Re: Looking for Wi-Fi

Charles Lindsey wrote:
In <slrnglf83s.jhj.news06@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Ian Rawlings <news06@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

On 2008-12-28, Johnny B Good <jcs.computers***@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

If you google for "Wok Antennas", you'll find references to 20 Km
point to point links simply using _standard_ usb WiFi dongles (and
up to four usb extenders to locate them as far away as 25 metres
from the PC kit). Neatly avoids the use of expensive and exotic GHz
RF kit.

Possibly a bit too much gaffer tape and glue for the OP's
requirements, but fairly cheap ready-made can antennas are readily
available to throw a wireless network great distances using standard
wireless gear as long as it has an external aerial connection. Half a
mile is no problem from what I've seen. I've not tried it myself
though as I've not had the need, but have seen installations at
customer sites using bog standard gear that easily exceeds half a mile
between two sites in the middle of a city.

But another thing that worries me is that if I am working with a weak
signal (whether boosted with woks or not) will I find a quiet enough hole
in the spectrum to discriminate my wifi signal from all the other people
who have internal wifis inside their houses in the district? Apparently,
in the EU, there are only 13 distinct channels available, and presumably
the hardware will try to connect to the local network with the strongest
signal?

It will try to connect to whatever network you tell it to connect to. But you're right that you could get interference from other networks on the same channel. However, even if you find that one channel is unusable, it's very unlikely to be the case for more than one or two channels. The main thing is that your antennas will be directional and will therefore not be so likely to pick up signals from surrounding networks - or interfere with them.



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