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15-Mile Wi-Fi Shot At 4 Mbps Up and Down

DarnComputers writes "5G Wireless (FGWC) announced that it has documented a long distance Wi-Fi shot of 15 miles at a throughput of 4Mbps upload and download speed. The shot was completed this last weekend, in a competitive Wi-Fi shootout at the Defcon convention in Las Vegas, Nev. There were many participants with both commercial-grade and homemade entries in a variety of categories at Defcon's first annual Wi-Fi shootout.http://home.earthlink.net/~wifi-shootout/"

23 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Make that 24Km Wi-FI Shot At 4 Mbps Up and Down. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I thought English measurements are banned on Slashdot now?

  2. Last weekend? by LinuxGeek · · Score: 5, Informative

    This story was posted last summer. Check the dates on the linked page...

    --

    Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
    1. Re:Last weekend? by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 3, Funny

      Wow, it happened last year and we're only just reading about it on Slashdot?

      Is it me, or does someone have a real big problem with latency here? Perhaps Timothy needs to upgrade from narrowband just as badly as Taco does!

      --

      "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
  3. That's cool by ObviousGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    In my house, I'm able to shoot 54Mbps across 15ft of WiFi.

    It's not too shabby, and I don't get delayed on the 11Mbps Internet connection like I did before by my 10Mbps LAN card.

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
  4. CmdrTaco's Internet by SultanCemil · · Score: 3, Funny

    I guess this means Taco can get high speed internet access out in the boonies after all. (see earlier story)

    --
    Cemil.
  5. What chipsets did they use? by The+One+KEA · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It doesn't say anywhere what chipset they used for this shootout...

    Although 35 miles with 802.11 is pretty damn good, IMO - scroll to the bottom and have a look at the monster antenna they used.

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  6. Last weekend ? or more like a few dozen Weekends ? by kbsingh · · Score: 5, Informative

    Defcon is usually end of summer kinda things... the 2004 Defcon is posted for July 30th - 4th Aug 2004.

    I remember looking at this story a while back - and the same page was linked. might be worth looking back on ./

  7. Only 15 miles? by Brymouse · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's a good shot, but I have done 10.1, 22.65 and 19.3 mile links, with 99.9% uptime. I used Breezecom DS.11 radios and 24 DBi andrew/conifer antennas to accomplish it. The worst signal strength was -68 to -72 dbm on the 19 mile shot.

    It's not something that all that uncommon.

    1. Re:Only 15 miles? by yppiz · · Score: 2, Informative
      I think the winning team was shooting from their ~24db horn to a 5-8db omni. Not bad, especially considering their horn was a Home Depot special.

      --Pat / zippy@cs.brandeis.edu

    2. Re:Only 15 miles? by rudeboy1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The breezecom system you use is a specialized point-to-point/point-to-multipoint bridge system. They're designed to go that far. Your overall throughput is probably about 1-2 megs, right? These guys were using a home wi-fi system that is not designed to go more than a few hundred feet. Amplifying a signal like that takes a pretty good amount of thought, especially to get those kinds of throughput figures. Amplifying and transmitting a signal of that nature is like trying to stretch a 1X1 icon to the size of your screen. It comes out all poixelated and fuzzy. Same with this. Those chipsets were not designed to deal with those distances. The article doesn't say anything about lag time, which I would assume to be considerable. They did this in the middle of Vegas, right? I would hate to see the signal to noise ratio in that area. That would make it SO much more interesting.

      --
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  8. Cardboard and tinfoil antennas by yppiz · · Score: 5, Informative
    I built a copy of the cardboard antenna that the winning team used at the core of their mongo-horn. It turns out that the design is quite robust (that is, even I can make it) and with just the amount of cardboard you'd get from two standard 16"x16" boxes, it's possible to make a 16db gain directional antenna.

    What 16db means in terms of wireless use is than instead of picking up 4 access points from a rooftop using Netstumbler, I saw 40 different access points, including the BAWRN public node over eight miles away (with clear line of sight but an enormous amount of clutter in the fresnel zone).

    I used this design from Seattlewireless.net

    I strongly recommended trying this as a project. It's easy and pretty cool.

    --Pat / zippy@cs.brandeis.edu

    1. Re:Cardboard and tinfoil antennas by Technician · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you need it for outdoors, I would recommend using the aluminum coated insulating sheeting that can be purchased at any good building supply. It's the plywood with metal coating. Using the metal tape the HVAC guys use to seal up seams in ductwork would work well for assembly and provide weather protection.

      Georga Pacific makes some. It's description from the website;
      GP Thermostat Radiant Barrier Sheathing enhances Plytanium plywood sheathing with a highly reflective aluminum foil. Thermostat Radiant Barrier Sheathing can reduce heat flow through the ceiling up to 50 percent and save up to 20 percent on cooling energy consumption in hot, sunny climates. (1) Best of all, it's made of Plytanium plywood, so you know it's strong and durable.


      http://www.gp.com/build/product.aspx?pname=Plyta ni um%e2%84%a2+Thermostat%e2%84%a2+Radiant+Barrier+Sh eathing&pid=1741&hierarchy=

      --
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  9. "Last week at Defcon" by ehintz · · Score: 4, Funny

    The link is so blazing fast that it actually slows down time, like Superman in the movie. That's why we all feel like Defcon was months ago. It was really last week.

    In related news, the shuttle was traveling at 18x the speed of light when it broke up... Really, cnn said so here, and everyone knows cnn is the epitome of clueful.

    --
    ehintz
  10. Legality? by d-ude · · Score: 5, Interesting

    No matter what, at least it has to be more legal than the 'key-down showdown' stuff that used to be popular on the CB radios. I saw a guy with a suburban that had like 6 alternators on some custom bracketry, the entire rear cargo area full of batteries, and two large coil antennas on the roof. He claimed that he had a different length of coax on one antenna so that by the time the signal from the rear antenna 'slammed into' (his words) the front antenna would start transmitting and it helped his performance. They usually sit people many miles away and whomever can be heard the loudest wins. Everyone transmits at once I guess. Craziness.

    Anyway i'm just wondering what the limits are for dB gain on a certain power level to keep within the legal limits. I have an Andrew 24dB gain dish for 2.4GHz and I wonder if I hooked it to my Lucent card if it would be a legal power level.

    1. Re:Legality? by afidel · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yep, point to point limit using a 100mW card is around 28dBi.

      --
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  11. Not in Europe by Moderation+abuser · · Score: 2

    100mW EIRP is the maximum.

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    Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
  12. Wireless Homebrew Website by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is a website for homebrew/amateur radio related wireless experimenting. It covers the construction of homebrew amplifiers, antennas, receiving converters, etc. They also have path analysis and line-of-sight analysis CGI utilities.

    Green Bay Professional Packet Radio

  13. Re:Make that 24Km Wi-FI Shot At 4 Mbps Up and Down by Polkyb · · Score: 2, Funny

    The metric system was the invention of the French. I'd quite happily revert back to the good old imperial system, if I had the choice

    Fortunately, I was at school when Metric was introduced, so, I can convert between the two without using many brain cycles

    --
    I've never shoed a horse, but I once told a donkey to piss off!
  14. Friends and foes in a radius of 14.8951 miles by armando_wall · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm looking forward to when this kind of technology becomes more mainstream (and cheap).

    You will be able to "phone" your nearby friends (usually most of them) by using regular p2p netphone software and a Wi-Fi connection... why limiting to audio? Videomeeting software! Free-of-charge digital communications possible?

    Goodbye to those ZIP and CD-Rs and DVD-Rs, now you can upload your work from your home pc directly to your office desktop (maybe companies will have to implement stronger security measures).

    On the downside, I can see a new generation of viruses, trojans and worms "in the air".

  15. only 15miles and 4mbps ? that's nothing by RouterSlayer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Way back in '99 when wi-fi was just coming out (barely), I setup a 19.2 mile shot and got 11 mbps out of it, with only 11ms ping time.

    this isn't news... and it's not even useful...

    btw that wi-fi setup I did is still running today!

    and didn't we see some recent stories on slashdot of wi-fi setups running more than 30 miles with decent through-put ?

  16. Re:Cheap by shaldannon · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dunno if this will help you, but Linksys has a signal booster for your Linksys wireless device. Pop the antennas off the existing one, pop them on the booster, connect the booster to the access point, and (according to Linksys), you're good to go.

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  17. In other news... by schwaang · · Score: 2, Funny
    The entire frozen dinner section at a small convenience store near Las Vegas, NV mysteriously cooked itself at approximately 7:03PM.

    A special envoy of the Pope has been called in to investigate the possible miracle. Said one bystander, "I don't think it was, like, God or something because this chicken burrito is way overdone."