How can I beam my Wifi signal across the street?

Solution 1:

Use directional antennas and point them to the other house.

Solution 2:

Read up on repeaters. Also consider getting a more powerful router. If you look at the routers that support DD-WRT then you can get one and flash the hacked firmware giving your router a more powerful signal. You can also buy another and use it as a repeater to extend the signal into your parents house.

Solution 3:

Previously somebody answered "use directional antennas".

You can make your own. Do a web search on "Cantenna". Thats not a spelling mistake. You can make a directional antenna using a soup can and some readily available pieces of hardware. It turns out that the Pringles Can antenna is not as good as they can be.

Bear in mind also that at the 2.4 GHz frequency of WiFi, the attenuation through air, buildings, people, water, etc is very high, so you will never get really outstanding range. There is a reason this spectrum is freely available, after all.

Solution 4:

One of the simplest things to do would be to use routers with external antennas at each building.

I have a garage/shop about 250 ft in front of my house. I am using a Linksys WRT54G series router with 7 dBi Antennas.

I have the router inside at the window facing the shop. I have a wireless card with an external antenna on the inside of the shop in a window facing the house. I have about 80% signal strength most of the time.

200 feet should be easily done, without directional antennas.