Simple wireless question
 

I have a feeling there is not much I can do about this problem but I figured I might as well ask the experts. Today I brought my centrino laptop across the street to school and saw that they have a wireless network in place (my school has several locations so I never realized this one had such a connection). The school is about 100 meters from where I live and the wireless access point is located on the 4th floor (I live on the fifth floor). Well at any rate I get no signal at all in my place. I know that there are signal amplifiers for the access point, but since it belongs to the school I doubt they'd let me add one there.

My question is: Is there anything I can do from my side to try and receive that signal?

You could try buying an access point and putting it in your place...see if the two would connect. But other than that, you're screwed.

Hmmm. Anything else that I could do with that access point if it doesn't connect? I don't mind giving it a shot, but in a small apartment like mine I think it would be of limited use to me....

what does your laptop use for wireless? There are wireless cards and then there are wireless cards. You might try hunting up an older Orinoco card (not a new one, they suck) as they have excellent range.

Yeah, a nicer card would help. There are some that even support an external antenna. That should help.

Thanks for all the help guys. The one problem that I can think of is that my wireless is an internal module. The intel pro 2100. Hope this won't make a difference. I'm starting to check out some of the options now....

The range on wireless networks is usually only about 150 feet, if there are no obstructions, like cement walls.