[Cali-Glock]

I live in the boonies - no DSL, being in the woods with mountains to our south no satelite option either, and dial up is 12kbps to 14.4kbps.

Over dinner tonight I learned our next door neighbors (about 150 yards away or so) bit the bullet and purchased a T1 line! She suggested I try to see if I could pick up her network. After they left I grabbed my laptop - no visible networks from inside the house, but from our driveway I could pick up one bar. I stood outside for probably 30 minutes playing with the connection!

I Googled high gain wifi antenna and got about a zillion hits. Looks like I can get a parabolic grid wifi antenna with 24db gain for under $100. The hardware then describes the connections N-Female, N-Male and other options... my question is how exactly do I go about connecting one of these antennas to my wife's desktop PC or should I connect it to another wireless router.. and if so how so?

If I am resonalbly convinced I can reliabliy get her signal in my home somehow I want to try to work out a deal to pay to use her signal...

Which brings me to my second question - how much should I offer to pay? She is paying something on the order of $350 a month for her T1 (at least that is what I was quoted a couple of years ago)...

Thanks for any input and advice!!

[G22owner]

Your best bet might be some sort of network bridge, or repeater. If they have a router, you might be able to snag an access point and use it in that manner. I have my wireless router upstairs and have an access point in my basement that I use as a repeater, in the same manner as you're talking about doing. Signal strength across an open space, such as between your, and your neighbor's houses is probably going to be similar to what I experience through 2 floors. It's worth a shot, for sure!