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MAKE has a link to a metacafe video where a lady demonstrates how to use a soda can or two to boost your WiFi signal. The instructions are simple, and all you need is a marker, an empty pop can or two that have been cleaned out, a hole punch, and something that can cut the cans without bending them too much.
You start by removing the tab, making some markings, cutting the can in half from top to bottom, punching a hole for your WiFi router/AP’s antenna, and then putting the antenna through the hole. There is a recommendation of using a marker to make the cans uniformly black, but I don’t think that matters.
In the end, I don’t see this hack giving you a signal boost no matter what you do. Directional control of your signal, sure, so it would allow you to keep your signal in your house, or even direct the greatest part of the signal in the direction where you work most often, which might give you some sort of a boost, but that’s about it. Then again, I am not a radio signal expert, so I could be wrong, but I am not completely devoid of understanding of the basic concepts involved.
Boost Your WiFi With A Soda Can [via MAKE]
As some have commented on the MAKE site, this is a reflector, not a booster of some sort (using a passive antenna attachment you can’t boost a signal anyway, you can only confine it to a narrower space thus increasing signal density). Essentially is reflects part of the signal back in the other direction, which creates a dead space behind the antenna where you have no signal and a space in front of it with a slightly better signal. All in all it’s only worth it if you’re so dead cheap you can’t afford the minimal components for a proper cantenna or you need something with a slightly larger reception area than a cantenna can give you. That being said you can create a similar effect by playing any metallic object behind your antenna, it just happens that soda cans are cheap and plentiful.