Is there a device that helps you receive a wifi signal from further away

What is so important that you have to be off your office wi-fi to see..?

Configure an old router with ddwrt or Tomato firmware and use as a wireless bridge. Then wire to your computer. It'll be stronger than your wireless adapter.

I was bored one evening a couple of years ago, and decided to macgyver household items and an old Belkin N600 dongle to make a Wifi parabolic antenna. It was more effective than I predicted, given the fact that I only had aluminum foil, duct tape, and a plastic bowl to work with:



Coated bowl with two layers of foil. Cut a hole in the dead center of the bowl. Used the depth and diameter formula to more or less find the focal point for the parabola.

I pointed it out my window, and holy shite the SSIDs:


I was able to connect to and effectively use the two unencrypted networks at RSSI -79 and -80. I could connect to the NETGEAR at -87, but it ran like a 28.8k modem at best and dropped out every couple of minutes.

You can use all sorts of material for one of these, some more ghetto-looking than others. A better version can be made with a lid from a cheap Walmart wok, and a significantly more effective (and more expensive and time-consuming) bi-quad antenna using an old directv dish. However, if you're trying to inconspicuously browse porn on someone else's network from your office, none of the above would be the way to do it. In addition, this will only improve downstream throughput. Still fun, though.