On 06/02/2011 12:36 PM, moronsbegone wrote:

If I could find a lower end name "Repeater" capable AP point
unit like a NetGear or similar and program it to autologon to
unprotected WiFi access points That would Kick butt.
Thats called promiscuous mode but has moral issues.

Hello, and moral issues aside for the moment, you'll probably discover
very quickly that unlike a few years ago most, if not all, Wi-Fi access
points/cable routers in your area these days are probably protected
either by WEP (old) or WPA-2. (A Wi-Fi laptop with a network scan
utility will usually indicate protected/open networks). And even many
of those with older equipment have gotten wise.

The newer boxes usually have the protection turned on out-of-the-box
with a password (changeable by the user/administrator). Older boxes had
WEP turned off by default and a lot of users just plugged them in and
never bothered to read the user guide and/or turn on the protection.
Sincerely, and 73s from N4GGO,

--
J. B. Wood e-mail:

W4NNG wrote:
Thanks for all the suggestions

Don't understand the '... second wireless adapter ...' suggestion? where's
it get power?


if you set up two wireless to ethernet bridges back to back you can use
the second to relay the traffic on the "wide area" one back to your
shack. (e.g. the "remodulate" function asked for). You could also just
use a single 802.11 device up top, configured as an access point in
infrastructure mode, with no ethernet connected. It will repeat out all
the packets, and, so, with a directional antenna at the shack pointed at
your towertop AP you can communicate. However, managing the AP will be a
challenge, especially if there's an RFI issue.

Power would be separately supplied, but you can put a small regulated DC
supply up at the top. My own preference would be to use a quiet DC/DC
converter with wide input range, so you don't care about voltage drop on
the wires heading up.



I've got an EUB-362EXT adapter. (has an SMA connect) Was the longest range
device I could find. Antenna will be connected directly to it, rather than
using the adapter dipole inserted inside a reflector

FWIW - The EUB adapter significantly out-performs a low cost linksys usb
adapter both using their own antenna's. Parked at same location linksys
found 2 WAP's the EUB found 8


"Jim Lux" wrote in message
...
W4NNG wrote:

Hello fellow HRO's

I've got a 50ft tower w/ rotor. Been thinking mounting a 2.4 Ghz WiFi
antenna on the rotor to see what it picks up in way of WAP / WLAN's

To get around cable loss problem was going to put a USB adapter at antenna
then run USB cable up tower. Have tested USB at ~ 5X it's spec'd range

but

suspect the 60 - 70' run will be way too long.

Anyone know of a way to 'remodulate' so to speak to 802.11 wirelessly link
the output from the antenna mounted adapter back to computer?

Thanks for any thoughts

Bob

W4NNG





Use ethernet up the tower and PoE (Power over Ethernet). There's lots of
off the shelf solutions here.

RF interference to/from the Ethernet (or USB for that matter) would be
an issue.

You can also do fiber optics (for ethernet, you can pick up
ethernet:fiber media converters surplus quite cheaply.. Then it's just
the fiber cable with connectors already attached, which can be found
fairly inexpensively, if you scrounge. Fiber is cheaper than coax, in
general.)

Or, as someone else suggested, use a second wireless adapter with a
directional antenna to bridge it to your shack. Then all you need up
the tower is DC power.

You might be able to do it with something like a single WRT54, too.