I hope this reply helps. I decided to cut my own antenna since I have had previous experience cutting antennas and having had to study and work with Radiowave Propagation Theory alot. Anyways, I took some copper wire I had lying around (from the inside of telephone wire) and cut it as an antenna for my Dell/Orinoco mini-pci wireless adapter. The first time I had a brain fart and cut it to the wrong wavelength (I am used to cutting larger HF and VHF quarter and half-wave antennas), but the second time I got it right. I connected the antenna connector cable that came with my card to the card and ran it to the side of the webplayer (to one of the gaps in the metal so the antenna could hang out in the area covered by the plastic siding.
For 2.5ghz, the full wavelength cut should be 4.72 inches. Since this is small, I would not recommend cutting a half or quarter-wave antenna for those of you that know what I'm referring to. Cut the copper wire to around 5 inches. I believe I actually used 3 wires and cut them all to that length. I then carefully twisted one end of all the wires together so they would join. Using some kind of non-conductive glue (I actually used Elmer's glue I think), attach this twisted end to the center of the open end of the antenna connector. Make sure that it doesn't touch the sides and you should be alright.
I then ran the copper wire down the side and attached the plastic siding to cover them up. Once I did this I got a good to excellent signal in every room in my place. It works very well for me. There is a small side effect though since the antenna is not terminated and is not insulated from the metal interior side of the webplayer (which the plastic attaches to). The combination of the correct cut and the fact that it touches the conductive portions of the webplayer causes the speakers to click whenever the network adapter transmits data. I haven't had time to fix this yet but I'm sure someone else out there can. It can either be from the twists boosting the signal (I get a very good signal at both ends) or the connection to the chasis of the webplayer. Either way it works great and I have not had any problems with it. You can turn the volume down and you won't hear it anymore, but even wit the volume up its not that bad.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to take a picture of the setup but this kind of lengthy post should be enoug to help other people do it without spending money on an antenna. When I have more time I will probably not only rectify the problem with the clicking sound but also maybe wire the transmitter up to one of the LEDs if its putting out that much of a signal.
I am only relaying my story and I don't guarantee that it will work for anyone else. In fact it might blow up your computer and cause you to die somehow so its not my fault.
w0rd
