[TriLUG] OT: Device for Improving WiFi Reception?

[Scott Chilcote]

Hello LUGgers,

An elderly relative of ours has moved into an assisted living home which
provides free wifi.  Unfortunately, her rooms are at the end of the
hallway where the signal is weak.  The reception is poor enough that her
computer's network connection frequently drops.

The hardware is a recently purchased Dell windows desktop box. 

Can anyone recommend a way to improve the wifi reception on her computer
that does not require modifying the network infrastructure at the
facility?  That may be an option eventually, but at this point we're
looking at easier approaches.

One thought I had was to add a USB wifi network adapter with an external
antenna plug, and look for a better antenna to attach to it.

The folks that are doing this are not particularly hacker oriented, so
solutions that involve aluminum foil or pringles cans may not go over
well  ;-)

Thanks for any ideas!

   Scott C.

-- 
Scott Chilcote
scottchilcote at ncrrbiz.com
Cary, NC USA