[PLUG] Temperature and routers...

Michael Robinson plug_1 at robinson-west.com
Thu Dec 10 06:03:51 UTC 2009


On Wed, 2009-12-09 at 20:34 -0800, Russell Senior wrote:
> >>>>> "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.

Thanks for the info.  Price wise, I can pick up 100' Cat 6 
shielded patch cables for about $35 a piece.  If I go to the 
expense and trouble of encasing them in electrical conduit 
that I bury, there shouldn't be a problem getting a signal 
between these buildings.  I don't like that I'll have to 
worry about electrical and water lines and I don't like 
that the ground is frozen hard right now, but there are 
advantages to going this route if I can.  One possibility 
is adding a second Cat 6 cable for phone service.  Obviously,
I can't bury an Ethernet cable right now.

An option I'm toying with is to get a matched set of Linksys 
WAP11 version 2.6 AP's and replace the flaky RealTek card with 
a network card.  I then need a short crossover patch cable 
that is all weather and I'll need to build a weather proof box 
that will allow a wifi signal to go  through it which I will 
mount on the outside wall of the second building 
(A metal barn).  Even outdoors if they are properly protected, 
I think that these AP's will be able to link to each other
across a 70-80 foot air gap.  The advantage of going from a 
wireless card on the Linux box to a network card hooked to 
an AP in extender mode is that I don't have to worry about 
Linux being compatible with a wireless card.  Well, I can 
also hook two APs back to back with the outside one in 
extender mode and the inside one in AP mode which will allow 
me to move the computer in the barn to a better location.

BTW: Does anyone know what kind of connector the antennas are 
screwed onto on Linksys WAP11 access points?




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