newbie question: moveable hotspots

I am building a new house, and will be hardwiring Cat5e for a 10/100
LAN. I would like to be able to plug something (wireless access
point?) into any hardwired outlet to create a wireless hotspot for my
laptop.
This would mostly be for outdoor use. Is there a product that will do
this?
Thanks

Funky_K <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I am building a new house, and will be hardwiring Cat5e for a 10/100
> LAN. I would like to be able to plug something (wireless access
> point?) into any hardwired outlet to create a wireless hotspot for my
> laptop.
> This would mostly be for outdoor use. Is there a product that will do
> this?

Depending on how big of an area you wanted to serve, a normal wireless
router or wireless AP might be sufficient, mounted indoors.
My SMC7004WFW router can be reached from most of the places that I want to
sit, although in the guest smoking section, you have to turn the laptop so
the wireless card is facing in the right direction. I have three decks and
a patio. Wireless works from one end of the house to the other. If I
wanted a little better coverage, I would put the WAP up high in the center
of the house.

If you really wanted to go portable and have the WAP within a nearby range
temporarily, I picture a WAP plugged in to a cat5 receptacle in the canopy
of a grapevine lined trellis that is outfitted with PoE (Power over
Ethernet) so you don't need any separate wiring. But then you might as
well just have a hardwired connection to the laptop.

Or were you talking about plugging in to existing AC house wiring?
I know of phone line gadgets, but not AC gadgets.

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5

....the guest smoking section...?

We have one of those, we usually call it the backyard.

Graham.

%Profound_observation%

A POE WAP sounds exactly like what I need.

The only one I can find is a D-Link for over $1000.
Is there a cheaper alternative?

Thanks

On 25 Jul 2004 10:56:27 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) (Funky_K) wrote:

>A POE WAP sounds exactly like what I need.
>
>The only one I can find is a D-Link for over $1000.
>Is there a cheaper alternative?
>
>Thanks

A linksys WAP54G for $79 + the Linksys POE kit for $40.

$120 < $1000

......

Funky_K <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> A POE WAP sounds exactly like what I need.

> The only one I can find is a D-Link for over $1000.
> Is there a cheaper alternative?

So, you do want to be able to plug in to various places with a portable
WAP? One WAP would probably cover the area, especially if centrally
located in a weatherproof enclosure. You might still be interested in the
POE solution.

Here's a commercial solution if the WAP of your choice uses 5v or 12v.
http://www.rangeextender.com/poovetpadsy.html

For one fixed location, you can build your own, and use almost any WAP.
http://www.nycwireless.net/poe/ This is chatty, but basically you are just
tying a power supply to the unused lines in the cat5 cable. The only
problem is the voltage drop on the cable run.
http://www.gweep.net/%7Esfoskett/tech/poecalc.html provides a calculation
of how much drop there might be, so you might wind up using a 9 volt supply
for a WAP that needs 5 volts at the far end of the cable. Or maybe the
drop is within spec, and the WAP works just fine with the original power
supply.

http://www.craig-bartell.com/ had some detail about outdoor WAPs and POE.

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5

On 23 Jul 2004 14:33:28 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) (Funky_K) wrote:

>I am building a new house, and will be hardwiring Cat5e for a 10/100
>LAN. I would like to be able to plug something (wireless access
>point?) into any hardwired outlet to create a wireless hotspot for my
>laptop.
>This would mostly be for outdoor use. Is there a product that will do
>this?

Yes. An ordinary ethernet router goes from your DSL or cable modem on
the WAN port. One LAN port goes to a 16 or 24 port network switch,
which goes to all your ethernet connections. The portable part is an
"wireless access point" which is just a wireless bridge. You can plug
it into any ethernet port that's on the switch. You can also use a
"wireless router" as an "access point" by simply ignoring the WAN port
on the device.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558