[PLUG] homegrown WAP

[Daggett, Steve]

Aaron Burt:
> On Wed, 12 Nov 2003, Jeme A Brelin wrote:
> > On Tue, 11 Nov 2003, AthlonRob wrote:
> > > Something I didn't see mentioned was concrete.  It seems 
> six inches of
> > > concrete might as well be two feet of lead when you're 
> > > dealing with WiFi.
> 
> Which leads me to ask, how bad are cinderblock walls for WiFi?  I'm
> considering moving into a slab 'n' cinderblock 4-plex and 
> hoping I might
> be able to share a connection with a neighbor or two.  Heck, 
> even dialup's
> expensive when you gotta get a phone line to use it.

  You have to remember that WiFi is meant to be a Line-of-Sight or
Near-Line-of-Sight system.  Industrious WiFi operators have pushed the specs
*way* past the intended design.  

  That said, a concrete block wall will throw a lot of loss into the link
budget.  You can try to blast a signal through the wall... or you can try
going through the window and bounce off the neighbors house.  The best
signal may not be a straight line between two points.  Use diversity
antennas to help sort out the multipath signals.  

Sometimes multipath is better than no path at all.  

Steve D...