sharing wi-fi with other students in building

> I want to share my cable connection wirelessly with other students in my
> building. Which antenna+pc combo, or AP would suit my needs best?  Also,
> would placing the antenna  on the balcony be more effective, since glass is
> more wi-fi signal permissive than concrete walls?

The second question is the easier one. Yes, placing your antenna in a 
way that there are no microwave-absorbing materials between it and your 
neighbors will give you the best signal. Anything with metal (including 
rebar and aluminum framing), and anything that absorbs (paper towels), 
contains (trees), or is often covered with water (roofs) between you and 
your neighbors will cut down the signal they see.

For the former, there are a number of variables. First, what is your 
budget - shoestring, $500 or less, or anything goes?

If you are on a shoestring, stop here. Just get a Linksys WRT54G. It's 
under $70 and works pretty well.

If you are not limited to a shoestring budget, ask yourself how much 
unreliability can you deal with. Some APs crash and do not automatically 
restart (I have a Graphite Airport AP that does this, others have 
reported this with some Linksys products). I believe the best APs in 
terms of maintainability and remote diagnostics are the Cisco ones (not 
the Cisco/Linksys ones, the more expensive Cisco APs).

Finally, if your neighbors are right next door and their computers 
aren't multiple walls away from you, you might not need an extra 
antenna. Try it without first.

For your research, I recommend Seattle Wireless's hardware comparison 
page: http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/HardwareComparison




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