Let me start off by saying this may have just been some quirk of my EVO, who knows, but here is what happened. My office is upstairs and my N router is downstairs. My wireless on my PC gets a 90% signal here and about 6.8 Mbps download speed (which is pretty much what our provider gives us so that's cool). Ok, I was noticing that my EVO was only getting about 1 bar of wireless sitting just a foot or so from where my computer was getting 90%. Also, I ran Xtremelabs Speedtest and was only getting 1.5 Mbps - fail! I was like what the heck is the deal here? So anyway, I just happened to have some aluminum foil sitting nearby and I wondered what would happen if I made a little aluminum foil dome over my phone and ran the speed test. Well, my wireless signal more than doubled and my download speed jumped to 6 Mbps! Cool, but here is the WEIRD part. After I took the little foil dome off, the phone's reception REMAINED AWESOME! It was like running that speedtest with the foil dome somehow "woke up" my wireless radio and now it rocks even without the dome - yep, weird. So, if you are having a weak wireless connection, try making a little dish from aluminum foil and putting your phone between it and your router and then running speedtest and see if things don't improve after that. P.S., I'm not claiming any miraculous breakthrough here or that this means anything at all, it just worked for me. Good luck.
Anyone who laughs without trying it isn't very scientific, are they? First of all, it has been clearly proven that you can make a homemade radar dish from aluminum foil to dramatically increase your wireless reception. That's just science. Also, there is the possibility that the increased signal resulting from this experiment did somehow cause the phone's antenna to recalibrate. If I told you you could cure disease with the mold from bread you would probably laugh at that too. So before you make any more obvious and unclever tin foil hat jokes, try it.
If your wireless download speed is not as high on your phone as it is on your pc give this a shot. I just updated to the lastest cm6 nightly and again my reception dipped. I ran this same trick again and I'm back to 6.7 mbps. Yep its weird and yep it sounds silly but it works, for me atleast.
pics please, thats all im sayin. pic of dish, screen shots of speed diff... anything. i'm not taking my sculpting skills to work.... .....yet
Do you know of a good tutorial or video showing how to do this? My Sprint reception in my house is HORRENDOUS!!! They need to give me an Airrave but if not, I want to do this...
Lol, are pictures really necessary? Just hold up a piece of aluminum foil, hold your phone between the foil and your router and run speedtest. Works best if you are far enough away from the router that the signal is getting weaker. Run speedtest before this then again after and see if your numbers don't improve.
Have no idea if this helps with 3g. Also, try to get the airrave, rocks. I have no idea if this will improve your phone reception, only wifi.
Also put a piece of foil shiny side up under your router. Half your signal is shooting into the ground.
If I wasn't already getting the same speedtest speeds as my hardwired pc I would try it. Instead I'll just leave my hat on.
...i've got those home-made antenna boosters made of foil on my home router. They worked, so i'm not hating on the idea... just sounds funny how it "fixed it" and it stayed that way.
Thank you Mitchell...it worked for me...though I had no idea how to make a dome...I just squished the foil on top to make an antena and it worked.
I just tried this since I am beyond bored. It seemed to make a slight difference at first. I taped a flat sheet of tin foil under my wireless router and then put a folded strip of foil in the top inside of my Amzer Evo case and I have to say it made quite a bit of difference, I can now use my Evo out in my yard a ways from the house which I couldn't do before. Thanks for the tips. Here is my case if you are wondering. $10 on Amazon.
Ok, since I was the first one to make a wisecrack I figured the least I could do is test the claim myself. Now I cannot guarantee that I did it exactly like the OP, as he hasn't provided any pics or videos.. but here's what I did... Testing method: Wifi Analyzer from the market.. shows exact signal strength. I have 2 routers in my home so it was a good test in case one was lower signal (though typically they are about the same). Tested in 2 places.. 1 a room away, and the other side of the house. Before any 'mods' , signal was approx -70dbm and -85dBm at the end of the house. (Signal isn't so great due to metal construction of the walls). 1) Attempt 1: Placed Tin Foil Under router (both of mine sit sideways so really wasn't much 'under' it them begin with). Removed Evo From Case... Made a little 'dome' (though it was sort of like a square tent) and placed it over the top half of the Evo.. it went down just above halfway. Results: Exact same signal as without mods. 2) Attempt 2 Tin Foil under router the same. Made a long 'strip' of Tin foil, approx 1/2 in wide, and 4 in long... placed it behind the evo in my Seido active case, at the Top just above the camera. It's sides were sticking out the front, like a U shape with the phone in the middle. (Figured the extra exposure should help... right?) Results: Still no change. 3) Attempt 3.. Still same tin foil under router.. Took a full sheet of tin foil, the same size as the evo + a little extra on the side. Took off the battery cover, and wrapped the evo back in the tin foil, effectively replacing the back cover with foil. Had to wrap the sides a bit to keep it on. Results: no change (though in honesty I think it might have moved like 1-3dBm, but I think that was more due to the lack of cover+case than the foil Bottom line... "What are you smokin???" This is pure rubbish, as others have stated. Unless you can provide a video showing before and after signals with your exact steps, gonna have to call this one either pure bull, or you simply forgot to put on your glasses before you tried the foil and are honestly not realizing you did absolutely nothing to your phone. Ok now to find some leftovers so I don't waste the foil!!
Hey guys, As I mentioned in my OP, this worked for me. Have no idea how it will work for you. It has been proven that making aluminum foil homemade antennas can dramatically improve your wifi signal strength. If it didn't for you, you are doing it wrong. As a for instance, since my computer is upstairs and my router is downstairs and wifi tends to be a ground level signal, I decided to just put a piece of aluminum foil shiny side up underneath my router and see if it made a difference. My computer wifi signal jumped from 40% to 90%! So anyway, if this doesn't work for you, could be any number of reasons, but it does work.
Lol, I love arrogant people who assume just because THEY don't know something it can't exist. Making a "radar dish" from foil clearly works and works well. The science behind this is obvious - it gathers and redirects the wifi signal and focuses it on your device. Duh.
The point is that most wifi routers are omni-directional, i.e., they fire signal in all directions. By using the foil to focus that signal in the direction of your device, you increase the signal your device receives. Pretty basic stuff people. ** The only reason I felt this may have improved my EVO's reception even after I removed the foil dome was that it might have somehow changed how the software measured signal by amping it up temporarily. just as the original EVO was capable of getting N wifi but was hobbled by the software, perhaps some other software limits were overcome doing this? Who knows, worked for me and apparently for some others in here.
I'm glad for the post, it may not make scientific sense but leaving the foil under my router and in my phone case has improved my wifi reception. I removed the foil today and went out into the yard and could not get wifi reception. I reapplied the foil and tested again and once again I could use it in the yard. Good enough for me.
Yup, it works, despite the noisy protestations of those pretending to be smarter than they are in here.
When you are able to come up with a shred of actual facts (not a self-proclaimed fact), get back to me. Nothin you have said is in any way accurate. Your dish BS is still wrong.
Ok, so according to you, a person CANNOT use aluminum foil in a homemade manner to focus a wifi signal in any way. Right? This is actually what you claim as an "expert" to know? Are you ready to be made an absolute fool of? Watch this: Boost Your Wireless Signal With a Homemade Wifi Extender
Ok I thought this was all BS, so for fun I tried it and WoW!!! I did my setup a little differently though as I put a soup can over my wifi router, drilled a small hole in the middle of the bottom of that can w/the other side off. Then I attached a thin wire and wrapped it with Alu-foil for about 20'. Then I did the same on my phones end and duct taped the can to the top of my evo. HOly ish this worked wonders, I am averageing about 9.5 mbps down via my DSL wireless and 5.6 up. I gained another 1 mbps when I made an alu-foil hat and attached a 3rd wire and spliced it into the others. My neighbors may laugh when they seem me through the window from the street but if they saw my wireless speed, they'd understand, w/o a doubt. Thanks for the amazing idea OP!
