Slashdot Mirror

Here is a Wireless Network Link Analysis CGI that can be used to determine if your current wireless setup will work. Calculates fade margins and probability-of-outage.

It's part of the work done by Green Bay Professional Packet Radio

I'm not sure of the exact speeds yet, but we are going to be experimenting with using laser for linking APs in Brismesh. Here's some links:


http://www.qsl.net/wb9ajz/laser/laser.htm

http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/laser.html

http://www.gbonline.com/~multiplx/wireless/laser /

http://www.emn.org.uk/laser.htm

http://www.n1bug.net/tech/laser/alc_wa6ejo.html

That last link explains how to get around the modulation problems that can slow down standard laser diodes. You find some of these links useful.

David

Here is a schematic for a 6 watt, 900 MHz bi-directional wireless data amplifier this would be perfect for old Ricochet hardware. All the parts are quite easy to find also.

Here is a Low Cost Wireless Network How-To.

It covers the technical details that the other wireless networking sites miss. It has amplifier ideas and schematics and external antenna mods using old MMDS dishes. It even has CGIs for preforming wireless link analysis.

Here is a Low Cost Wireless Network How-To.

It covers the technical details that the other wireless networking sites miss. It has amplifier ideas and schematics and external antenna mods using old MMDS dishes. It even has CGIs for preforming wireless link analysis.

You'll find the Low Cost Wireless Network How-To to be very informative in setting up your own underground wireless network.

1.) wireless. I'm talking some sort of line of sight. microwave will cost a couple grand

Wireless can be done cheaply too. Here's a low cost wireless network howto someone did after a slashdot article on the subject a few moons ago. In my experience, microwave networks work and are cheap too.

... referenced in the article, at http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx. I'm going to be sort of redundant here, and repost this message as a reply to the "first post", just to make sure all interested parties see it. I got to work late today, so my initial reply is lost somewhere in the noise at the bottom of the article. :-) Sorry for the duplicate post -- if someone can down-moderate the copy at the bottom I'd appreciate it.

Amusingly, I submitted the project page to Slashdot myself about a year ago, when I first got the link working. When the submission was rejected, I wrote to one of the well-known admins at Slashdot asking what I needed to do to make it /.-worthy. The response came back in about 5 minutes:

I just didn't think it was interesting enough.
Sorry.
--
| (admin name omitted) | Just want to be misunderstood,
| (admin name omitted) | I wanna be feared in my neighborhood.
| http://slashdot.org/ | Just want to be a moody man,
| codejockey*gangstero | say things that nobody can understand.
| flove*lovemachine*wr | --Pete Townshend, Misunderstood

Dejected, I was forced to admit that my news-for-nerds quotient just couldn't compete with the guy who built a PC case out of Zebrano wood, or whatever the story-of-the-day was at the time. Consequently, Rob gets major props from me for doing a better job writing up the submission than I did. :-)

Now for the bad news: out of many thousands of hits my site's received over the past year, only one guy, an EE professor at a local university, has successfully duplicated my efforts. In my mind, that somewhat validates the unnamed Slashdot admin's decision not to publicize the project in the first place. People, this is not a project for beginners or casual electronics buffs! In the year since I finished the project, a couple of excellent alternative solutions for RF data links that make good use of off-the-shelf hardware and homemade antennas have come to light. For instance, there's a good page on the topic of modifying Proxim Symphony cards for long-range service at Low-Cost Wireless Network How-To. I would have to say that this is a better approach for 99% of the people who have looked at my microwave link page and thought about building it. Heck, in retrospect this is what I should have done, instead of putting in all that engineering time on a 100%-custom solution. :-)

My own 10-megabit link has been running great since last June with only a couple of hours' downtime for maintenance and tweaks, and it's easily the most 'educational' project I've ever tackled. But I think it's important to temper peoples' expectations. If you are an experienced electronics hacker with access to a very well-equipped RF test bench or a university EE lab, and you just want to spend a lot of time and money building something something cool, then I highly recommend my microwave link project. If not, do yourself a BIG favor and check out the various wireless-Ethernet card tweaks that have been springing up on the Web.

-- John Miles, KE5FX

... referenced in the article, at http://www.qsl.net/ke5fx.

Amusingly, I submitted the project page to Slashdot myself about a year ago, when I first got the link working. When the submission was rejected, I wrote to one of the well-known admins at Slashdot asking what I needed to do to make it /.-worthy. The response came back in about 5 minutes:


I just didn't think it was interesting enough.
Sorry.
--
| (admin name omitted) | Just want to be misunderstood,
| (admin name omitted) | I wanna be feared in my neighborhood.
| http://slashdot.org/ | Just want to be a moody man,
| codejockey*gangstero | say things that nobody can understand.
| flove*lovemachine*wr | --Pete Townshend, Misunderstood


Dejected, I was forced to admit that my news-for-nerds quotient just couldn't compete with the guy who built a PC case out of Zebrano wood, or whatever the story-of-the-day was at the time. Consequently, Rob gets major props from me for doing a better job writing up the submission than I did. :-)

Now for the bad news: out of many thousands of hits my site's received over the past year, only one guy, an EE professor at a local university, has successfully duplicated my efforts. In my mind, that somewhat validates the unnamed Slashdot admin's decision not to publicize the project in the first place. People, this is not a project for beginners or casual electronics buffs! In the year since I finished the project, a couple of excellent alternative solutions for RF data links that make good use of off-the-shelf hardware and homemade antennas have come to light. For instance, there's a good page on the topic of modifying Proxim Symphony cards for long-range service at Low-Cost Wireless Network How-To. I would have to say that this is a better approach for 99% of the people who have looked at my microwave link page and thought about building it. Heck, in retrospect this is what I should have done, instead of putting in all that engineering time on a 100%-custom solution. :-)

My own 10-megabit link has been running great since last June with only a couple of hours' downtime for maintenance and tweaks, and it's easily the most 'educational' project I've ever tackled. But I think it's important to temper peoples' expectations. If you are an experienced electronics hacker with access to a very well-equipped RF test bench or a university EE lab, and you just want to spend a lot of time and money building something something cool, then I highly recommend my microwave link project. If not, do yourself a BIG favor and check out the various wireless-Ethernet card tweaks that have been springing up on the Web.

-- John Miles, KE5FX

Here is a Wireless HOWTO that covers just about everything including what and where to get wireless cards, antennas, cables, design, construction, amplifiers, etc. Look on the links page for all kinds of goodies wireless.