Best laptop for picking up signal long distance?

I've never heard of a laptop with phenomenal WiFi reception power.. You can't purchase a residential grade WiFi card that can span more than 5000 square feet worth of space. You're talking about blocks of space between your laptop and McD's WiFi router... What you also have to consider is how crappy their WiFi AP is or isn't and how far it broadcasts.. Usually they'll install some one-off brand wifi adapter to cover the radius of their facility and maybe the seating outside which probably totals around 5,000 square feet worth of space and that's pushing it on a McD's budget.

You can try to make one of those how'to range receiving units; however, they're all just junk and don't really work at all..

You can always try your luck with any of these products:

http://hawkingtech.com/products/177.html

Good luck having it reach 4 blocks away...

Getting WiFi signals from long distances has nothing to do with the laptop. It has to do with the antenna and if you have any buildings blocking the signal.

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http://www.cantenna.com/

a laptop that specifically has 3g is the only one that can pick up long distance

no