New Wi-Fi Distance Record Set In Utah

cold_sake writes "Wireless guru Rob Flickenger details the known records for Wi-Fi link distances on his latest blog. Included is a new distance record for an un-amplified Wi-Fi link, set by the students of Utah's Weber State University. 82 miles was accomplished with 802.11b."

Comments

huh?

[mOoZik]

The link says 72 miles. The slashdot posting says 82. 10 miles is a pretty large error.

Re:huh?

[frazzydee]

check the blog- it says that the site originally said 72 miles, but now it says 82. Hope this clears things up. Maybe there was a mistake on the original .edu website which they corrected later?

1.5W is one heck of an "un-amplified" amplifier

[Burdell]

If you read the actual pages, they used 1.5W amplifiers. Their "lessons learned" page says "Unsure of FCC regulations"; more like FCC regulations ignored. FCC regulations for unlicensed use of the 2.4GHz spectrum for communications limit you to 1W ERP; with 1.5W amps and high gain antennas, they were well beyond the FCC regulations. Give me a big enough amp and a good antenna and I can transmit 2.4GHz a lot longer distance, at least until the feds track me down.

Re:I wonder what they tweaked

[mindstrm]

how do you determine it was illegally amplified?

Respectfully.. did you (or they) do the math and show that it violated FCC regulations, or are you just assuming that because there is an amplifier, it's illegal (which would be wrong)

Re:With Distances this great...

[drinkypoo]

You need a wireless interface for each user, but you can bring in multiple connections on one piece of fiber. You also need a bigass antenna for each user for whom you are trying to get significant range. Other than that, nothing.

However you are better off with a series of stations, maybe mesh-networked, maybe not, with both directional and omnidirectional antennas. The directionals will point either at home base or other stations, and the omnis will handle serving individual users.

Then, the users can have directionals pointed at the omnis. Perhaps you'll only be able to get a five mile range (on average) with a primestar dish on one end and an omni on the other, but you'll be able to get a lot of users connected to one station that way.