Picking up distant wifi network

Hello!

I live in Central Manchester (UK) and desperately need to get
broadband. Unfortunately we are still arguing to get a phone line and
in the short term need to start using external wifi networks so we have
net access.

Within range of our router and wireless cards there are no networks
that are unsecure or we can use. The phone boxes around town are all
wifi enabled by the cloud (thecloud.net) who Skype use under their
Skypezones. I want to be able to connect to one of these but can't
pick up a signal.

I reckon the closest one can't be more than 300 metres away in any
direction. We have a large window (second floor) with clear line of
site over the city but no line of sight directly to a known wifi point
we want to connect to.

Whats the best options for boosting the router to try and pick up these
signals? Will this work or is an antenna only good for making your
signal go further??

the router is this :
http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=106490&tab=3.

We also have 3com wireless cards.

if anyone can advise on products that will work and links if
poss.......If we can't connect to a phone box network, we are right in
the city centre so I'm sure if we can boost the number of networks we
can see we can get an option from one of them.

Thanks.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Router/thermostat interference?
    ... the seat outside the front door and found 17 networks - this in a low ... There are 13 x 2.4GHz wifi channels. ... This does a spectrum analysis of the wifi signals it is ...
    (uk.telecom.broadband)
  • Re: Moving cordless phone base away from modem
    ... The rust jints act as crude mixers and allow heteriodyning to happen resulting in retranmisson of a shit load of garbage across bands in which the originating signals are not present. ... It doesn't seem so clear how distortion of signals in the DECT frequency range could cause problems at ADSL frequencies, which only go up to about 1MHz. ... So at first sight we are FAR closer to Wifi than ASDSL. ... DECT runs at about 10mW so it shouldn't be overloading the router. ...
    (uk.telecom.broadband)
  • Re: Router/thermostat interference?
    ... the seat outside the front door and found 17 networks - this in a low ... I cant even get wifi from this office here to the kitchen about 6m line of sight - if there was a line of sight,..too much foil backed plasterboard in the way.. ... If your laptop has the facility, do what is a 'site survey'. ... This does a spectrum analysis of the wifi signals it is receiving, ...
    (uk.telecom.broadband)
  • Re: Picking up distant wifi network
    ... in the short term need to start using external wifi networks so we have ... Within range of our router and wireless cards there are no networks ... Whats the best options for boosting the router to try and pick up these ...
    (alt.internet.wireless)
  • Re: A Technical Question
    ... the wifi he was using. ... My elderly father would not have a clue how to configure his wireless router to add a password, and if he managed that bit, he certainly wouldn't be able to make his laptop connect to the router without help from me. ... I've found that using the best encryption method for the router means that some games consoles and phones can't use it. ... I'm guessing that they are pretty naive as their networks are identified by the default router name. ...
    (uk.legal)