I am wondering how to improve a built-in wireless adapter thing's signal range. If you know any less-known configuration settings or anything of the sort it would be nice if you could share. I'm not sure where to post this, because I'm not exactly sure of the differences between Network (in)Security and the other forum.

Any help is greatly appreciated. :)

This is why the name shouldn't have been changed.

This forum is about hacking, in the new, 90's sense of the word. Our extent of networking is networking as applied to security. For instance, if you wanted to make your wifi stronger so you could crack your neighbour's WEP key, that would be more forum-appropriate. T&T is for general things.

This post itself is more RFA or DIY. You might just want to google cantennas, though, and look up the challenges at defcon a few years ago, I remember one of them being "get a wireless signal through a few miles of desert".

This post itself is more RFA or DIY.

Bingo. I'd tend to go RFA, but if kelsokid wants it elsewhere, then elsewhere he'll send it.

(Basically, I'm thinking RFA because it deals with transmitters, antennae, amplifiers and receivers as the primary triad of the question and answer.)

You're probably going to need to use a better antenna or an external amplifier to improve the range of a normal wireless card. Note that the use of such an external antenna might require modifications to the wireless card if it doesn't already have a place to connect the antenna.

well your pretty much hooped there .. the only way i know of is tricky chances are it is a broadcom chipset or possibly a athreos chipset the only way i can really think on boosting it is to have a external antenna hooked up but then your butchering your internal card you would have to shave down the biscuit antenna and solder somthing like a directional cantenna or somthing like a yagi
your honestly better off going with a pcmcia ornico gold card with external wifi antenna they have a much better power output and are even better with antenna i myself use several diffrent cards dependant on the task at hand including a tripod mounted 33inch directional yagi

Cantennas can be good, but you have to get that almost right on the money with your calculations. Some lesser known antennas include USB dongle on the end of an old PrimeStar dish, a WokTenna (just like a can, but you use a wire mesh wok)

This is why the name shouldn't have been changed.

This forum is about hacking, in the new, 90's sense of the word. Our extent of networking is networking as applied to security. For instance, if you wanted to make your wifi stronger so you could crack your neighbour's WEP key, that would be more forum-appropriate. T&T is for general things.

This post itself is more RFA or DIY. You might just want to google cantennas, though, and look up the challenges at defcon a few years ago, I remember one of them being "get a wireless signal through a few miles of desert".

Thanks for clearing that up, I'll remember Network (In)security is the hacking one, Technophiles is for hardware + software things. Sorry, I'm a n00b to the tech forums. :P