Dog food cans offers excellent broadband antennae

A businessman in Derbyshire has come up with a low-tech solution to a hi-tech problem.

David Taylor has used dog food cans to connect his home through the airwaves to the internet.

The cans work as an antenna, boosting the internet radio signal and bouncing it from his office to his home.

Mr Taylor, information technology manager with Derbyshire-based consultancy Equation, was fed up with being cut off from the broadband revolution.

So he set out to find a neighbour in an area where you can get broadband willing to help him with the initial connection.

"People were a little suspicious at first but it didn't take long to find a willing household," he told Computing magazine.

It's a dog's life

When he found a good neighbour, he set up a connection through a wireless transmitter to send the internet signal the two and a half kilometres to his office.

Mr Taylor was so impressed with the new super fast connection that he decided to boost the signal even further to beam it to his home at a nearby Travelodge hotel.

At first he tried using a milk powder tin as a transmitter but found that it was not waterproof.

Other tin trials also ended in disaster as the metal could not withstand the elements of the Derbyshire weather.

Eventually he hit upon the idea of dog food cans to send the internet signal to his home.

"Other tins ended up rusting but the dog food tin has worked very well," he said.

"Now not only do the 20 staff in the office have internet connectivity, but I also have full access from my home even with the entire area lying off the broadband grid," he added.

Article taken from the BBC archives written Friday 7th March 2003