this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2026
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Anon wants a point to point directional antenna. Focuses the radio beam in one direction.
All you really need is any old router you can flash custom firmware on. Wifi signal strength radio waves are fcc regulated to be no more than 1w (30 dBm) but routers are physically capable of much more, so with a custom firmware, you can crank that sucker up higher than anything new and high end off the store shelves.
Why did they limit to that level? I would like to try this, but I assume the FCC had a good reason to limit it
EDIT: found this page https://infishark.com/blogs/learn/wifi-transmit-power-limits-by-region that says the US has the highest limits already
Not why the FCC cares but WiFi systems stop broadcasting if they can even slightly hear another broadcaster on the channel. If everyone broacasts as loud as possible WiFi speeds would be absolutely awful. So to get good speeds everyone should ideally broadcast as quietly as possible. This is one of the reasons for 5ghz WiFi: the propagation distance is terrible.
So wait, does this mean that if you boosted the shit out of an old router you could effectively force shutdown nearby wifi? If one was so inclined to such shenaniganry, that is
No being louder just increases the number of neighbors who's networks you slow not how slow they get. Your old rounter will stop talking for a random interval if it hears anyone else talking so it wouldn't completely jam anyone. Furthermore your immediate neighbors would probably switch to a different channel. If you got lots of routers on all the different channels and a ton of random devices connected to them sending data you could really slow things down. WiFi slows with congestion. Being louder increases the range you congest.
If it worked the way you described WiFi in apartment buildings strait up wouldn't work. Which admittedly WiFi in appartment buildings doesn't work well.
Why is because of radio interference and congestion. Imagine being in range of 500 routers.
Back in the days of LAN parties if the host had shitty/no internet I'd bring an old DirectTV dish with a usb 802.11b wifi dongle zip-tied to the transducer.
It worked great for stealing wifi from any unsecured AP within 2 miles we had line of sight on.