Quite a few years ago now, I aquired my very first wireless dongle which was amazing, untill I plugged it in and found that my house had too thick walls for it to work in. This prompted Dan, a good friend of mine, to talk me into building a satellite for it. So we set to work and built our first prototype, well I say prototype but it was all botched.
This was made from no more than a small wicker bowl, tin foil, and of course the dongle. It managed to boost my signal from 0-11Mbps on a bad day and 54Mbps on a good day. This was more than enough to get a good connection.





The slightly more updated version came after I finally splashed out the £3.99 required to buy a wok. The reason we chose the wok is because of it's almost parabolic shape which would focus the signal into the receiver more readilly.
To support the wok I simply took the handle off and slid the metal rod (that was attached to the handle) into a beer bottle. For extra support I then put this bottle through the middle of the wicker basket that I used for the prototype but it would probably be easier to just fill the bottle with sand or some other heavy substance.









This version managed to boost the signal at the same rate that the prototype did, although it seemed to keep the signal for longer with less dropouts than the prototype. Also, it had the added advantage that you can use it to cook your dinner.