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Homemade EVDO/WiFi Mobile Access Point

Posted by timothy on from the car-companies-should-pay-him-to-oem-these dept.

Tamundson writes "Over the last few weeks I've built myself a mobile access point for my car. It's based on a Soekris net2421 embedded Linux box and uses Verizon's 1xRTT/EVDO network as its uplink, resharing it over 802.11b. Wherever my car goes, my Internet link goes! :) I finally put some webpages together on how I built it. The components are pretty cheap and anybody with basic Linux skills can build their own just as easily. I've also got it interfacing with Google Maps to do live vehicle tracking via gpsd. It also uploads pictures from an on-board webcam every five minutes or so."

5 of 172 comments (clear)

  1. Two, now four wheels by fembots · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Interesting, from two wheels to four wheels.

    JIC, coral links for website and GoogleMap image

    --
    Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
  2. stop moving! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    How can I use your access point if you keep driving around?

  3. Why is it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That we have invented a million different ways to distract ourselves while blasting down the highway, without developing self-driving cars?

  4. Re:Slashdotted ... or? by Zenophran · · Score: 5, Funny

    Heh, no officer, my I didn't crash, I was slashdotted...

  5. Re:It'll crawl! by Tugrik · · Score: 5, Informative

    For speed testing I used Broadband Reports's site.

    In 1xRTT-land I got 70up/30dn most of the time. About 1/4 of the time I'd get 110up/50dn. At the worst (only a few times, and usually when the evening commute hours put a lot of traffic near where I was parked) I'd get about 50/10. Compared to a 56k modem (about 26/20 on the same tool when I tried it), this isn't bad.

    I've had 4 computers using it at the same time. While it will start to gronk on images with multiple access it's truly not that bad. And no, we're not using any kind of proxy, cache or compressor.

    I've yet to get this system out under EVDO coverage yet, save for the single test that got me 600dn (found one local tower where it was activated. Didn't last. Hrmf). When EVDO hits my area (or I take a trip into an EVDO area) I'll put up better metrics.

    Compared to GPRS (my old wireless link) it's much nicer.