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The Wireless Backpack Repeater

Andy Laurence writes "So, you've decided to do a webcast around the streets of Bristol, but your puny wireless NIC isn't up to it? You need the ultimate wireless repeater! Built from an old backpack, a lead acid battery, a Linksys wireless device, and a rather scary antenna, this wireless repeater will get you webcasting from over a mile away." You'd definitely burn extra calories hiking with that thing.

10 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Dupe... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Uh, no. This seems to be a completely different story about a similar idea. RTFA?

  2. Go ahead and troll me.... by HuckleCom · · Score: 1, Insightful

    but it's like every little thing somone does with wifi these days... gets so much attention...
    What's next? The Debut of the "WIFI Helmet"? Gimme a break, I'm sure I'm not alone on this... but whatever. Troll me to kingdom come.

  3. Re:Which Bristol? by haluness · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Actually I think its about Bristol in England

  4. burning by musikit · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "You'd definitely burn extra calories hiking with that thing."

    you'd definately be urning something. cancer/lightning stick on your back? i hope you were you lead hat as opposed to your tin foil to add more shielding

  5. Police Interest by Cheeko · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't know about them, but I'd be worried about the interest of the authorities if I was walking around wearing this. You might get mistaken for a terrorist or some such. Its definately a cool idea, but it would be even cooler if it could be done in an inconspicuous manner, though that might be tough with the antenna.

  6. Front page news? by scosol · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Some guy hooks an antenna to an access point, and uses a battery instead of an AC adapter?

    Come on guys...

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  7. Thanks for the vote of confidence! by SamSim · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Well, that's our ultimate intention.

  8. Re:I'm much more interested... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the biggest problem is signal strength/range.

    Oddly enough, I see that as only a minor problem. In a typical city, people are close enough that Bluetooth connections would be sufficient. Here are a few of the problems I see:

    1. The various networking theories still apply. Thus the network will introduce more and more latency as it grows, and the bandwidth used to keep the network up to date will eventually cause problems. This is a very similar problem to the one of GNUTella, which eventually experienced a network collapse.

    2. Routing is a difficult issue to handle. Do you spam every packet to every nearby device until it makes it through? The overhead in this approach would be extraordinary. Thus a more intelligent algo must be used. Perhaps the nearest Internet connection point could provide some form of network organization from its vantage point?

    3. Power, the antagonist of every electronic device. Phones currently spend a minor amount of power maintaining an established connection. What would happen to a device's power supply if it were suddenly required to handle all sorts of packet communications and network updates?

    Those are a few on my thoughts, anyway.

    BTW, it seems I'm an enemy of yours. What did I ever do to deserve that?

  9. Re:What about cancer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's interesting that the link on non-ionizing radiation mentions that UV falls into that spectrum. UV can damage DNA and cause skin cancer, right? I'm confused then why non-ionizing radiation would be considered risk free? I'm sure you're probably right, I'm just interested in a more detailed explanation.

  10. Re:never put a car battery on your back! by n17ikh · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I hate to break it to you, but the reason they tell you to never add water to acid is because it can cause an explosive reaction if there isn't enough water to damp the reaction, not because it burns. The burning sensation was just from you "waking up" (for lack of a better term) your deadened nerves when you splashed water on them. The burning sensation was already there, you just couldn't feel it ;)

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