Advise on extending range without frying my laptop

Hello everybody

I often stay at a hotel with in-room internet access beyond my budget. If I get a room on a low floor on the left of the building I can pick up the free signal from the lobby, but have to balance my laptop on the window ledge. Obvious solution is to get an extender/booster of some kind, but after doing a lot of research I'm totally confused - I've even read on a forum about serious damage being done if you're not careful with what you attach. Sent an email to Sony support but they don't recommend any attachment or devise for the laptop.

I *think* a Cantenna type devise (I'm not clever enough to make my own with a Pringles can) would be what I need, but can't figure out if I can attach one without somehow disconnecting the in-built wifi card. A lot of the info I've managed to gather - including the USB adaptor recommended on the Cannterra site - is telling me to install I just disconnect my antenna, but I don't have one externally. There is also information on PCMCIA - I think I have one of these (isn't it the slot I use to put an SD card in?) but that confused me even more.

Or maybe I'm on the wrong track and need something completely different. Cost isn't really an issue as I'm away a lot and would use it often, but size or weight is something I need to keep in check. I don't want to void my warranty by opening the cover and physically removing or replacing anything so that may restrict what I can do. Any help anyone can give will be much appreciated - it's only a matter of time before I manage to drop it off the window ledge.

Thanks in advance

If you were to get a PCMCIA wireless card that has a removable antenna then what you could do is put a more powerful antenna on the card to give you greater performance. As the PCMCIA card is a standard type of card to put into a Laptop then it won't void your warranty. And because the card can take a different antanna then it shouldn't void the warranty on the PCMCIA card. Don't look at antennas under 9db, and don't buy cheap as they just don't work well. In fact you should be able to get matching high gain antenna for your PCMCIA card.

Regards

Fred

Thank you for your help. Do I assume from your reply that the PCMCIA option is better than USB?

Also, one more question if I may - will there be a conflict between the new receiver and whatever it is that is driving my wifi/bluetooth access at the moment? Do I just turn bluetooth off?

Sorry - I really have no idea about this kind of stuff.

Thanks

Not necessarily. You can use USB or PCMCIA but the thing you will need is a detachable antenna where you can put a higher gain antenna on.

Regards

Fred