Although I live in a small apartment, I still face issues with my Wi-Fi connectivity. Well not exactly issues but recently I managed to subscribe to TM's Unifi service and all these while, my PC was sitting right next to the router before I moved it to a more permanent spot which was in my small study room (refer to the layout below). Because the Unifi access point was located outside and in the hall (that was where the telephone cable was located), I didn't want to run a 20 metre long network cable through the kitchen and through the toilet in order to reach the router. Hence I decided to buy a PCI wireless card for my desktop PC.

This was the wireless card which I purchased. It took me around 5 minutes to install it on my PC.



I guess one of the mistakes I made was getting one with the antenna at the back. Because of how unique PC's are, most of the time the back portion is faced against a wall or located under a table. Thanks to that, by the time I moved my PC into my room, it couldn't detect the wifi signal from the router. Heck I could get the neighbours signal from downstairs but I couldn't pick the up the wifi signal from a router located less than 5 metres away. At this point in time the wifi signal was a mere 4% strong.



So after being frustrated, I knew it wasn't really my router which was emitting weak signals because my Macbook Pro which I placed right next to my PC can easily detect the wifi signal with ease. So I headed downstairs and found this antenna at the local PC shop. It was the ASUS WL-ANT150 antenna.



After purchasing it for RM25, I brought it back upstairs and hooked it up to my wireless network card and extended the antenna to sit on top of my PC. Basically what it does is that it replaced the black antenna located on the wireless card itself and extends itself outwards in order to receive a better signal.



(image taken with my iPhone)

Thanks to this antenna I am now able to pick up my wifi signal from the router and am able to even write this blog post about it :)



The antenna also managed to boost the signal strength to 58% percent as well from a measly little 4% initially. And to think I almost went to the Apple store to buy an Airport Express. Managed to save some cash there!

Now I am tempted to replace the antennas of the D-Link router outside with this one.

I've got quite a number of blog posts which have been sitting in draft mode for the longest time! And to include that in, I've got a number of photo folders filled with RAW images which have been crying for my attention but most of the time, that has sort of eluded me. I guess its the end of the year where I've got a lot of things to clear up.

It is also the peak season whereby everyone is getting married so most of my weekends are used up for wedding shoots. The lack of a permanent internet connection at home is also another factor. Yes, I have been bugging TM non-stop of when Unifi will be installed in my apartment.

In September I asked them, they replied October

In October I asked them, they replied November

In November I asked them, they replied December

In November I tried asking them twice and even lied that I said a contractor came and installed it for my neighbour, their only response was that I was lying and it is not in their system. In my defence, the contractor did say that Unifi was available (but he was installing a phone line for another unit and not Unifi) and even TM Marketing called me to inform me that Unifi was available.

In December I called them, they replied at the end of the month.

I might as well give up soon, still have to rely on my Maxis Broadband connection instead.

The iPad was launched in Malaysia last week, loads of people got it and I saw a huge crowd around it at Epicenter at Pavilion last night. Still, I wonder, what can it really be used for? I started a thread at a local forum and judging from the responses I get, most people tend to agree with me that in terms of business wise, unless your company has applications which supports it, most of the time, its mainly used for leisure. Mine has kept me entertained especially on long flights, bus rides and while waiting.

iOS 4.2 was also released for the iPad and I am really glad that I can reduce the number of pages that I have and organize everything in folders. Downside is that I really did see a drop in terms of my battery performance as I have applications running in the background which I forget to kill.

So if you have an iPad, what do you use your iPad for?