Jeff Liebermann - since you seem to be the one in the know

Jeff Liebermann - since you seem to be the one in the know, I have a
question for you, other may comment on this as well.

I have DSL and a Buffalo WHR-G54S with DD-WRT v23 SP2 firmware, looking
at this unit settings for wireless mode I see AP, Client and Client Bridged.

Now for the situation and questions, in the near future, I hope I will
be selling my home and hitting the road in an RV to travel this great
country of ours. However, I will not be able to make it without Internet
access (what has the world come to).

The question is a lot of RV parks have Wi-Fi, however it is not always
available throughout the complete site. What is the best way to get this
to my RV and share it with both my wife's and I laptops? These laptops
have built in wireless adapters I would prefer to keeps using these and
not get an external USB or PCMCIA adapter. I know an external adapter
would allow me to change the antenna to a higher gain, but I would have
to do this to both PC.

I am thing a small dish type antenna or some other high gain directional
antenna connected to the WHR-G54S that can get the signal to the RV
and the let the two Laptops connect to the WHR-G54S, would something
like this work? Would I need more than one WHR-G54S? I have read
somewhere that I could use this in bridge mode however, I would need
access to the parks Router to enter my MAC Address, I know the park is
not going to allow this, so what are my options? Also, even it they did,
my WHR-G54S in bridge mode would connect to the parks router wirelessly,
so I would have to connect to it through wired ethernet, but I still
want the Laptops to use wireless connections? Also in the the setup that
you recommend if there is any WEB site as to how to set this up, the
links would be greatly appreciated. Need to know thing like SSID the
same or not, Channel must be different.


Thank for you time in this matter,


Danny Kile

 

<snip>

As a full-time RVer, my experience is that you're right: More often than
not, coverage often does not cover the entire park with a strong signal.
I solve the problem with a Hawking adapter, either the HWU54D or HWU8DD.<snip>

 

Thank you Dave, I have considered both of those. However, I was hoping
to have one setup I could use on both Laptops, this arrangement would
require Two such setup one for each Laptop. Also if I could get the
network access from a remote bridge/AP then we both could connect at the
same time and we could also have a local LAN in the RV, allowing file
and printer sharing. Thank you for the input and keep it coming I will
consider all input.

Danny Kile

 

OK. Until you hear from Jeff, here's an appoach:

You want wireless inside your RV for two pcs, so you want an access
point (AP) inside the metal box.

Your current router will do that nicely.

You want a client/bridge that will work well outside the metal box to
connect with the site's network: For that, the best is probably to
have seperate client/bridge/router-ish guy outside.

A second one of the same Buffalo routers or perhaps the High Power
version (HP) which is a bit more...powerful.

The high-power one should be the outside radio/client.

Then you run an ethernet cable from the outside one's LAN port to the
inside router's WAN port for your local network.

If you want to further increase your connection capability, you get a
directional antenna or better yet, one of those panel antenna boxes
that has/is a directional antenna and the router goes inside for
weather protection.

You put that on some sort of pole/swivel mount that you set
up/telescope when you arrive and aim appropriately.

To get fancy, you have a power outlet and an ethernet jack in a
weatherproof box that you plug into when you pull out (or telescope up)
your router/client box upon arrival.

Voila! you got it all.

Of course you will have to learn enough to handle the various setups,
but that's quite do-able. With the Buffalos you could also do
aftermarket firmware, but it's probably not needed. They already have
a "bridge mode" switch on them.


Steve

 

Jeff is out of it for a day or so. Kidney stone. Ouch.

 

Danny Kile <> hath wroth:

Fast answers:
<http://mactom.com/mactom.main/?section=RV&subsection=DataComm&page=Wi-Fi+Internet>

The last two installs I did used motorized spotlight mounted on a
small pedestal and with a 14dBi panel antenna hung over the top and
fastened to the back of the light. When moving, it was just pivoted
down until horizontal. I'll see if I can find some photos. These
Go-Light's are available at most marine dealers, but I bought them on
eBay for about $100.
<http://www.golight.com/products/golight.html>
The big headache was running the coax cable. I just punched a hole
through the roof and left a huge 3ft service loop. Ugly, but I didn't
want to butcher the spotlight too much.

More when I recover...

 

Hi,
Really? Go to a health food store. Buy a product called Chanca Piedra
(stone breaker in Latin coming from Amazon jungle) Take this two
capsules 3 times a day with Marshmallow capsules. You'll know it works
in about 3 days. I know it from others experience. My hobby after
retirement is a Chartered Herbalist.

 

I missed earlier that you are already running DD-WRT.

Of course, instead of installing the 2nd router outside, you could just
run a short low-loss cable from it to an exterior directional antenna.
The motorized light mount does look cool.

Here's the inexpensive panel antenna that we are using:

https://secure.hyperlinktech.com/web/hg2412p.php

Sorry I can't help much on the setup. Different channels. Different
IDs.

Cheers,
Steve

 

Hope you get to feeling better real soon.

Danny,

 

"Danny Kile"
| >
| >> OK. Until you hear from Jeff,
| >
| > Jeff is out of it for a day or so. Kidney stone. Ouch.
| >
|
| Hope you get to feeling better real soon.

If Jeff is reading this ask your doc if DOXAZOSIN would be approprate for
the your stone.

 

This newsgroup ought to be moderated so we don't have to be subjected to
this OT **CRAP**.

 

Hi,
One of valuable contributor is sick and caring people showing concern.
Even if it's OT, is it such a CRAP(in your book)? Name me a 100% OT free
NG.

 

"johnny"

| > | Hope you get to feeling better real soon.
| >
| > If Jeff is reading this ask your doc if DOXAZOSIN would be approprate
for
| > the your stone.
|
| This newsgroup ought to be moderated so we don't have to be subjected to
| this OT **CRAP**.

In the event you are ever in pain/need remind me to post to your
alt.micor-give-a-sh|t newsgroup.

 

here's how I self-moderate.

*plonk* for egregious self-righteousness

 

Fine. You're hired. You get to spend your evenings reading the
newsgroup, negotiating with clueless users, decoding email addresses,
begging others to help you with the moderation duties, and deal with
usenet ISP's that don't approve of your censorship policies. You also
get to deal with any spam the leaks through. I've done this in the
past and believe me, it's lots of work and huge time burn. Never
again.
<http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/faqs/mod-pitfalls.html>
If you need instructions on how to establish a moderated alt
newsgroup, read about using the newsgroup command, and configurting
the news server. Since your ISP is apparently Earthlink, I wish you
lots of luck just finding someone that has even heard of usenet or
moderation.

Johnny, I'm working on a suitable expletive for the occassion. In the
meantime, please choose from one of these:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_expletives>
to describe approximately what I think of your one line brainless
comment. However, I don't consider you to be hopeless. Kindly
refrain from posting anything that you would not consider worth
reading, and you'll be fine.

For those that care... Three days of pure hell. I'm stable for now,
but the rock hasn't passed. I'll shortly be putting myself into the
hands of the medical profession which will surely perform the
requisite blood letting of my bank account. I'm currently taking
something similar to Doxazosin called Terazosin. I take it for
enlarged prostate and high blood pressure. It will relieve the
pressure on the sphincter muscle controlling the bladder, but that's
not where the rock seems to be stuck. Enough OT medical (for now).

 

Jeff, I see here you are active in the group. Hope you are feeling
better. Since you never responded to my original post due to being out
of it I was wondering if when you get the time, you could give me your
input on this matter?

Thank you for your time in this matter.



Danny Kile,

 

Yeah. Passed the rock last night. What a relief. Still a bit
drugged which might explain some of my recent incoherent ramblings.
Also managed to catch a cold or flu but that's a minor problem
compared to a kidney stone.

Sure and sorry, I forgot. In a few minutes...

 

I didn't see the original post so I didn't know you were ill. From the
threads that I did read it seemed, IMHO, like a lot of nonsense comments
were being made. It was not my intent to show disrespect for someone that
is/was ill. Please accept my apology.

 

Jeff, a reply from another message to keep this on the same topic.


I guess what I am looking for would really apply to any setup not just
RV'ing. I need to get access to a remote HotSpot location, that maybe
out of reach for the laptop, to My RV put that could be to anywhere not
just from an RV. Do I need Client, Client Bridge and a remotely located
antenna. Maybe the first router out side in some enclosure then come out
of its LAN port to another router which is in the RV providing access to
two Laptops and a wireless printer. Would that second router be setup as
an AP or as a Router?

Thank you for any response to this.


Danny Kile,

 

It's really a mechanical problem, not an electronic problem. Do you
want the antenna/radio to be outstide? Is it permanently mounted on
the roof? Do you plan to use it while moving? How big an antenna do
you really need? Omni or directional? If omni, use a telescoping
pole? What happens when other projecting junk on the roof get in the
way of the line of sight? Lots of mechanical questions, none of which
I can answer for you.

Well, the system could be anything from a simple antenna connection
with a power splitter for each computer, to an elaborate two radio
client to access point system, with lots of configurations in between.
Having to run two computers (simultaneously, wired or wireless?) adds
considerable complexity. I'll try to cover a few but you need to
roughly decide what you want. I'm going to assume that there is some
type of external antenna on the roof and let you deal with the
mechanical issues.

1. Antenna extension and splitter. Install antenna on roof. Run
heavy LMR-400 coax to power splitter. Run smaller LMR-240 coax
between splitter and two computers. Attach to laptops with coax
pigtails.
<http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/signal_splitters_2400_2way.php>

2. Rooftop client. Install antenna and client radio on roof. Client
radio should have a "site survey" mode to facilitate finding the
access point. Avoid those that require that you know the MAC address
of the access point. PoE via CAT5 from the radio into the RV at an
ethernet switch. Both radios plug in via CAT5 cable. See:
<http://wireless.wikia.com/wiki/Wi-Fi#Wireless_Ethernet_Bridges>
for a list of candidates. Make sure that it has a "client mode",
"game adapter mode", or "wireless ethernet client bridge" mode. Not
everything on the list will work.

3. Rooftop repeater. Install antenna on roof. Repeater can be on
roof or inside. Program repeater to point to access point. Connect
to repeater via wireless from both computers. This sounds like it's
the simplest, but also has the most problems. Repeaters chop the
maximum bandwidth in half. They have compatibility issues and will
not work with every access point. If your inside wireless radios can
also see the access point, then there will be contention issues. Too
many options on how to configure the outside/inside antennas to list.

4. Rooftop client and inside access point. Rooftop client radio,
CAT5 to an access point inside the RV. Both computers connect to
access point via wireless. Must be on different channel than rooftop
client radio and have different SSID. As you move to different access
points, you'll probably find yourself constantly changing the channel
of the AP in order to prevent interfering with the client radio. Kinda
clumsy to use.

There are lots of combinations, permutations, and mutations of these
plans that can be implemented. If you're not sure which one is
appropriate, then just drill two holes in the roof. One for LMR-240
or a type-N connector RF feed through. The other for CAT5 for data,
power, and control. Add a tapped mounting plate for whatever you
suspect the antenna might need. Then, experiment with different
antennas, mounts, and configurations. Start with something really
simple, like an 8dBi omni antenna plugged into the N-connector. It
may turn out that a simple external antenna and pigtail is all you
need.