This paper presents a novel carrier frequency offset estimation (CFO) algorithm for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). Compared with previous approaches, this paper extends the whole frequency offset acquisition range by embedding a synthetic algorithm according to the preamble structure of WLANs symbols. The numerical results presented support the effectiveness of this algorithm by which the estimation error of the whole carrier frequency offset in the WLANs is effectively decreased.