Steve Stroh points to a great idea - combining a USB Wi-Fi dongle with a “Chinese cooking strainer” as a reflector. 
This solution, designed by New Zealand hobbyists, might provide good long distance performance — without the need to buy an external antenna.
I use a Lucent USB client hooked to an external antenna for wardriving. I can use 15 feet of USB cable (which doesn’t break) - but the client device (with external antenna) is bulky. I spent about $60 for an Orinoco USB client, $40 for a +14db panel and $20 for a pigtail, or about $120 total.
This solution would be far more compact and half the cost because it eliminates the need for a pigtail and external antenna. Cheap cookware works as a reflector.
The New Zealand experimenters say this technique can result in +8dB or more gain (depending on the size of the reflector). Not bad.
Netstumber version .4 works on Intersil Prism/Prism2 chips as well as cards based on Atheros, Atmel, Broadcom, Cisco and Centrino chip sets. Similar one-piece USB clients sell for as little as $20. Here are some NS .4 cards that have proven to work.
Perhaps recent chips like the Atheros 5005G will result in even better performance with lower cost. Atheros will compete with other 11g/USB-2 chipsets. Conexant’s PRISM GT, USB-2 solution, for example, has been chosen by many vendors including Buffalo, D-Link, IOGEAR, Linksys, NETGEAR and SMC Networks. That means USB-2 dongles will soon be everywhere at competitive prices. Broadcom also has an 11g/USB2 chipset, but it hasn’t gained significant share, reports Tom’s Networking.
Here are Linux Drivers for the 802.11g Prism GT and a list of cards that use Prism (Conexant) chips. This Wi-Fi Hardware Guide shows whose chips are on what cards. Pricegrabber lists USB dongles for $20-$30.
A $5 reflector combined with a tiny, $30 USB client, might lower the cost of window-mounted antennas as well as improve Netstumbling performance.
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