By Matthew Phelan For Dailymail.Com
Published: 11:01 EDT, 6 October 2023 | Updated: 11:27 EDT, 6 October 2023 Kitchen Aluminium Foil
If your Wi-Fi router's signal is dragging in certain parts of your house, the solution might just be in your kitchen drawer.
Standard, 0.024-millimeter-thick household aluminum foil was shown to be just about as good as other, more expensive signal-reflecting metals like copper and silver, according to computer scientists at Dartmouth University.
The researchers masterminded a simple hack that promises not only to improve your wireless signal, but can even strengthen your cybersecurity, for about as much money as it costs to wrap your leftovers.
Crazy as it may sound, a 'tinfoil hat' on your router may also help you be less paranoid about hackers sneaking on to your wireless network.
The researchers' technique relies on a 3D-printed reflector wrapped in aluminum foil.
The new technique relies on a 3D-printed reflector wrapped in aluminum foil, which directs the signals toward specific areas, and away from places they're not needed. While the signal works best with the 3D printed material, they say cardboard could be used as substitute
Every router's reflector shape needs to be personally optimized to direct signals toward desired areas and away from where it's not needed.
While the device would work best with the 3D printed material, as it can more accurately capture and maintain the optimal shape for the desired coverage, the team also says you can create a similar structure using cardboard.
The inexpensive technique was developed for the 2017 BuildSys conference in the Netherlands by researchers at Dartmouth College, Columbia University and the University of Washington.
The trick capitalizes off the fact that your Wi-Fi router's antennae are pumping out wireless signals uniformly in all directions.
From the hardware manufacturer's perspective, this makes a lot of design sense — until, you, the consumer backs that router up into a corner or against the wall, or the router is faced with snaking hallways, interfering signals from other devices, or other obstructions.
The Dartmouth-led team created a dish-reflector to improve Wi-Fi signal by redirecting all of it where it most needs to go.
Adding boosters and keeping technology up-to-date will also benefit your internet signal
Experts say putting a router near your kitchen microwave is one of the worst places to put it
This, according to the researchers, reduces interference and the signal-deadening effect of building materials, furniture and other common items.
It can even boost your network's protection against cyberattacks by limiting which nearby areas offer access to the signal from your router.
'Through this single solution, we address a number of challenges that plague wireless users,' said the conference presentation's author Xia Zhou, then an assistant professor of computer science at Dartmouth.
'Not only do we strengthen wireless signals, we make those same signals more secure.'
Previous research found that placing an aluminum soda can behind a Wi-Fi access point can strengthen the signal in one direction.
In the new work, the team built upon this idea, designing an algorithm to optimize a reflector's shape to target more specific coverage areas, unique to their own Wi-Fi needs in one lab and an adjacent room that was separated by a thick wall.
The team simulated the spread of the signals, along with their interactions with objects in the environment.
'The result demonstrates the necessity and efficacy of our optimization,' the researchers said, 'which considers the indoor layout to customize the reflector shape and enables more flexible control.'
What this means for your router is that, ultimately, you too will have to experiment with the shape of your reflector to test how best to redirect the signal to improve coverage based on the floorplan of your own home or office.
Research has shown that placing an aluminum soda can behind a Wi-Fi access point can strengthen the signal in one direction.
In the new work, the team build upon this idea, and designed an algorithm to optimize a reflector's shape to target more specific coverage areas.
Shaping the signal allows users to funnel the Wi-Fi toward the areas it's most needed.
Shaping the signal allows users to funnel the Wifi toward the areas it's most needed, the researchers explain
It also helps to reduce interference and help protect against cyberattacks, as it limits the signal to certain spaces.
The researchers 3D printed a structure of the desired shape, and covered it in a thin layer of reflective metal – such as aluminum.
For those who don't have access to a 3D printer, they also note cardboard could do the trick.
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