that' … but I think I got him to stop, lol!

    • Mark

      Why?… Because fuck you, that's why.

    • jaywalke

      Schroedinger's pulltab

    • dub

      It's obviously shopped. I can tell by the pixels and also I've seen plenty of shops in my day.

    • NAACP

      Beer-ception?

    • Bob

      That's another beer can, well the fourth or fifth, kept "Accidentally" making mistakes.

  • roly

    plugging in the power cord might help too

    • A. Ackbar

      Our WiFi can't attract signal of that magnitude!

  • thrillho

    Pringles Can > Beer Can

    • RGS

      That's what she said…(sorry)

    • Endo

      No It's not. The diameter is smaller so it won't be as wide, plus it's cardboard so the signal will go right through not bounce off.

      • Flicka

        You use the Pringles can to war-drive. Not boost your output signal. Reverse.

    • That Guy

      don't worry if you fear that drinking a beer will make your balls drop then you can use a fresca can and continue being a tenor.

    • lol

      not gonna happen, the material of the pringles can doesn't have conductive properties

  • grammar police

    "I’m actually really looking forward to trying this"

    hmm… grammar police is in patrol

    • VedHead77

      You are an be a retarded.

    • tawhitlow

      GTFO

    • Penrath

      how about…
      "Grammar Police is on patrol"

      .
      …Just saying… o.0

    • jam

      on patrol,they obviously missed your comment

  • tbone

    Mmmmmm, Below Zero beer.

  • DMAC

    Merica

  • MigraineBoy

    I will add a small motor to this contraption and make it look like a real live manly radar.

  • BMW

    I thought the tab wall pulled off… #4

    • BMW

      *was

    • steeb2er

      The bottom of the can was cut off, too.

  • I

    Im gonna have to try that.

  • Dildo Baggins

    I can pick up signal almost three blocks away!

    • jam

      three blocks for a tube of toothpaste,get some beer while ur out,oh and some vaseline, hhmmm

    • dick

      Are you steeling the signal from your neighbors?
      "Bad Boy"

  • Hank Scorpio

    I just received an email from my IT department saying they're going to be improving our WI-FI signal over the next week.

    • N00b

      That fast?

    • http://facebook.com/daaneskjold Chazz_B

      Because Scorpio Corp needs better internet

    • Matt

      Yes sir Mr. Scorpion right away sir.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1148164122 Jimm Pratley

    and watch as you accidentally slash your wrists on it…..

  • lol

    it doesn't work for me…….i used a dr pepper can

    • Rob

      well theres you problem.

      • josh

        watch it rob…Dr. Pepper has a phd in thirstology…and he falcon punches pepsi products…

    • phoenixv8

      whats the worst that can happen?

      • jam

        they do indeed,if Ur a recovering alcoholic,use a bean can label and nobody will suspect u fucked up again,works for me

      • QWERTY

        i see what you did there.

    • http://twitter.com/ABQLifer @ABQLifer

      moron…you're supposed to use a Dos Equis can. that's what a man does

    • jam

      ye could try a galvanised bin then u can get a signal from the moon, not that its any use,but ye could be the first can on the moon ,one giant step 4 cankind

    • http://www.rochesystems.co.uk Roche

      I believe the instructions for creating this with a Dr Pepper can are so misunderstood…

  • MrPrufrock

    OMFG! Do you people really think aluminum reflects radio waves? Then I guess we can't listen to the radio station when driving by recycling centers. You steal your neighbor's signal through the sheetrock, insulation, wood, steel and vinyl of his house AND your house – but a beer can could stop you?! If you still think this would work, place an uncut can over the antenna; if all signal is blocked and somehow trapped inside the special aluminum walls of your magic beer can, then go ahead.

    • N00b

      I'm not a smart guy by any means, but I have no idea what you were going on about.

    • no one cares

      you need to calm down

    • http://www.facebook.com/ranDgallegos Randy Gallegos

      careful, that much logic and knowledge isnt welcomed by many of the trolls here. but alas you are correct. while this will make your router look especially cool it will have no real affect.

      • therenegaderacer

        Are you an electrical engineer? No?
        It does work. It amplifies your signal considerably depending on how close your router is… It's not going to do much if you stealing a signal from the Starbucks down the street, but will help if you live in an apartment complex with a central router a couple hundred feet away.

        • http://www.facebook.com/ranDgallegos Randy Gallegos

          many sites that this has been posted on have already pointed it out that while it may possibly "boost" signal all it is doing is pointing it in a general direction. so if you are trying to get better signal to a stationary device like a Wii or you dont plan on ever moving your laptop around then sure it can "assist" marginally.

    • http://wildandbad.com mrdave2176

      No, but it does shield the antenna from extraneous static, other wifi signals and background radiation all of which attenuate the signal.

      Placing an uncut can over the antenna won't completely block the signal unless you completely cover the antenna and seal all slits and gaps with aluminum foil. This is why your neighbors house leaks EM signals like a sieve – it isn't completely shielded.

      This does work. empircal evidence alone will tell you how effective it is.

      • Wolfmane

        To further add to this, it isn't so much about filtering from extraneous static as much as it is changing the pattern of the EM radiation, or the lobes of the EM field generated by the antenna. The improvement in signal distance is an effect of the parabolic shape that focuses the signal. So while you'll get improved signal distance on the concave side of the can, you'll see the signal die off faster on the other side. It's a little bit like focusing light through a lens.

        I can't remember the actual 'reflectivity' numbers for aluminum but everyday normal materials that you find in buildings have certain effects, to a lesser or greater degree on signal quality. So certain wavelengths, such as the one used by Wifi (2.4GHz), will easily penetrate materials like wood, sheet rock, insulation and vinyl. Other wavelengths pass or bounce off of different kinds of materials. The ground penetrating radar they use for archeology/paleontology uses radar band frequencies to penetrate rock, which Wifi can't do. So yes, driving by the aluminum can recycling center will block signals. So will the iron beams in a house or office building. The point is that the signal is based on wave propagation theory, meaning it bounces all over the damn place. So more often then not you might not be getting direct line-of-sight beam transmission, it still gets to you because of the signal bouncing over and around objects. You should notice that when you're under a bridge, especially concrete or steel ones, you'll experience severe signal degradation both due to a much larger majority of the signal being reflected as well as the possibility of the Faraday cage effect.

        There's also Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum techniques we can get into for compensating for signal reflection, bounce or absorption. I can go on for a while but for as much as I know I'm not an RF design engineer and it gets into 'black' magic territory pretty quickly. Though for you the OP I think I'll take off my science hat, label it all simply as 'Special Magic' and move on.

        • thedude

          Wolfmane, your comment has made us all a little smarter – so Y U NO HAVE MORE THUMBS UP???

          The answer is you've got to remember that these are just simple Chivers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the New World Order. You know… MORONS! hahaha

          • bigdeal

            rofl so true

        • crowebar360

          his post has the biggest words – I'm going with him.

          • phideauxe

            Dude – wtf w/ that pic? Holy shit that's freaking me out.

    • max-pow

      IT….. SAYS….. "BOOST"…….. NOT …….."BLOCK"

    • Lulzup

      By that logic a beer can cannot help your portable t.v. signal either then. OMG!!! Do you really think a beer can or hanger will help your signal when tv signals can penetrate roofs and Walls and concrete?!? You’re so dumb!!
      Or maybe youre not a signal and antenna expert and keep quiet. Good boy.

    • therenegaderacer

      It's a DIY parabolic antenna, you jackass.

    • https://www.facebook.com/jpstrauss Juann Strauss

      How does an Aliminium satellite dish work?

    • thedude

      Thank you for providing fodder for the trolls … now that they're busy, I can go ahead and post under my real ID, lol

    • Bob

      Calm the fuck down, nerd.

    • Bob

      All beer cans are magic. They have/had beer in them.

    • Nick

      You are wrong good sir. It does work. It directs waves toward the wherever you aim it. If you want a really high-gain antenna (which you are essentially just increasing the gain of this antenna) you can use a satellite dish. If you wanna get really crazy, make your own antenna (1/4 wave dipole will work fine), place it in a soup can (there are many links to this online) and use it with an antenna. some people have reported getting a signal up to a quarter mile away. if you want to make a high gain antenna without the satellite, make a 2.4ghz bi-quad antenna and replace the antenna currently on your router with it. placing the can around the antenna will not stop the waves from going BEHIND the can, it will just direct some of the "lost" waves back to the direction you want them to go. check out the response charts and you'll see this is true.

  • jason in pc

    i used an old satellite dish, i get wifi from 1/2 mile away.
    pretty easy to do, free internet at my buddies house where i put it togeather for him.
    he pulls it from local businesses on the highway by his house offering free wifi to customers.

    • http://affeslist.com Affe

      liar in pc

      • FuckOff

        You sir are in idiot. This is very possible to do and not particularly difficult. Check out the link below for instructions. And next time do some research before you make an ass out of yourself.
        http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-hack-satellite-…

  • LuvH8fulChix

    Do beer can's actually have nutrition labels?
    #5

    • LuvH8fulChix

      Damn, why did I put an apostrophe in "cans"? I suck.

      • needless punctuation

        Because they OWN the actually, duh…

        • LuvH8fulChix

          Ha. Nice.

    • Bill

      No they don't and that is not a real can it is a fucking picture.

      • luke

        Ceci n'est pas une pipe
        lol

  • DaveA

    What if you have two antennae on your router? Will this principle still work for both of them?

    • beenthere

      Most routers only default to using one or the other antenna. If you change your settings you can choose which one.

    • Nicnac

      Drink two beers… why is this even a question?

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