Wrap Up

And this is the whole thing, set up for playing online with the Wii. I have dubbed it “The Beacon”, as it’s a shining testament to the DIY’ers dream of getting the results you want at prices that make retail look laughable. Unlike a repeater, my laptop has various monitors to help me see exactly what my signal strength and speed is. and if I feel like being on the internet instead, I simply unplug the Nintendo Wifi chip and move the computer to my bed.

Yeah, definitely much better than what I was getting before. I think that the 11Mbps is the speed cap for the Orinoco card, but thats great for the internet and so far very well for the Wii. We shall see just how good it is on February 10th, when Super Smash Bros. Brawl comes out.

Price Breakdown

Cantenna:
Total cost: About $14 because I ordered the extra long pigtail.
Total build time: Approximately one hour.

Orinoco card:
Total cost: About $18
Total install time: less than 5 minutes

Biting your thumb at retail prices: Priceless.