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For an excellent explanation of why this type of thing occurs, check out:

http://www.karlnet.com/Documents/WhitePaper/TurboC ellWhitePaper/TurboCell%20White%20Paper.htm

Even better is that it details a superior system (albeit pricey per node). It's based on military technology and military technology is light years ahead of what most of us are using on a daily basis.

Blue skies...

Its either a) running FreeDOS+KarlBridge, or b) running KalrBridge under some other layer.

Karl did the development for the original iPod, I'd be surprised if they aren't also the ones behind the AP Extreme.

Details Here...

Having used Karlnet quite a bit, I can say that they do offer products that work well for this application. I worked for a wireless ISP and we used Karlnet exclusivly.

Having already gone through what you are attempting to do, here are a few tips.

1. Use a DHCP server. Otherwise, you will be getting calls all the time about how to set up DNS, IP's etc. It's a nightmare.

2. Line of site through a window doesn't always work well. The glass tends to refract some of the signal. If you can align the antenna parallel to the window it will work. Also, it doesn't necessarly have to go through a window. 2.4 GHz will also go through wood and sheetrock to a certian degree.

3. It works best when you can mount the antenna outside and point it straight at the tower. People are less likely to mess with it then.

4. You may think that you have three clear channels but many companies are using this spectrum now. If you are in an urban area, you will probably find that someone is already using some or all of these channels. Check before you spend a lot of money on equipment.

5. Keep your signal levels high. When we started, we would hook up customers with an 8 dB signal to noise ratio. As time went on, the noise floor came up and we had to devise new methods to keep customers online. If you can't get at least a 15 dB S/N ratio, don't even bother hooking them up.

6. Keep your antenna cables short (usually LMR-400). This is usually your bigest sorce of signal loss.

The company I worked for eventually came up with a design where the radio card was mounted on the back of the antenna outside the building. Cat 5 cable was run to the antenna with power injected onto the unused pairs. This design works well because the signal is converted directly to 10-BT at the antenna with minimal signal loss. Since the entire unit is outside the building, there is much less interference from microwave ovens and cordless phones.

Good luck.

I know this is slightly off-topic, but I find myself faced with nearly exactly the same problem. My ISP has setup a wireless network using regular Lucent wavelan gear, but they are running Karlnet's Turbocell firmware instead of the standard 802.11b stuff. There is Linux driver based on the standard wavelan2_cs available from Karlnet, but neither I nor anyone else I know has been able to get it to function.

Has anyone else had to deal with this? If so, was there a solution that didn't involve forking over the $300 for the external box?

I know this is slightly off-topic, but I find myself faced with nearly exactly the same problem. My ISP has setup a wireless network using regular Lucent wavelan gear, but they are running Karlnet's Turbocell firmware instead of the standard 802.11b stuff. There is Linux driver based on the standard wavelan2_cs available from Karlnet, but neither I nor anyone else I know has been able to get it to function.

Has anyone else had to deal with this? If so, was there a solution that didn't involve forking over the $300 for the external box?

the base hardware inside the airport is a Karl'snet bridge http://www.karlnet.com the OS was also created by Karl'snet

press release from Jan 2000

Grimlaf

the base hardware inside the airport is a Karl'snet bridge http://www.karlnet.com the OS was also created by Karl'snet

press release from Jan 2000

Grimlaf

The card inside the ABS is from WaveLAN, right, but the WaveLAN tools can not be used for the ABS. One thing that works (besides the java configurator named here several times) is the Configurator from KarlNet. This company actually writes all Lucent firmware and the firmware for the ABS is also written by them. Oh, you said "a comparable base station from Lucent ... costs way more": there is a nearly 100% comparable base station from Lucent, called "AP-500", which inside is actually the same as the Airport Base Station.