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Spelling: GettingStartedFAQ
* Newbie [1]
* Build a client [2]
* Build another client [3]
* Get an access point [4]
* Medium [5]
* Advanced [6]
NEWBIE
You've never used wireless before, you want to exchange data between
your laptops at home or work, or get your laptops online through your
desktop pc at home.
BUILD A CLIENT
Buy a 802.11b [7] WiFi [8] certified PC Card [9] (PCMCIA [10]) and
plug it into your laptop. Install drivers as specified by your card's
manufacturer. You should now be up and running. If you don't have a
laptop, you'll need a isa/pci adapter [11] to slide your PC Card into,
and then plug into your desktop. Congrats, you have now built a
wireless client, but it's not very useful without a connection to
something is it?
_-SO you'll need to- _
BUILD ANOTHER CLIENT
Build another client, and set both to IBSS [12] (AdHocMode). When
both clients are in range of each other, they should start an IBSS
[13] network. If you have enabled file sharing on each computer, or
have a ftp or http or any other servers running, you should be able to
transfer data between clients. If one client is connected to another
network or the internet, they can share their network/internet
connection with all the other wireless clients. Repeat this step for
each new client, and it will create a mesh of clients all
communicating together.
_-OR-_
GET AN ACCESS POINT
Buy a 802.11b AccessPoint [14] (AP) and plug it into your wired
network. Clients should be set to Infrastructure mode. Now client
traffic will first go through the AP, and then to the other clients,
instead of clients directly sending traffic to each other.
MEDIUM
You've heard about people extending the range of their wireless
network for many kilometers, and want to do the same.
Hopefully the card or AP you bought has an external antenna jack, or
a way of hacking one on. Look up your hardware in the HardwareDatabase
[15], and find out if it has one, and if so, what type it is. If the
data is missing, you'll have to do some research, and please share
what you find out. If you're still reading we'll assume your hardware
has a jack.
The first step is getting a Pigtail [16]. A pigtail is a short, thin
cable with a microwave connector on each end. The shorter the better.
One end is the connector that goes into your card/AP, and the other
end is most likely a N-Type [17] male or female connector. The reason
we don't just plug microwave cable into the card, is because the card
jacks are very small, and microwave cable is very large, and it just
won't work.
Now you need some microwave cable. The standard is LMR-400 [18]
(CNT-400 is cheaper, but has virtually identical physical and
electrical specs). You can't just use any cable because the microwaves
will escape and you'll be left with poor signal at the end. There are
better [19] (fatter) cables than LMR-400 [20], but they're quite
expensive. Nearly everywhere will sell you a cable to a certain
length, complete with N-Type [21] connectors on each side. You can do
the connectors yourself, but depending on the type of connector,
you'll need an appropriate crimper.
Now you need an Antenna [22]. Before you choose an antenna, you need
to understand what each type do [23], and what you need. If you want
to share your wireless network with all your neighbors, you'll
probably want an OmniAntenna [24]. If you want to make a long link to
a guy 5km away, you'll probably want a Cantenna [25] or a YagiAntenna
[26], perhaps even a ParabolicAntenna [27] for longer links. You'll
see a rating next to all antenna sold for 2.4ghz operation, in the
form of dBi gain. Your stock card antenna's are something like 1 or
2dBi gain [28]. This means it's slightly more focused than an
imaginary 0dBi which would be a sphere of coverage. The higher the
gain, the more focused the antenna is, and the farther it will go. A
3dBi omni coverage area is like a very fat pancake coming out of the
middle of the antenna. A 15dBi omni is a very flat disk coming out of
the middle of the antenna. It is quite possible for a high gain omni
on your roof to give little to no coverage in the area below it, but
it will go much farther than a 3dBi model. 24dBi ParabolicAntenna [29]
are about as focused as you can get without having a 2 meter dish on
your roof. The width of coverage is only about 7 degrees, so it will
have to be aimed very precisely. Most antenna come with a N-Type [30]
connector on them, so make sure your microwave cable connector matches
it.
Now when you plug everything together, your network is extended much
farther, and you can connect to people across the street or across the
city, assuming there is a good Line of Sight [31] between both
people's antenna. Remember, AP's can only talk to clients, two AP's
can not talk to each other unless they are bridges. While in bridging
mode, they can not talk to clients, only other bridges.
ADVANCED
You know this wireless stuff up and down and you want to create a
full on long range wireless network.
You'll probably want to setup a dedicated box running a standard
Linux [32] distro or a wireless specific build such as the Pebble
distro [33]. You've got 2 wireless cards in your box running IBSS [34]
mode, one is connected to a 24dBi parabolic pointed at Joe 10km away,
and the other is connected to a 15dBi yagi pointed at Fred 3km in the
other direction. You've setup packet forwarding in Linux in order to
route traffic between Joe's net and your net and Fred's net. You're
locally mirroring 100GB of popular data. You're running local
http/ftp/smtp/dns/Quake/Counterstrike/IM servers. You've also got an
AccessPoint [35] running BSS [36] mode connected to a 5dBi omni to
give public access to your neighbors and the coffee shop next door,
and people in that park across the street.
-------------------------
Links to nearly everything mentioned in this article can be found
here [37].
Links:
------
[1] http://melbournewireless.org.au/#newbie
[2] http://melbournewireless.org.au/#build_a_client
[3] http://melbournewireless.org.au/#build_another_client
[4] http://melbournewireless.org.au/#get_an_access_point
[5] http://melbournewireless.org.au/#medium
[6] http://melbournewireless.org.au/#advanced
[7] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?802.11b
[8] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?WiFi
[9] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?CardBus
[10] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?PCMCIA
[11] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Carriers
[12] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?IBSS
[13] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?IBSS
[14] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?AccessPoint
[15] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?HardwareDatabase
[16] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Pigtail
[17] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?N-Type
[18] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?LMR-400
[19] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?LDF
[20] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?LMR-400
[21] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?N-Type
[22] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Antenna
[23] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?TheEvolvingFAQ
[24] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?OmniAntenna
[25] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Cantenna
[26] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?YagiAntenna
[27] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?ParabolicAntenna
[28] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?PowerAndGainToDecibels
[29] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?ParabolicAntenna
[30] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?N-Type
[31] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?TheEvolvingFAQ
[32] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Linux
[33] http://www.nycwireless.net/pebble/
[34] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?IBSS
[35] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?AccessPoint
[36] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?BSS
[37] http://wirelessanarchy.com/
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