Re: Free Muni or other hotspot access from a sailboat??

Howdy...

It appears we're headed down somewhat the same road, though I'm far less
than sufficiently technically motivated to do what you're proposing...

skip, how about setting up your own local access point that gives you a
strong signal all over the boat and then focus on getting THAT
connected to shore. then you can use wired solutions between your
access point and whatever device you use to reach your shore signal,
you'll always have a strong signal on your boat, other people can even
connect to your boat in the marina and rely on your generous nature to
get them to shore, and you won't have to bulk up your laptop with the
big/fat stuff that is probably going to be necessary for you to reach
an access point with your signal. just a thought.

That was what I'd wanted to do in the first place, really. My original,
failed, setup, was an amplified bridge with omni stick antenna, crossover
connected to an amplified AP with a rubber duck.

Supposedly (according to the vendor), after first configuring them with my
laptop individually, via URL IP address, connecting them with a crossover
cable would be all I'd need. The AP with the duck would give me and probably
the entire anchorage access to the bridge points, which would see the shore
points.

The vendor never tested it out, and the only way it ever worked at all was
in a system that was invisible, seeing only the strongest signal,
unaddressable, and therefore not configurable, and likewise subject to
landing on an unknown spot that neither I nor anyone else could communicate
with. Since that time, it's never worked, and generated only IP conflicts.
Neither of the units will even perform as a wired bridge, as it will
associate, but not pass data on a known good site (the one I use on the
boat).


by the way, here's the plan for my own boat as far as this goes ... i
say plan because it isn't installed on the boat, but it IS installed in
my truck, that's the vehicle i used to develop this prototype system.

i'm going to use an old laptop running debian linux as my router on the
boat. from the laptop i'm running a number of cables/connectors
including - a regular telephone socket near where shore power comes on
the boat so that i can hook up a telephone line, an ethernet cable that
goes through a hub to both a wireless access point and an RJ-45
connector for boat hard wire connections, and a strong pcmcia wireless
card that is wired to an the same kind of antenna setup you are working
on up in the mast. the other pcmcia slot has a verizon wireless
broadband card in it which is easilly configured in linux because it's
just seen as a usb device with native drivers. finally i want to have
a handheld/tripod mount yagi that i can put in the cockpit or mount to
a pole temporarilly and aim for when i really need a signal for a short
period of time and just "have to have it", i'll have to actually
unscrew the connector on the laptop pcmcia and swap it to the cable for
the yagi to do that.

once situated in port that gives me options of either using dialup if i
have access to a phone line, ethernet if there is some kind of wired
ethernet connection, talking over wireless and the mast mounted
antennas, or over verizon broadband if it's available (in the states).
the laptop acts as a router for the network and anyone within range
(depending on acl's and access point configuration) can route traffic
across it through the wireless access point on the boat and get online.

the great thing about this solution is that it's very adaptable, can be
installed using all the big/fat hardware you need to use for it, etc,
but your end user laptop doesn't have any cables attached to it and
still gets a great signal.

i've gone a little beyond this by wiring up the laptop so that i can
boot it and shut it down remotely, but this is basically what is going
to end up on the boat.


I've left all the above in case I've missed something. You're essentially
setting up a server on an old laptop? And that's doing the routing, allowing
you to use the AP it's serving as the gateway to your laptop which is the
"real" computer?

As I'm trying to minimize space and clutter belowdecks, my objective was to
put something in a NEMA box up the mast, with the appropriate antennas, and
not have to do anything else other than power it up.

Your earlier stuff led me to look at some gear that I've not yet had the
opportunity to dig into; first glance wasn't conclusive as to whether it
would do the job specified.

Interestingly, over in a couple of techie newsgroups, there were assertions
that all I needed was a bridge and an AP connected together. However, off
those groups, I was in extensive comms with a guy who designs municipal and
other large-scale wifi applications.

He did a lot of work on the project, and said that all I really needed to
make my current gear do the job was a router in between. He suggested the
router be at the nav or similar, but the AP and Bridge be topsides with the
antennae, connected with ethernets to the router. If desired, I could cable
to the router, or plug in a VOIP box (the router looking like a broadband
feed to the VOIP at that point) or other ethernet device (similar to the
$1800 unit shown on another site which URL doesn't immediately spring to
mind, but an advance over the previously only wired version of shipside wifi
they'd had earlier; this new unit had 250ma AP and 250ma Bridge with router
between them, N and one other antenna mount - perhaps an N also, don't
recall, and a cat5 RJ45 out - all in one box designed to mount mast-top or
similar), but that project was stillborn with the failure of the Senao units
to even act as a Bridge - accompanied by massive IP conflict messages.

So, I presume it's do-able, maybe even achievable by my own playing around,
but now it's getting in the way of casting off, and I either need a
plug-and-play proven item, or to shelve it for a while. Logic and my
minimal understanding of how things work network-wise tells me that while
the AP and Bridge alone is a lovely idea, I need a router to give out
addresses and translate. If I thought I wouldn't encounter what I have
already experienced, I'd try again. But I've been through such hell with
this, each time and attempt taking many hours, I'm gunshy.

Prior correspondents, thinking they'd solved it with standard, off-the-shelf
gear, have found on review that it only worked in a proprietary environment,
where specific maker and model gear were involved, with specific SSID and
MAC, known in advance, were specified. That won't work out in the "real
world" that I'll be facing...

So, I look forward to additional commentary. I'm not ready for the
complexity you've described - three items, one of which was down on the nav
(as suggested by the muni developer), was pushing my limits as it was, but
if I got a VOIP feed rather than the softphone (software enabling of my
laptop to be a telephone with headset or mike and speakers), I was willing
to hide it and use an outlet for the POTS device I'd hook to it. However,
see above for the disappointment :{/)

Thanks for any additional insights...


--
L8R

Skip

Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
http://tinyurl.com/p7rb4 - NOTE:new URL! The vessel as Tehamana, as we
bought her

The Society for the Preservation of Tithesis commends your ebriated
and scrutible use of delible and defatigable, which are gainly, sipid
and couth. We are gruntled and consolate that you have the ertia and
eptitude to choose such putably pensible tithesis, which we parage.

Stamp out Sesquipedalianism<<


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