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802.11 for Vehicles?
mantid asks: "I am about to do a long trip (1 year) in a VW Vanagon, and would like to set up wireless net access from within the vehicle. What is the most effective system for hassle-free, permanent, long-term installation? Note, this is not just for wardriving, many truckstops, netcafes, and coffee shops are now offering legit net access. I just don't want to have to bring laptop inside to do it. Please suggest tried and true antenna types as well as tips/concerns/issues."
Instead of typing all your thoughts and experiences into your computer, why not write it down on paper? You can draw big sketches of the people you meet and the things you see. Of course it makes sense to bring along a digital camera and a big hard disk to hold your photos.
Write about what thrills you out on the road, and write it on paper so that it is personal and intimate, and when you've finally worked it into a polished gem release it to the world.
Imagine your trip as your being born a second time. "Born again" if you will. One key aspect to this is cutting the umbilical cord of the familiar and just learning all about yourself and others without any connection to the past.
Stay off the Interstates and try to find the meaning behind each town, why it exists, who its people are, etc. Then write about it and sketch whatever you feel compelled to sketch, and of course take lots of photos.
I have been pwned because my
My boss has a wireless account with Verizon, and a self-contained PCMCIA device to access it. All-you-can-eat bandwidth from wherever you happen to be in the US that you can see a tower from for ~$70/mo.
It seems reliable, and fast enough that I didn't get pissed off doing typical web browsing.
For double-extra-special bonus points, add an external antenna.
Or, just go ahead and do the Wi-Fi thing. Might be cheaper, and is sure to be faster and less available.
Build an antenna, or buy an antenna, or whatever.
If I were feeling cheap, I'd start with a cell phone antenna and then cut it to length for the correct frequency. If I were feeling spendy, I'd buy a high-gain omni from Tessco and invest a lot of time mounting and cabling it.
Then just plug the kit into your Proxim/Orinoco/Lucent card, drive to town, and waste half a day looking for a legitimate hotspot.
Kid-proof tablet..
1. Buy an 802.11b PCMCIA card w/ good antenna
2. ????
3. Profit!!!
(This is a little off topic, but hopefully not too far.)
I've used FlyingJ hotspots on the road, and you don't really need a special antenna -- in general, the reception is fine from inside the car with a normal pcmcia wifi card.
The parking lots are pretty big, and there are places where the reception isn't great, but it's usually pretty easy to drive to another part of the lot to improve your signal. I worked under the theory that the networks were designed to provide the best signals to the truckers, so I tended to park closer to the truck section.
Most of the problems I had seemed to be caused by mistakes on the FlyingJ side of things. I think they had a fairly bloody roll out. In order to user their system, you have to create an account and login.
You do that by pulling up a browser, and letting it detect the proxy server settings automatically. If you haven't logged in, the proxy server redirects you to a page where you can submit your cc or login if you already have an account.
I found that at a lot of locations, things weren't working. My computer couldn't find the proxy server, or whatever. At a couple of locations the system was just open -- there was no login, and it worked fine.
In general, though, it's pretty cool. The FlyingJ's were spaced out so that I could check my email and surf the web a couple of times a day. It's not expensive, and when it works, it works pretty well. I could use ssh and vnc to pull up my home desktop, and it was useable.
I bought the cheapest accounts, 15 minutes at a time. That turned out to be a good plan, mostly because some truck stops didn't have working networks.
It's tempting to look at your route and tell yourself, "I'll be able to hit these two other truck stops in the next 24 hours -- so I'll save money and buy a 24 hour account." The problem is that sometimes the next truck stop didn't work when I got there. It would have sucked to have paid more, expecting to be able to use a wireless net that was down.
I took two road trips, one maybe 8 months ago, and another about 6 months ago, and the FlyingJ system was substantially more reliable the second time around. So I'd expect them to have something reasonably solid now, But I wouldn't pay for a long term account until I *knew* it was solid.
Just drive up and use the antenna on your laptop... If you need more than that get a cantenna. Why the hell would you want to mount the whole thing on your car ?
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
Brings me back to the summer of 2001, when my friends and I went on a road trip for a few weeks. In the vehicle we had a setup consisting of:
* 5 laptops
* 802.11b network
* 1 GPRS cell phone (~20 kBit, and free of charge at that time)
* 1 Bluetooth card in one of the laptops, interfacing the cell phone.
So in essence all but one of the laptops relied on three separate radio links: WLAN to the gateway, bluetooth from the gateway to the cell phone, and GPRS/GSM to the "net". Funny thing was it actually worked surprisingly well.
We didn't do any serious latency or throughput tests, but everybody was able to use IM and email, and the more patient of us could even browse the net.
Another place you might be able to get a connection is nearby Circuit Citys and Best Buys. I was in each recently and was fiddling around with the cool laptops and discovered that both places were running totally unprotected WiFi Access Points. Not sure if it was to allow customers to access the Internet or not, didn't try, just noticed that the hot spots were totally open.
When I suggested we go out and actually do something, they looked at me funny.
They had the biggest and best machines with nice expensive flat panels...soley to run AIM on.
Holy shit. That post needs to be moderated:
"+1 Zen Master"
I just got laid off on Monday. I've had a really shitty week so far... but guess what I'm thinking about doing now?
You might consider using wifinder.com or wi-fihotspotlist.com to find out where your next hotspot will be. Just make sure to copy down several locations for possible next destinations -- you'd hate to get to your next spot and discover it missing and have no way to access the internet to find a hotpsot.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
The best way to get 802.11b/g coverage from your vehicle is to use a real external antenna. This leaves you with two options - buy something that's magnetic mount (easily available on the Net) or punch a hole in the roof and put a real antenna and mount in.
For my 2.4 solution, I installed an "NMO" antenna mount on the roof of my Expedition (drilling holes doesn't bother me - there's a total of 15 antennas mounted on the roof using NMO mounts, each of which requires a 3/4"-diameter hole).
First, find you an 802.11 card with an external antenna connector. The Orinoco 802.11b-only Gold works very nicely. Buy a pigtail to convert from the little push-on connector on the edge of the card (MCX?) to something more standard, like an N.
Next, buy the appropriate mount and antenna. The mount coax will be somewhat inflexible and will have a solid center conductor, so you'll need to be careful not to crush/damage it.
Maxrad mounts
And an antenna:
Maxrad antennas
I use the BMAXC24503 model. The 5db gain is nicer, but longer.
Drill a hole in the roof, install the mount, run the coax down through one of the pillars, connect to your pigtail, and connect to the card. You'll be amazed at the difference over your internal "antenna" (more like a dummy load.)
Installing antennas (drilling holes in the roof) is not for the faint of heart. Check with your local 2-way radio installers, and they might be able to put the antenna in for you for not too much money.
Get a magnetic mount antenna from HyperLink Tech.
Alternatively you might consider getting one of their pole mounted 12dbi omni antennas, it might not be that noticeable if you place it on the side of your vehicle, perhaps near the bumper.
The Ro Factor - Jeep/Linux Weblog
I remember reading from somewhere that an old DSS dish will give you even better directional signal than a cantenna. Although pulling up in a van and pointing satelite dishes at places may raise some questions...
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
A good site is www.dashpc.com. Although this guy has a lot of stuff in his, a simple setup of a computer and such may be all you need.
I am looking for a simular setup and plan on using the Senao 200mW wireless card to boost performance from within the car.
I've been toying with a related idea - but instead of setting up a 'client' system, I was considering trying to set up a portable "access point" and internal "network" in a vehicle.
I find it odd that even today nobody blinks if someone says they're building a LAN and doesn't mention internet access, but if someone says "wifi" it's automatically assumed it's only for The Internet(tm)...
I'm thinking of taking a "scrounged" ancient laptop, Prism 2/2.5/3-based 802.11b card, hostap (is there a hostap-type linux driver for prism GT chipsets yet?), and a trimmed down linux distro running dhcp, dns, and web servers (maybe even Samba) to provide 'local network only' connections to passers by as I travel, just as an experiment. Maybe even some sort of 'chat' facility. (Mainly just because I'm curious how many people would notice, how many people would immediately disconnect when they got the "this doesn't provide internet access" page, and how many would browse the [legally] free downloads, "sign" the guestbook, and so on...)
On the other hand, I'd also like to figure out how to interface with Kismet so as to "pause" it when a potentially-open network is detected and have a script check to see if it's REALLY open (a lot of "open" networks seem to still restrict by MAC address, or aren't running DHCP servers, or otherwise are not designed to be connected to by just anyone) and perhaps "burst" a quick email send/recieve as I drive by before having Kismet resume scanning...
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
Use a Pringles can antenna (http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/weblog/view/wlg/448)
Cheap, Portable, and a definite chick magnet!
Frink: Nice try floyd, but you were designed for scrubbing, and scrubbing is what you shall do.
My wife and I recently did a two month trip thru Canada and Alaska and we were able to get wifi by wardriving in almost every town. I have a Zaurus with kismet running and we'd drive thru a town with the Z running and it would beep on every 'hit'. It was easy to then get details about the AP. If it was WEP then I figured they locked the door (although AirSnort would have worked) and we'd go on to the next one. There was one available in every town we visited. Grocery stores all have them although many are WEP'd but most aren't yet. Most of the places that offer free access (coffe shops etc..) are available from the parking lots and other than a simple logon most were easy to jump on. Once in a while I'd pay for time inside, usually $4 US for an hour, then go to my camper and use it there. I was careful not to browse the local network and only use web and/or ssh back into work. Have fun, long trips are sweet.
In some states they're making it illegal to have any active displays present in a vehicle where they are visible from any front seat, whether or not the vehicle is in motion. This should be kept in mind when considering any permanent installations in a vehicle.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
There are several external antennas that you can buy that would work well, I'd look for a mag mount unless you really like to drill holes in your car.
As to which 802.11 nic you can use, it won't be a cheap one. I don't know if you're using a laptop, or a "customized" desktop installed in the car, but I'd look for cards like the Cisco AIR-PCI352 for the desktop, or the Cisco AIR-LMC352 PC Card.
The PCI card has a standard RP-TNC connector. The PC Card has a smaller MMCX connector, but both will allow you to use external antennae.
Sig??? I don't need no stinkin Sig!
Just a followup to this part of my own post - evidently, according to the January 8th 2004 "News" post at www.prism54.org (Prism GT driver for Linux) they DO have "Master" mode working and you CAN use supported cards as an access point. Nifty, now I've got an excuse to upgrade my "main" laptop's wireless card to an 802.11g and use the 802.11b that I'm currently on for my little project...
Hacker Public Radio is our Friend
First, the connector on the Lucent/Avaya/Orinoco/Proxim equipment is known as "MC" or MC-Card". Cisco and others use MMCX, which is just a hair bigger and slightly differently shaped. IIRC, the Senao card uses MMCX, and you should consider it for your trip because it has higher output power and better receive sensitivity than any of the others.
:)
Second, yeah the card's integrated antenna is crap. Anything external that's even close to the right band will do better. I disagree that external mounting is a big deal. For stumbling, an omnidirectional antenna is good because you just mount it and leave it. But for using hotspots at truck stops and such, you can manually position a higher gain antenna for best signal. The directionality will help a lot if you're at the edge of the parking lot, or if you decide to surf from the Flying J while parked at the TravelAmerica. Obviously, it's easier to aim an antenna if it's inside the vehicle with you. This also helps minimize losses from long antenna cables. I'm not worried about metallic window tint on your Vanagon interfering with the signal.
For antenna designs, the cylindrical waveguide cantenna can't be beat for simplicity, but it's never wise to point weird-looking tubes out the window of a vehicle, moving or otherwise. (Print out a copy of this Ask Slashdot posting, or something else to indicate that you're nonmalicious in the event that you get questioned.) I can't emphasize this enough, our society is pretty paranoid already, but the police are trained to recognize potential threats, and a scruffy dude pointing a metal tube at things is pretty high on the grab-your-gun index.
Trevor Marshall's Bi-Quad antenna design is absurdly compact, reasonably directional, and very easy to build. Marty's instructions clarify a lot of the things Trevor didn't show in detail. If you have an old double-wide jewel case around, you can build the little biquad into it for a totally nonthreatening appearance.
As for extended roadtrip suggestions: Consider a battery isolator and dual-battery setup, if it's within your budget. I was in the market for such a unit recently, and Hellroaring seems to have the best-designed product with a ton of helpful app notes and install guides.
If most of your portable gear runs from AA's like mine does, you might be pleased to know that many of the recent NiMh chargers run from a wall-wart, instead of building the entire power supply into the charger unit. Presumably, this makes the UL listing process easier by moving the mains supply out of the unit, to a transformer that can be separately listed and doesn't need to be re-qualified each time the charger gets revised. It benefits you, because the wall-wart steps down to 12 volts and the charger takes it from there. Ergo, it's dirt simple to make a car cord for such a charger, and it's more efficient than running through an inverter.
While on the subject of vehicle DC wiring, check out the Powerpole connector. It's become the standard in the amateur radio community for 12 volt supplies, because lighter sockets suck. Powerpoles are genderless, polarized, and very reliable if crimped correctly in the first place. Crimp+solder is even better.
If you're the paranoid/prepared type, ghost your laptop's basic setup onto a spare drive and keep it (wrapped in antistatic foam) elsewhere in the vehicle. You don't want to be stuck 1800 miles from home with a crashed drive in one hand, freshly reinstalled laptop in the other, trying to figure out how to download the drivers for your wireless card when said card is your only means of internet access.
Good luck, have fun, drive safe, and post some pictures from your trip!
right now a cellular modem is the best idea. but to use WIFI, get a router that runs a 12v (linksys makes one) then power that from your car (unless that VW is a wierd 9v model) get a wireless router with NAT to secure your computers and then a few directoinal anntennea for the best signal, pluss some mounting hardware for it. You should be good.
Get a laptop that can do both Bluetooth (either built in, like most PowerBooks, or with a small dongle) and Wi-Fi. Then get a T-Mobile cell phone service and a Bluetooth-enabled phone. Any T-Mobile voice plan of $40 or more comes with free T-Zones access, which gives untimed, unlimited access to ports 80, 110, and 143. If you need ssh and can't tell the daemon to listen to one of those ports, get the $19.99 Unlimited Internet option that gives complete access to all ports. Either way, you get roughly 33.6K dialup modem speeds; not great, but it's accessible anywhere you have GSM phone service and it's free or fabulously cheap compared to other cell providers' networks.
Jam a satellite dish on your vehicle, get an 802.11 access point and cards for each pc. Check your friendly yellow pages for a satellite ISP that covers the States, dont forget your power supply (generator). Then its only 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, its dark and were wearing sunglasses... hit it!
serenity now!
This reminds me of programming competition trips in college. We'd always have an inverter or two running. On one trip, we thought about running an access point in the full-size van and playing Counter-Strike or something on the trip. We were going to call it a Vehicle-Area Network, or VAN.
That's about when our Bender instincts kicked in: "I'm going to make my own VAN...with blackjack, and hookers! Ah, forget the VAN! In fact, screw the whole thing!"
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