[PLUG] Temperature and routers...

[Russell Senior]

>>>>> "Tim" == Tim Wescott <tim at wescottdesign.com> writes:

Tim> I've got about a 50 foot run between a Cantenna on the outside of
Tim> a metal building and a router in my house; it's quite reliable
Tim> except during heavy rains when I sometimes have to go around
Tim> resetting things to get the network up and running again.

How did you seal the coax connections?  All outdoor RF connections
should be waterproofed with something like this:

  http://www.invictuswireless.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=TACTAPE

  http://www.fab-corp.com/product.php?productid=1734&cat=0&page=1

We typically wrap electrical tape over tackytape, because the latter
will flow in high summer temperatures and the electrical tape holds it
on the connector where it belongs.  Water in RF connections == bad
news.

Good quality wifi antennas are inexpensive these days ($30-$70).
Home-brew antennas are susceptible to RF leakage that you aren't
likely to be able to see without a spectrum analyzer, so if you don't
have one of those, it's a gigantic crapshoot.

If I needed to bridge an airgap, I would not walk, but run and get two
of these:

  http://www.invictuswireless.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=NS2

In fact, I just ordered another one of them today.


-- 
Russell Senior, President
russell at personaltelco.net