Wi-Fi paint

I actually tested a product for a manufacturer that is working on a product like this at work....(for those who dont know I work in a independent lab which does RF interference testing) in theory it's a great idea but the one I tested did nothing at all. without saying too much it has particles suspended in the paint and there needs to be electrical particle to particle contact which you really wont get in paint without it being extremely expensive, and you would need to paint color over it as the color pigment will make it not work as it is not conductive.

But I welcome a product like this if science can get it to work.
 
A variation on the radar absorbing material used on the B-2 bomber to make it hard to find.
 
A few years back I had an issue of what would be the best type of antenna / output could I do to cover a couple of floors in one building in a campus without giving the neighborhood apartments wireless access. I ended up putting multiple AP's and taking the power down some and putting reflective sun shades in the windows. (the entire floor had floor to ceiling windows).
 
I actually tested a product for a manufacturer that is working on a product like this at work....(for those who dont know I work in a independent lab which does RF interference testing) in theory it's a great idea but the one I tested did nothing at all.

Would it be safe to say that any paint could be used to paint over wifi antennas and devices? I see some paints that are "wifi friendly". Just wondering if that is true or just snake oil in your professional opinion. Thanks
 
How about a few coats of metallic wallpaper(can you buy this stuff anymore? If not buy from a remodel of a 70's house), and then paint over? Works like a charm for me, takes the wifi signal from 5 bars to 1 ...
 
Would it be safe to say that any paint could be used to paint over wifi antennas and devices? I see some paints that are "wifi friendly". Just wondering if that is true or just snake oil in your professional opinion. Thanks

I would assume that as you stated it might just be snake oil, but as in the relm of RF anything is possible ....

icellama21 said:
How about a few coats of metallic wallpaper(can you buy this stuff anymore? If not buy from a remodel of a 70's house), and then paint over? Works like a charm for me, takes the wifi signal from 5 bars to 1 ...

I have never seen this wall paper but if it is overlapped at the seams, and places on all walls and ceilings you'd have a good room to change you aluminum foil hat and underwear ;) I know they cant read my mind with my hat on....
 
Best you can do with any of these solutions is attenuate the direct path unless you build a complete farraday cage - something completely enclosing the transmitter or receiver with grounded metal at a sufficiently small mesh size to exclude the wavelength. RF always bounces (you know the whole multipath thing) and in many cases the bounced signal is stronger than the direct path anyway so just erecting a metal wall directly between transmitter and receiver is not 100% effective (unless you live in space or a really open field).

However, there are some really cool WiFi systems out there that actually log the location of a "client" and only allow access if they are within pre-determined boundaries. Actually not too hard to do if you can access and process the incoming signal before the MAC layer. MiMo systems are espescially adept at this.

High-technology foils the metal pyramid hat I think.

David Feller
 
This looks like a decent system, paint it on and ground the wall. Seems like it would be effective. Graph on site shows good attenuation over the wifi range.

http://www.lessemf.com/paint.html

If anyone gives it a try I would be interested in hearing about the results.
 
Back
Top