After you're done munching on the chips, turn that can into hardware you can use.

Page 1  2  3
Yes, Virginia, you can turn household food containers into highly effective directional Wi-Fi antennas that'll pick up wireless access points (WAPs) from ridiculous distances. In fact, building the antennas is a snap. Attaching those antennas to your Wi-Fi card, however, that's hard. How hard? On today's show, we'll show you.

It's also not legal by FCC rules. Legally, you may attach only an FCC-approved antenna to your card/base station. Homemade antennas are decidedly not approved. Some things to think about here before you chow down on the Pringles.
  • If the FCC comes knocking at your door, apologize and take the antenna down.
  • You may be creating problems for other folks and other wireless devices if you blast your wireless signal over the neighborhood.
  • You may be creating problems for community Wi-Fi efforts if you tick off the FCC enough to come out to your town.
  • It's highly unlikely, but the FCC could make an example of you. Can you say, "I need a lawyer, fast?"
  • Finally, the experts I've talked to say that many commercial antennas can kick the snot out of Pringles can antennas. (They definitely look cooler.)


Pringles vs. cantenna

Now that we've given you fair warning, here's a heads up. Pringles antennas are a pain to build and require more time than cantennas. Cantennas get significantly better gain, too.

Pringles antennas need lots of parts and fabrication.
  • The can
  • Wire
  • Washers
  • Nuts
  • Threaded rod
  • Tubing
  • Plastic
  • N-connector
Get the details for building a Pringles can antenna. (Props to O'Reilly's Rob Flickenger for this excellent how-to.)

A cantenna needs the following.
  • A can
  • N-connector
  • A little over an inch of copper wire
  • Nuts and bolts

Plus, Yuban coffee tastes better than Pringles. Here's the link to the Yuban cantenna we built. For an even more effective cantenna design, look at this project, which lets you tune it to whatever size can you've got available. Very cool, Greg! Take a look at his Homebrew Antenna Shootout, too!

Page 1  2  3