HI INTERNETS! This page is about something I did in Moscow in 2006. I answered many questions about the project (including "IS IT REAL OMG") here.

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I just moved to Moscow, to a nice flat in the center. There's supposed to
be DSL here, but, well, there isn't. "Maybe in a few days..." In Russia,
that might mean next year, or possibly in six months if I can find someone
to bribe.

So, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Following cues from a
page I'd seen a year or two ago, I
bought the Ikea "Soare" napkin rings,
a USB WiFi adapter, and some electrical tape.



Costs:
Electrical tape, 9 Rubles.
Ikea Soare napkin rings, 59 Rubles.
WiFi adaper, 1090 Rubles
Errata:
One wasted evening before I disabled the Wireless Zero config service and
forced all connections to 1mbit. Apparently this adapter is reliably
unreliable at 54mbit.



According to my measurements, the "Soare" napkin ring is capable of a
5-7dB signal boost, when the ceramic antenna element of the WiFi adapter
is placed at the focal point. (The shape of the napkin ring holder
approximates a parabola). The napkin ring holder antenna also greatly
increases the directionality of my cheap ZyDas 1211 based WiFi adapter.


After some further testing, I found that removing the plastic casing of
the WiFi adapter gave an additional signal boost (and made it easier to
place the antenna).


I'm uploading from this apparatus now, hunched over my laptop in my
kitchen.

OORAH.

Daniel Reetz.
The Fakeproject Corporation of America.