Wireless internet on my Macbook.?

Question

Ok so of course like almost everyone else I want to use someone elses wireless internet because I dont have any. My friends who live a little less then a mile from me, have wireless and they told me I could use it. But when I type in their name and password, it never works. But when I was in front of their house it worked and they said they were able to use it pass my house like over a mile away. So I figured I would be able to keep it but as soon as I hit the corner it failed =[. Nobody in my hood has wireless except those ones "2WIRE" they always come up and have passwords so cant use those. If you can help, please do so, thanks.

Answer 1

Only specialized wireless networks can work over the distance of 250ft. However it is possible to get a directional antenna, if you have a straight line of sight without anything between your house and his you might be able to setup direction antennas to do the job, however if it's very far at all it probably wont work. You best bet would be to talk to one even a direct neighbor's wireless will have limited results when you go to actually use it. Wireless home networking is balanced for just that, networking in your house.

If you just MUST go the road to get your internet from them for some reason and you want to try some experimenting you can even build your own pringles can yagi antenna see; http://www.netscum.com/~clapp/wireless.h...

Or you can buy from EBAY or froogle use the search "802.11 yagi".

However I'm not sure this is even actually legal.  And I would say .5 mile would be a maximum. Just because people sell these products doesn't necessarily make it legal..  I'm not sure about this perhaps someone else can answer.

For example Enterasys RoamAbout 14dBi Yagi Antenna WiFi 802.11  I see at PCLIQUIDATIONS.com.

I would trust the MFJ-1800 Antenna they general make good products.

Some people are claiming 3 miles on this link; http://www.usbwifi.orconhosting.net.nz/

GOOD LUCK!!!!