[PLUG] Temperature and routers...

[Tim Wescott]

Michael Robinson wrote:
> 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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>   
Every time we get a heavy rain and my internet craps out in my office I 
think that I should bury a cable run.  To date I've been concerned about 
lightning discharges, which can (I am told, maybe) be picked up by long 
runs and cause problems.  The best information I've been able to get is 
that common commercial practice with a long run between buildings is 
optical fiber, and optical to Ethernet transceivers are spendy.

The connectors are reverse SMA -- all the dimensions are SMA, but the 
gender of the inner connector part are reversed from the gender of the 
threaded part.  They're hard to get, but not impossible (I think DigiKey 
had them the last time I looked, but I could be wrong -- I stopped 
looking when I saw the price of a Cantenna).

-- 
Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
Voice: 503-631-7815
Cell:  503-349-8432
http://www.wescottdesign.com