Newbie: Wifi External Antenna to Cable Modem?

Hi all,

I am a complete noob in the wireless world and am in the process of
connecting to my campus wi-fi network. I will be setting up a
Primestar dish as my 802.11b external antenna and I'm following the
http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/P...Primestar.html model. I
live a few blocks from the nearest wireless node, so I estimate the
dish will be about 1000m away, w/ a clear line of sight.

I and am wondering if I can connect the coax from the dish into:

1. my old cable modem (DOCSIS 1.0), which is connected to my router
and 3 other computers
2. or an NIC in my old server, which can be connected to my router

Has anyone tried wither of these, or should I expect to buy an Orinoco
wifi card, pigtail connector and go from there?

Thanks in advance.

-SB

In article <(E-Mail Removed) >, (E-Mail Removed) (Sea Bass) wrote:
>Hi all,
>
> I am a complete noob in the wireless world and am in the process of
>connecting to my campus wi-fi network. I will be setting up a
>Primestar dish as my 802.11b external antenna and I'm following the
>http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/P...Primestar.html model. I
>live a few blocks from the nearest wireless node, so I estimate the
>dish will be about 1000m away, w/ a clear line of sight.
>
>I and am wondering if I can connect the coax from the dish into:
>
>1. my old cable modem (DOCSIS 1.0), which is connected to my router
>and 3 other computers
>2. or an NIC in my old server, which can be connected to my router
>
>Has anyone tried wither of these, or should I expect to buy an Orinoco
>wifi card, pigtail connector and go from there?
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>-SB

Read the directions on the page YOU provided as a link, it does nto say you
can do this, so logic would say you should not do this. I recommend
following the directions. Which part of the directions do you not
understand?

NO! Cable Modems and 802.11b are totally different technologies. DO NOT
CONNECT THEM you will most likely kill your cable modem. You need a 802.11b
client. Either a card or an AP that can act as a client that would plug
into your hub like your cable modem used to. They are not that expensive,
and at the distance you are talking about it should be easy to connect. 1KM
is easy with an external antenna. For the price, I would suggest that you
look on EBAY for one that will do. ANY external antenna should work at that
distance. If you need additional help feel free to email me.

Michael
"Sea Bass" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> Hi all,
>
> I am a complete noob in the wireless world and am in the process of
> connecting to my campus wi-fi network. I will be setting up a
> Primestar dish as my 802.11b external antenna and I'm following the
> http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/P...Primestar.html model. I
> live a few blocks from the nearest wireless node, so I estimate the
> dish will be about 1000m away, w/ a clear line of sight.
>
> I and am wondering if I can connect the coax from the dish into:
>
> 1. my old cable modem (DOCSIS 1.0), which is connected to my router
> and 3 other computers
> 2. or an NIC in my old server, which can be connected to my router
>
> Has anyone tried wither of these, or should I expect to buy an Orinoco
> wifi card, pigtail connector and go from there?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> -SB

On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 06:08:34 -0700, Sea Bass wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I am a complete noob in the wireless world and am in the process of
> connecting to my campus wi-fi network. I will be setting up a
> Primestar dish as my 802.11b external antenna and I'm following the
> http://www.wwc.edu/~frohro/Airport/P...Primestar.html model. I
> live a few blocks from the nearest wireless node, so I estimate the
> dish will be about 1000m away, w/ a clear line of sight.

Definitely OVERKILL!

Apart from the dish being far too heavy, it also has very bad wind loading
characteristics. If you're convinced that you still want to use this
dish, you should Google and find the site which explains how to use this
dish with a "Bi-Quad" feed assembly, as opposed to the feed in can that
this site describes. The BiQuad performs so much better.

VERY NICE semi-parabolic antennas with mmore gain, 66% less weight, horiz
or vert polarity, etc., can be purchased for about $50 if you can take ten
minutes to assemble the antenna.


> I and am wondering if I can connect the coax from the dish into:

You can connect the LMR400 cable comming off of the dish to either a WiFi
card or to a WiFi device like an Access Point. But a word of advice:
stick with WiFi card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Doesn't matter if its Cardbus, PCMCIA, USB or PCI, You'll regret it if
you attempt to go from YOUR access point to ANOTHER access point!


> 1. my old cable modem (DOCSIS 1.0), which is connected to my router
> and 3 other computers
> 2. or an NIC in my old server, which can be connected to my router
>
> Has anyone tried wither of these, or should I expect to buy an Orinoco
> wifi card, pigtail connector and go from there?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> -SB

Can you explain why

<SNIP>
> You can connect the LMR400 cable comming off of the dish to either a WiFi
> card or to a WiFi device like an Access Point. But a word of advice:
> stick with WiFi card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> Doesn't matter if its Cardbus, PCMCIA, USB or PCI, You'll regret it if
> you attempt to go from YOUR access point to ANOTHER access point!
<SNIP>

Michael

On Thu, 15 Apr 2004 06:05:04 +0000, Michael wrote:

> Can you explain why
>
> <SNIP>
>> You can connect the LMR400 cable comming off of the dish to either a WiFi
>> card or to a WiFi device like an Access Point. But a word of advice:
>> stick with WiFi card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>> Doesn't matter if its Cardbus, PCMCIA, USB or PCI, You'll regret it if
>> you attempt to go from YOUR access point to ANOTHER access point!
> <SNIP>
>
> Michael

Sure:

The WiFi specification ONLY pertains to CARDS communicating to Access
Points. In other words, the 802.11b specification ONLY pertains to WiFi
cards, and not to any other type of equipment.

THAT'S why you can take one brand of card, and it will interoperate with
any other card, and why you cwill get base connectivity with any card to
APs.

Another way to think about this is that there is NO STANDARD relating to
how AP's should communicate with each other, and the ONLY guarantee you
might have, is that MOST manufacturer's APs and related products USUALLY
but NOT ALWAYS will talk to each other. There is NO GUARANTEE that any
manufacturer's equipment will even see, much less interoperate with any
other manufacturer's equipment, because that is NOT PART of the 802.11b
specification. ONLY the WiFi cards themselves adhere to the WiFi (base
specification) and even with cards, we see everyday that "features" of
some cards cannot be implemented on other brands of connection equipment.

Presently, we see this non-standardization manifest itself more
specifically in the "G" equipment, as each manufacturer implements the
speed increases over base specification with their own proprietary
modulation and other techniques/schemes, ALL of which do NOT interoperate
with any other brand.

THEN, we come to a larger issue: Most professional or professionally
installed setups DO NOT USE this cheapo, consumer-oriented suparmarket
brand equipment which everyone in this NG discusses. Thus, you have a
potential "double whammy" situation whereby none of the consumer crap
interoperates, but when you wish to communicate with a professionally
installed system, THEY'RE NOT USING SUPERMARKET CRAP!, and so you're
GUARANTEED that whatever supermarket-crap AP you bought is NOT going to
interoperate with the AP at the other end!!!

DOUBLE WHAMMY!



vg

"Valentín Guillén" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news(E-Mail Removed). ..
> On Thu, 15 Apr 2004 06:05:04 +0000, Michael wrote:
>
> > Can you explain why
> >
> > <SNIP>
> >> You can connect the LMR400 cable comming off of the dish to either a
WiFi
> >> card or to a WiFi device like an Access Point. But a word of advice:
> >> stick with WiFi card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> >> Doesn't matter if its Cardbus, PCMCIA, USB or PCI, You'll regret it if
> >> you attempt to go from YOUR access point to ANOTHER access point!
> > <SNIP>
> >
> > Michael
>
> Sure:
>
> The WiFi specification ONLY pertains to CARDS communicating to Access
> Points. In other words, the 802.11b specification ONLY pertains to WiFi
> cards, and not to any other type of equipment.
>
> THAT'S why you can take one brand of card, and it will interoperate with
> any other card, and why you cwill get base connectivity with any card to
> APs.
>
> Another way to think about this is that there is NO STANDARD relating to
> how AP's should communicate with each other, and the ONLY guarantee you
> might have, is that MOST manufacturer's APs and related products USUALLY
> but NOT ALWAYS will talk to each other. There is NO GUARANTEE that any
> manufacturer's equipment will even see, much less interoperate with any
> other manufacturer's equipment, because that is NOT PART of the 802.11b
> specification. ONLY the WiFi cards themselves adhere to the WiFi (base
> specification) and even with cards, we see everyday that "features" of
> some cards cannot be implemented on other brands of connection equipment.
>
> Presently, we see this non-standardization manifest itself more
> specifically in the "G" equipment, as each manufacturer implements the
> speed increases over base specification with their own proprietary
> modulation and other techniques/schemes, ALL of which do NOT interoperate
> with any other brand.
>
> THEN, we come to a larger issue: Most professional or professionally
> installed setups DO NOT USE this cheapo, consumer-oriented suparmarket
> brand equipment which everyone in this NG discusses. Thus, you have a
> potential "double whammy" situation whereby none of the consumer crap
> interoperates, but when you wish to communicate with a professionally
> installed system, THEY'RE NOT USING SUPERMARKET CRAP!, and so you're
> GUARANTEED that whatever supermarket-crap AP you bought is NOT going to
> interoperate with the AP at the other end!!!
>
> DOUBLE WHAMMY!
>
>
>
> vg

I find this interesting, however, I have yet to see an access point that is
"802.11b" or what ever it says on the box and not talk to that standard. In
addition to that, the majority of access points use WIFI cards or the same
chipsets that are WIFI compliant. I would agree that the standard might be
one thing, but reality and best practice is another. You cannot say that a
manufacturer who makes claims to be compliant or compatible is not and can
sell their gear. Additionally any manufacturer that does have their own
acceleration tech are always backward or standard compliant.

I guess I find your info interesting but in practise is simply is not
applicable. I would always use a dedicated devise as opposed to adding
additional gear to an already overtaxed PC. Just my opinion.

Michael