I've used a couple of products like this, for GETTING A signal that is at a distance.

The traditional CANTENNA actually DOES work, but it is pretty large and cumbersome to travel with, I have moved to a smaller antenna for that.

What one NEEDS though is a network card, dongle, pccard, usb wifi dongle etc. WITH an antenna in. Then, one needs the connector to connect whatever antenna you buy to that dongle. Sounds like a pain, but it really isn't. Finding a card with an antenna in is really the hardest part.

That said, I have had very good results. Mostly around hotels and resorts where I knew the hotspot was ONLY in the main area (or, sometimes that is the only FREE hotspot) I did have very good success at The Bitter End Yacht club, where the wifi access is only in the main building (or on an island in the middle of the bay) both of which are about 300 yards away, the island of course is situated in the middle of a body of water where the winds blow sometimes 50+ mph, all of which don't make for BETTER signal travel. But, it DID work and I got solid 60-70db signals which meant I could make phone calls, do normal web work, emails and even stream content with my slingplayer app from my slingbox nearly 5K miles away. :-)

this is an example of a wifi dongle one needs if they go that route:

http://www.frys.com/product/5279887?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

you can them upgrade the RANGE with such and antenna

http://www.frys.com/product/5164056?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG


As an alternative, these new devices are suppossed to get quite good results, although I haven't tested them per se, and cannot imagine that they would work AS WELL as getting a good antenna up in the air with a longer cable and attaching to a dongle.

Here is a link the newer wifi enhancers