I spent about an hour, and about $15 today building a Pringles can antenna, in the hopes of being able to work down at the creek during this lovely warm weather.
It didn't help at all. Presumably that's because of geography, rather than due to incompetence, but I don't really know. The creek is situated such that there's a hill between it and the antenna, so I'm going to blame that. But I really don't know how to test whether it worked at all.
However, when I reassembled my wireless router with the original antennas, it worked better. Not sure what to make of that, but maybe I'll be working down at the creek next week after all.
Did you measure/cut for wavelength? That is usually the most common problem.
As far as I know I did, but understanding nothing about antenna theory, I really can't say whether I did it correctly.
Despite it not working, your geek status increased by 3
Try this.
http://martybugs.net/wireless/biquad/
It's pretty simple to put together.
Drop off at your local electronics store and get a piece of blank PCB for the copper back plate. Should be around $5 for the size you need.
I didn't use the copper pipe for mine, if you use some RG-56 instead of the more common RG-6 you can solder the shield to the back plate and your biquad just mind your spacing.
The hardest part to get was the old satellite dish. I searched Craigslist but just found people wanting to sell them. Look at foreclosed homes listings for a possible pilfering situation. I managed to get mine from a friend when they were moving.
You should look for a single LNB (the thing that points at the dish) dish take the LNB off and tear it down to just the housing. Placing your back plate flush against the LNB casing will give you the perfect angle to the dish for your antenna.
You can encase your antenna end in a piece of tupperware and seal it with some silicone. Mount it to your roof (to help get over the hill) like a normal satellite dish and run your low loss wire to your router. Keep in mind that this is not an omni-directional antenna. You will need to point it where you want your signal to go.
That should get you there, I have had an impressive increase of coverage area with this build.