[dbike]

I am receiving unsecured wireless signal from somewhere
in my neighborhood. Some parts of the house get better
reception than others. Is there a way to improve the signal
strength? My laptop has a built in wifi card with no obvious way to
connect an antenna.

Alternatively can I use my wireless router (Linksys 802.11B) to
capture the signal and distribute it inside my house?

DB

[m3trj]

The best thing to do is get up high or go for a walk to try and find the source.

[dbike]

My wireless router has two antennae. Are they duplicative, or is
one for sending signals and the other for receiving? It must be
that the router would capture signal better than the wifi
card in my laptop.

DB

[m3trj]

Not sure, my router has 2 as well. I guess one's for TX and one's for RX, makes it more efficient, but I can't be sure.

The router probably can get a better signal than your laptop due to the fact that it has external antennae, but routers can't recieve and interpret other wireless network signals from other routers usually.