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GETTING STARTED WITH COMMUNITY WIRELESS NETWORKING
* Getting Started with community wireless networking [1]
* Newbie [2]
* Build a Client [3]
* Build another client [4]
* Get an Access Point [5]
* Medium [6]
* Advanced [7]
-------------------------
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 [8] WiFi [9] certified PC Card [10] (PCMCIA [11]) 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 [12]/PCI [13] adapter [14] to slide your PC
Card into, and then plug into your desktop. Congrats, you have now
built a wireless client [15], 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 [16] Ad-Hoc Mode [17].
When both clients are in range of each other, they should start an
IBSS [18] network. If you have enabled file sharing on each computer,
or have a FTP [19] or HTTP [20] or any other servers [21] running, you
should be able to transfer data between clients. If one client is
connected to another network or the Internet [22], 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 [23]
of clients all communicating together.
_or..._
GET AN ACCESS POINT
Buy a 802.11b [24] Access Point [25] (AP) and plug it into your wired
network. Clients [26] should be set to Infrastructure [27] 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 [28] or AP [29] you bought has an external antenna
jack [30], or a way of hacking one on. Look up your hardware in the
HardwareDatabase [31], 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 [32]. A pigtail is a short, thin
cable with a microwave connector [33] 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 [34] 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 [35]. The standard is LMR-400 [36]
(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 [37] (fatter) cables than LMR-400 [38], but they're quite
expensive. Nearly everywhere will sell you a cable to a certain
length, complete with N-Type [39] 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 [40]. Before you choose an antenna, you need
to understand [41] what each type do, and what you need. If you want
to share your wireless network with all your neighbors, you'll
probably want an Omnidirectional [42] antenna. If you want to make a
long link to a guy 5km away, you'll probably want a Cantenna [43] or a
Yagi [44] antenna, perhaps even a Parabolic [45] antenna 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 [46]. 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 Parabolics [47] 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 [48]
connector on them, so make sure your microwave cable connector [49]
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 [50] between both
people's antenna. Remember, many manufacturers AP\'s [51] can only
talk to clients [52]. You'll need to check to see if your AP supports
Client Mode [53]. And even if it does, it's not guaranteed to connect
to an AP from a different manufacturer. Most AP's can talk to each
other Bridge [54] mode. 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 [55] distro or a wireless specific build such as the Pebble
distro [56]. You've got 2 wireless cards [57] in your box running IBSS
[58] mode, one is connected to a 24dBi parabolic [59] pointed at Joe
10km away, and the other is connected to a 15dBi yagi [60] pointed at
Fred 3km in the other direction. You've setup packet forwarding [61]
in Linux in order to route [62] traffic between Joe's net and your net
and Fred's net. You're running a dynamic routing protocol such as OSPF
[63].
You're locally mirroring 100GB of popular data. You're running local
HTTP [64]/FTP [65]/SMTP [66]/DNS [67]/DHCP [68]/Quake
[69]/CounterStrike [70]/IM [71] servers [72]. You've also got an AP
[73] running BSS [74] mode connected to a 8dBi Omni Antenna [75] to
give public access to your neighbors and the coffee shop next door,
and people in that park across the street. You may even have an
Amplifier [76] inline with your AP and Omni to get you up to full
legal [77] transmit power [78].
You have an SIP [79] phone [80] connected to the wireless network,
and you're making free phone calls to your friends.
-------------------------
Links to nearly everything mentioned in this article can be found at
the wireless anarchy [81] website.
-------------------------
Back to HowTo [82]
Links:
------
[1]
http://melbournewireless.org.au/#getting_started_with_community_wireless_networking
[2] http://melbournewireless.org.au/#newbie
[3] http://melbournewireless.org.au/#build_a_client
[4] http://melbournewireless.org.au/#build_another_client
[5] http://melbournewireless.org.au/#get_an_access_point
[6] http://melbournewireless.org.au/#medium
[7] http://melbournewireless.org.au/#advanced
[8] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?802.11b
[9] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?WiFi
[10] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?CardBus
[11] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?PCMCIA
[12] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?ISA
[13] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?PCI
[14] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Carriers
[15] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Client
[16] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?IBSS
[17] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?AdHocMode
[18] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?IBSS
[19] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?FTP
[20] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?HTTP
[21] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Server
[22] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Internet
[23] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?MobileMesh
[24] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?802.11b
[25] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?AccessPoint
[26] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Client
[27] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?InfrastructureMode
[28] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Client
[29] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?AccessPoint
[30] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?jack
[31] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?HardwareDatabase
[32] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Pigtail
[33] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Connector
[34] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?NConnector
[35] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?CoaxialCable
[36] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?LMR-400
[37] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?LDF
[38] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?LMR-400
[39] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?NConnector
[40] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Antenna
[41] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?TheEvolvingFAQ
[42] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?OmniAntenna
[43] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Cantenna
[44] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?YagiAntenna
[45] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?ParabolicAntenna
[46] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?PowerAndGainToDecibels
[47] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?ParabolicAntenna
[48] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?NConnector
[49] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Connector
[50] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?LineOfSight
[51] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?AccessPoint
[52] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Client
[53] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?ClientMode
[54] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Bridge
[55] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Linux
[56] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?PebbleLinux
[57] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?PCMCIA
[58] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?IBSS
[59] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?ParabolicAntenna
[60] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?YagiAntenna
[61] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?IPForwarding
[62] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Routing
[63] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?OSPF
[64] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?HTTP
[65] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?FTP
[66] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?SMTP
[67] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?DNS
[68] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?DHCP
[69] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Quake
[70] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?CounterStrike
[71] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?IM
[72] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Server
[73] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?AccessPoint
[74] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?BSS
[75] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?OmniAntenna
[76] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?Amplifier
[77] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?LicensesFAQ
[78] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?EIRP
[79] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?SIP
[80] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?BudgeTone-100
[81] http://wirelessanarchy.com/
[82] http://melbournewireless.org.au/?HowTo
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