paul_morgan•1mo agoProlific Poster

Serious question, my neighbor said he puts his router in a metal bowl to boost the signal

I was helping him move a couch in Denver last weekend and he pointed to his kitchen counter setup. He claims the bowl reflects the Wi-Fi and gives him full bars in his backyard. I tried it with a mixing bowl at home for two days and my phone kept dropping the connection. Has anyone actually tested this and gotten it to work, or is it just a weird myth?

3 comments

3 Comments

wesley_hart1mo ago

Oh man, that's a classic mix-up. The metal bowl thing is for extending range directionally, like making a weak signal shoot farther in one specific direction. It doesn't just boost power everywhere. If you just plop the router in a bowl, you're probably blocking and reflecting the signal in weird ways, which kills the connection in other spots. You need to shape it into a partial shield or parabola pointing where you want the signal to go.

laura2111mo ago

Honestly @wesley_hart you just explained why my old apartment had perfect wifi in the hallway but nothing in the actual living room. I totally just dropped the router in a mixing bowl like it was a weird cereal. I was so proud of my hack too, before my roommate started yelling about his game lagging. Tbh I probably made the signal bounce around like a pinball.

paulperry1mo ago

Wait, are we sure @laura211 actually tested this or just vibed with the idea? I remember seeing a YouTube video where a guy used a pringles can and it worked for one direction but killed everything else. The bowl thing is basically the same concept but worse because the shape is wrong. You're better off just buying a longer ethernet cable or a cheap extender than trying to MacGyver your wifi with kitchen stuff.