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 was at Starbucks in Centrepoint Bandar Utama last night trying to get some computer based trainings done while accompanying munZ as she worked. The wifi signal with the greatest strength was TimeZone but among all the other wifi connections about, it was the slowest. It was so bad that even my Live Messenger couldn't connect and I was really struggling to get to any websites, let alone those hosted in the US.

After 30 minutes of complaining and checking every other wifi signal, I finally found one that was slightly faster and I managed to load my CBT. It was a little bit more bearable as I could even surf websites such as "The Star" or "Lowyat.net".

I used to think that Starbucks offered great wifi service but after recent attempts to work there, it is becoming more apparent that my Streamyx connection at home was a lot more reliable and faster to boot. If you happen to have a brilliant idea to pop by over at Starbucks to do any sort of internet surfing, perhaps you might think twice again. But hey, this is just my own experience and opinion.

Frankly, I don't think Starbucks has anything to do with it but I guess their service providers should do something about their internet services.