I was fixing a friend's UTStarcom F1000G phone and discovered that the phone has an external antenna connector mounted on the PCB. I haven't had time to connect a high gain antenna to it. If anyone is interested in trying it I have pictures and instructions on how to open F1000G on my website.
http://www.skifactz.com/wifi/disassemble_F1000G_1.htm

I will definitelly play with this some more when I get some free time. A high gain WiFi antenna could boost the range quite a bit.