Cantenna, anyone?
p2pnet news view Cool | P2P:- I’m embarrassed to admit it, but until today, I’d never heard of a cantenna.
A cantina, maybe.
But not a cantenna.
We’re having a major winter freeze here on Vancouver Island, location of p2pnet’s palatial headquarters, and when I tried to log on at 3 a.m. this morning, Nada.
I was back online a little over an hour-and-a-half later, but it made me think of the difference between choosing not to access the Net, and not being able to.
“Before i go do snow on our 12 car size driveway brrrr I’ll mention this,” said free1 in Reader’s Write under When the Net goes down …, my post on this subject, going on:
“You are in a unique position to install free wifi to reach the mainland anytime you want. It might not be the fastest or most reliable but it will let you see the world 24/7 or when cable is down. And it doesn’t cost much 
“
Thanks to William Keeley, I knew about FreeWans. But a canteena?
It’s a, “directional waveguide antenna for long-range Wi-Fi used to increase the range of (or snoop on) a wireless network,” says the Wikipedia.
Free1 links to a Google page with a bunch of YouTube videos on the subject.
Back in the Dark Ages, when I was young, I used to build 8-valve superhet radios and although it’s been a while, a cantenna should be within my very limited abilities, especially when I see the Wikipedia description, copied below 
»»»
A commonly used construction – which is quick, easy, and inexpensive due to use of readily obtained materials – is as follows:
- Four small nuts/bolts;
- A short length of medium-gauge wire;
- A tin can roughly 8 cm (3.66 inches) in diameter, such as a Pringles canister. The longer the better; and
- An N-Female chassis mount connector, available at many electronic supply stores.
Other constructions
The best cantennas are made using a can which has the right measurements. These measurements are in the range of
- 149.3mm length for a 84mm diameter can
- 128.2mm length for a 90mm diameter can
- 110mm length for a 100mm diameter can
- 101mm length for a 110mm diameter can
Additionally, the use of a pole or other method of elevation also increases the range tremendously and could be added to the can.
Hopefully, I’ll soon be better able to stay tuned.
Below is a YouTube video in how to build a Pringles Cantenna.
Cheers!
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December 17th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
that was fast, thanx
My large juice can reach 1 to 8 km line of sight, less if it bounces off objects. I use it to diagnose ppl’s problems, finding ppl stealing wifi or nuking users. Like i’m about to nail the little idiots across street that keep nuking my customer’s laptops as i turn them on in the shop. It’s taken me 2 weeks to find ‘em since they turn nukes on and off quickly. Now just to triangulate to make sure.
fyi: – the larger the can [up to 4.8"] the more nodes/AP’s you get but shorter distance you reach. Well you can go larger but you might as well use satellite dish
- the smaller the can [min. 74 mm] the longer it must be and more precise the tuning when looking for AP’s. … good for up to 25km. Have fun trying to tune it into an AP though. Need a machine gun bipod at one end of can and other end a fine thread screw to go from one office to next way out in Vancouver. And same for vertical.
- the more precisely you build your can the better reception it will have.
- on ‘instructables’ website there’s even a super antenna made of copper wire, styrofoam and brass plate. Not recommended for the novice but i get 15 to 25 km out of it.
- you can use any older box or laptop [P1 or faster] for your admin and or wifi card
- software: one that comes with card, net stumbler, easy wifi radar
- paint it or protect it well since outside works best “do not paint copper wire inside can!”
- roof or TV tower work best for line of sight. Some attics work great
- you can use TV cable for coax but not as good as specific store bought N cable, you have 180 ft to play with … shorter the better.
- each can needs fine tunning … have fun
- to get better reception out of your can you can use added horn about same length as can
- good idea to cover open end of your can really well with microwave resistant lid since birds love the idea of using it for their nests. One fried my NIC card twice before i figured it out.
- you can use satellite dish to extend your reach … up to avg of 70 km [hope you live on top of mountain], i think world record is 128 km
Enjoy
December 18th, 2008 at 3:31 am
Ah yes, cantenna’s are loads of fun. Actually made one for for a project a few years back. Made a blue tooth sniper