Wireless Internet -help-

[Ragingrob]

well, its a 250cc access point, and you really need an 1,100cc one.

Yes, you CAN hot it up with a wild cam, big carbs, rowdy exhaust, big 14dBi antenna, and it will help a LOT, but you are starting at the wrong end of things.

With a quality professional access point, you might not even need the big antenna. And they are BIG too.

DB

Hmmm well I've only got my restricted licence which means I can't go above $50... So what you do with that? Haha

[CookMySock]

Hmmm well I've only got my restricted licence which means I can't go above $50... So what you do with that? Haha

lol you do the same thing you do when you are riding your 250.. dream !!

You COULD make your own antenna, if you have some metalworking skills and/or access to a milling machine. but you will still hit your $50 limit before you even have all the materials, let alone your coax and connectors.
http://www.seattlewireless.net/SlottedWaveguide

edit: those are freakin huge though. Not really an indoor antenna. Mind you, if you put it on the roof outside, you could talk to it from some km away, cough, as well as from your lounge.

DB

[scracha]

The more modern stuff utterly pounds it in every respect. All access points will work across your lounge, into your kitchen, and through a wall or two. mostly, For more than that, you need some quality gear.

But I agree there was much fun had with the WRTs.

DB

Not as much experience with the kit as DB but I'd second what he's saying. I've had a lot of Linksys stuff dying on me and similarly the Belkin stuff has caused embarrassment. The "freebie" telecon one is the Dlink DSL-604G (or summit like that). Unlike some other D-Link stuff (The freebie telecon 502 springs to mind) they're pretty bulletproof to be honest as long as you're using the latest firmware and no using SNMP (it just locks them up) then they should do the job around the house nicely. Umm...Netgear and especially he 3Com gear seems to be pretty good.

All the modern kit should work all over your house no problems whatsoever without the hassle of repeaters. The newer MiMo "N" kit goes for fuckin miles...ok..not miles...but it's got seriously crazy range. I'm thinking the problem might be your receiver. If it's a laptop then cards like the DWL630 have pretty poor reception. If it's a lappy with built in wifi then maybe it's aerial is borked. Have you tried other devices? You've not done something daft like put the aerial behind he fridge or summit have you?

[CookMySock]

Heya scracha,

Yeah I haven't played with MiMo but the idea of sounds good, and in practice as you say, the results are good also. The more modern Dstink stuff uses a low-end Atheros chipset, which is the better then the earlier dstink gear. It's difficult to put an external antenna on MiMo gear so thats what its not used outdoors. High-end Atheros will give you 60km links with the right antennas, IIRC. Never done that though. The high-end Senao/Engenious is all Atheros chipset.

It's great stuff to play with.

DB

[arj127]

the funny thing is, before i got the repeater, we had fairly good reception in our bedroom which is a few walls away, but in the morning you would get nothing! Is this because my missus would get up before me and crank up her laptop? See, weve bought these iphones which are really cool (another story) and we would like to surf the net from our bedroom with them, do the forum stuff before lights out etc. So i thought a repeater might help. I'm still in the process of getting the di-524 to talk to the g710 but hopefully i'll get there on the weekend when i get more time. Cheers for the advise

[arj127]

Bin the lot and get a router with built in wireless. I did after running a bits and pieces set up and the change was amasing. No need to boost the signal and I think the neighbours could use it if they knew it was there...

What brand and model did you use?

[scracha]

di-524 to talk to the g710 but hopefully i'll get there on the weekend when i get more time

Can't remember if the g710 also works as a "normal" wireless router. If it does then you could just "cheat", run a long ethernet cable to it and give it a duplicate SSID and WPA key.

Yeah..I know running cables defeats the purpose but at least you can use your handheld devices.

iTouchy thingie...bah...you'll wish you'd bought a proper PDA.

[arj127]

Can't remember if the g710 also works as a "normal" wireless router. If it does then you could just "cheat", run a long ethernet cable to it and give it a duplicate SSID and WPA key.

Yeah..I know running cables defeats the purpose but at least you can use your handheld devices.

iTouchy thingie...bah...you'll wish you'd bought a proper PDA.

dunno bout that, iphone is the bomb when your in the middle of town and want to use internet access. pull the phone out of your pocket and use someones unprotected wireless. very handy really.

[scracha]

dunno bout that, iphone is the bomb when your in the middle of town and want to use internet access. pull the phone out of your pocket and use someones unprotected wireless. very handy really.

Kinda like a PDA / smartphone, 'cept cos it's "cool" and has "Apple" it's 3 times their price. Can it run Google mobile maps and sync with Outlook?

[arj127]

Kinda like a PDA / smartphone, 'cept cos it's "cool" and has "Apple" it's 3 times their price. Can it run Google mobile maps and sync with Outlook?

yip, google maps and outlook express, weather stocks you tube and tons of other stuff. I paid half the NZ price as i bought it in the States

[scracha]

the funny thing is, before i got the repeater, we

Did you get this sorted? BE will berate me for this but I've used these
http://www.qmb.co.nz/p.aspx?106503
on a couple of farms to join outhouses and "workers" houses for up to about 200m. Cheap and cheerful but they do the job and they work outside (with liberally applied silicon goo over the leads though)

[arj127]

Did you get this sorted? BE will berate me for this but I've used these
http://www.qmb.co.nz/p.aspx?106503
on a couple of farms to join outhouses and "workers" houses for up to about 200m. Cheap and cheerful but they do the job and they work outside (with liberally applied silicon goo over the leads though)

No, ended up working on the weekend so didn't have time. I think its a matter of changing the IP addresses.
Thanks for the info, may look at that if i have no success.

[pete376403]

And mount it along with your router up in the roof space. That should effortlessly cover your whole neighbourhood, no sweat.
Don't muck around with cheap consumer junk if you need real results.
DB

I've done this with a Linksys access point and it has improved the coverage inside the house remarkably, even though its only about a meter higher than where it was previously, up on top of a wall unit. I get a reliable 54Mbps, medium/high signal according to the wireless monitor of the laptop, where previously I was lucky to get a connection from the same location. Does the steel roof act as a reflector for the signal? Also, would it act as some sort of sheild to the outside world?
Thanks

[CookMySock]

I've done this with a Linksys access point and it has improved the coverage inside the house remarkably, even though its only about a meter higher than where it was previously, up on top of a wall unit. I get a reliable 54Mbps, medium/high signal according to the wireless monitor of the laptop, where previously I was lucky to get a connection from the same location. Does the steel roof act as a reflector for the signal? Also, would it act as some sort of sheild to the outside world?

Naw, its just the extra height. Microwave signals just lurrrrrve altitude.

It's even more noticeable outdoors. A small increase in antenna height results ina massive improvement in signal. Put it on a mountain top and it will do many many km's.

DB

[scracha]

. Does the steel roof act as a reflector for the signal? Also, would it act as some sort of sheild to the outside world?
Thanks

Wavy corrugated iron is fantastic for buggering up wifi. Also remember if the signal is to go through walls it's best done perpendicular to them as otherwise going through them diagonally increases the wall thickness (A LOT).