S
Skip Gundlach
Hi, y'all,
In addition to a Hawking 54G desktop unit, which serves me reasonably well
(even though I use it in a sheltered outdoor environment, using an active
USB extension cable), but has some limitations for what I want to do, I've
got this neat bridge (Senao 2611DB3 Deluxe) in a NEMA enclosure atop
the mast, with an 8.5 dBi antenna connected to it via a 6" pigtail
(virtually no signal loss). It's 200mw, so it reaches out really far (23
dBm). Its antenna
is omidirectional so it doesn't matter which direction the boat's pointing.
The signal pattern is fat enough to cover sea level to many hundred feet
high from the typical anchoring location. It's point-to-multipoint so it
can see any available "visible" access point. Because my XP network program
controls for me, I can select which of the available access points it sees
that I want to talk to.
Connected to my computer via ethernet, and powered with 12V via separately
appropriately sized wire, both up the mast, it sees a WAAAY farther than the
card in my laptop would, allowing me a great deal more latitude in finding a
usable signal when I'm at anchor, wherever that may be.
However, I'd really like to shed the wired connection (the ethernet
connected to my computer, as it's a laptop and I'd like to be able to carry
it up on deck without a tether).
Unfortunately, a bridge won't talk in both directions over the antenna. How
can I get some other wireless device (one which can talk to my computer) to
seamlessly (so I see my remote AP as though it were coming in via my laptop
antenna) talk to my bridge?
There may be a variety of voltages of whatever this device may need; I'll
work out getting power to it (but 12V, being a boat, would be preferable),
and, as long as I'm having more than one I'll put it up the mast, in the
enclosure, too, so there's essentially no distance between the two, in case
that's of any issue.
Can this be done? Can I put some other wireless device (that is, which can
see my computer's wifi) in connection with my bridge, so I can see (and
choose which of potentially many) a remote AP? If so, what is that device?
Better, is there a device which already integrates those functions? I need
the wattage for power, the N-connector (or pigtail) for the hi-gain stick,
and the means of communication to the top of the mast both from shore and
from the deck (which my laptop wifi can see without extra help like the
Hawking 54G or other signal boosters) so that I can choose, like a hotspot
finder would, the particular shorepoint I want.
FWIW, what's prompted this search is the intractible IP conflicts which
arise whenever I connect two of these (2611DB3) together, one set as AP and
the other as bridge. They work fine in either wireless mode or ethernet,
connected to my laptop one at a time (with the other on the other, wifi or
cat5 connection). No amount of IP configuration fiddling will change that
behavior when they're linked via cat5, so I presume there's some internal
conflict between the units when connected together. I'm ready to ditch that
setup, if there's something else which will do the job, either the AP side
of the two I have, or a single unit resulting in the ditching of both of
them.
Thanks.
L8R
Skip, trying to cruise with connectivity, but not by wire
--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
In addition to a Hawking 54G desktop unit, which serves me reasonably well
(even though I use it in a sheltered outdoor environment, using an active
USB extension cable), but has some limitations for what I want to do, I've
got this neat bridge (Senao 2611DB3 Deluxe) in a NEMA enclosure atop
the mast, with an 8.5 dBi antenna connected to it via a 6" pigtail
(virtually no signal loss). It's 200mw, so it reaches out really far (23
dBm). Its antenna
is omidirectional so it doesn't matter which direction the boat's pointing.
The signal pattern is fat enough to cover sea level to many hundred feet
high from the typical anchoring location. It's point-to-multipoint so it
can see any available "visible" access point. Because my XP network program
controls for me, I can select which of the available access points it sees
that I want to talk to.
Connected to my computer via ethernet, and powered with 12V via separately
appropriately sized wire, both up the mast, it sees a WAAAY farther than the
card in my laptop would, allowing me a great deal more latitude in finding a
usable signal when I'm at anchor, wherever that may be.
However, I'd really like to shed the wired connection (the ethernet
connected to my computer, as it's a laptop and I'd like to be able to carry
it up on deck without a tether).
Unfortunately, a bridge won't talk in both directions over the antenna. How
can I get some other wireless device (one which can talk to my computer) to
seamlessly (so I see my remote AP as though it were coming in via my laptop
antenna) talk to my bridge?
There may be a variety of voltages of whatever this device may need; I'll
work out getting power to it (but 12V, being a boat, would be preferable),
and, as long as I'm having more than one I'll put it up the mast, in the
enclosure, too, so there's essentially no distance between the two, in case
that's of any issue.
Can this be done? Can I put some other wireless device (that is, which can
see my computer's wifi) in connection with my bridge, so I can see (and
choose which of potentially many) a remote AP? If so, what is that device?
Better, is there a device which already integrates those functions? I need
the wattage for power, the N-connector (or pigtail) for the hi-gain stick,
and the means of communication to the top of the mast both from shore and
from the deck (which my laptop wifi can see without extra help like the
Hawking 54G or other signal boosters) so that I can choose, like a hotspot
finder would, the particular shorepoint I want.
FWIW, what's prompted this search is the intractible IP conflicts which
arise whenever I connect two of these (2611DB3) together, one set as AP and
the other as bridge. They work fine in either wireless mode or ethernet,
connected to my laptop one at a time (with the other on the other, wifi or
cat5 connection). No amount of IP configuration fiddling will change that
behavior when they're linked via cat5, so I presume there's some internal
conflict between the units when connected together. I'm ready to ditch that
setup, if there's something else which will do the job, either the AP side
of the two I have, or a single unit resulting in the ditching of both of
them.
Thanks.
L8R
Skip, trying to cruise with connectivity, but not by wire
--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig
http://tinyurl.com/384p2 The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
