Gadgetory


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How do Signal Blockers Work? (Faraday Cages)

2018-01-16
you know as much as I love tech I still marvel at how some of the most advanced complicated devices ever invented can be defeated by crude simple instruments and perhaps nothing demonstrates this idea better than the Faraday cage essentially a metal container that blocks wireless signals but wait a minute Linus metal I mean it kind of makes sense to me why thick concrete is bad for your cell signal but wouldn't metal just like conducts electricity well okay of course yes it does which is why you shouldn't stand outside with a Festivus pool during a thunderstorm but that doesn't mean that metal will allow radio waves to pass through it you see a Faraday cage works because radio waves move through electric fields which interact with the charges that are naturally present in metal electric fields push positive charges away from them meaning that when they hit a Faraday cage negative charge collects on the side of the cage nearest the signal source while positive charge accumulates on the other side because the incoming field is oriented in a positive to negative direction now since the charges in the metal have now oriented themselves in the opposite direction they produced their own electric field going the other way meaning that they cancel each other out inside the cage and the radio waves can't pass through it the simplicity with which a Faraday cage can be constructed has led them to appear in plenty of electronic applications notably in microwave ovens where they keep radiation from leaking out into your kitchen and turning you into a human hot pocket you've probably also seen smaller Faraday cages for sale in the form of RFID blockers which purport to shield your credit cards from attackers who might try to steal information off of them with scanners and although it's actually pretty difficult for identity thieves to use this information as the RFID chips inside of cards don't contain enough information on their own to do much real damage the market for these protective sleeves and wallets is thriving none the less another less obvious example is the metal layer commonly found inside the cables for your electronics these serve as a shield around the copper wire that actually transmits the signal this shield is effectively a tubular Faraday cage that keeps external signals from getting into the wire and screwing up your content as well as preventing its own signals from escaping and interfering with your other wires and gadgets and one of the coolest things about Faraday cages is that due to their simplicity there are some really interesting DIY applications some folks out of concern for their personal privacy for example will keep their cell phone in a metal container while charging also UK police have advised people with wireless ignition systems to keep their keys in a similar enclosure to prevent what's called relay car theft where thieves read the signal off of your key fob from outside the house start your car and then drive away and another common use is wannabe criminals lining their shopping bags or pockets with foil to try to prevent the RFID tags on stolen items from setting off alarms when they leave the store though before you run out and try that one many retailers are wise to this technique can have installed metal detectors to defeat these so-called booster bags on that note if you're building your own for whatever reason Faraday cages can't shut everything out and it should be noted that any holes in the cage need to be smaller than the signal wavelength to attenuate outside broadcasts so in some situations one phone might work inside a Faraday cage while another one might not due to different carriers using different frequencies this is something that you may have noticed in nature's unintentional Faraday cage the metal elevator so we recommend a more purpose-built solution for your Faraday cage needs KFC of all companies is offering a Faraday tent that it calls the Internet escape pod for the low price of what $5,000 why do they even sell this what are they even I mean at that price I hope it at least comes with extra gravy synergy to is designed to be easier and more seamless to use than synergy one synergy is a mouse and keyboard sharing software that works on Windows Mac and Linux computers with features like being able to share from anywhere so you can automatically control any other computer without reconfiguring SSL encryption to protect your keystrokes from attackers dynamic networking which intelligently detects the best route based on your networking setup and the ability to always run in the background on all operating systems so you can just set and forget it if you get the pro version you can even get access to other cool features like clipboard sharing dragging and dropping files copy pasting lock screen synchronization and tons more so get 50% off synergy 2 today at the link in the video description so thanks for watching guys if you just like this video you can hit 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