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Poster: steffenyount Date: Jun 9, 2005 3:40am
Forum: sflan Subject: Highpowered nodes using the Atheros b/g chipsets?

I recently saw the following highpower 802.11b/g mini-pci card:

http://www.wisp-router.com/product_info.php?cPath=35_51&products_id=399

And, so I was wondering if there has been any progress with the drivers for the Atheros chipsets?

Are there Atheros drivers compatible with the SFLAN boxes?

-Steffen

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Poster: Ralf Muehlen Date: Jun 9, 2005 9:34am
Forum: sflan Subject: Re: Highpowered nodes using the Atheros b/g chipsets?

Yes, there are Atheros drivers for SFLan nodes. There are also 400mW Prism chipsets available. Transmitting and listening at a higher power-level does not necessarily help. (We experimented with amps.) Improving node density helps more.

Ralf

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Poster: steffenyount Date: Jun 10, 2005 2:25am
Forum: sflan Subject: Re: Highpowered nodes using the Atheros b/g chipsets?

I know that 200mW 802.11b cards have been out for a while. What I found really exciting with this card was the higher powered 802.11g support.

Are there any sflan nodes running 802.11g?

-S

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Poster: Ralf Muehlen Date: Jun 15, 2005 2:50pm
Forum: sflan Subject: Re: Highpowered nodes using the Atheros b/g chipsets?

We are not using 11a or 11g in production. Testing was disappointing so far. OFDM was supposed to work better in urban environments, but we are not seeing that in the real world.

Ralf

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Poster: onewatt Date: Jun 16, 2005 12:47am
Forum: sflan Subject: Re: Highpowered nodes using the Atheros b/g chipsets?

"OFDM was supposed to work better in urban environments, but we are not seeing that in the real world." Well, that depends on what you mean by 'urban environment'. OFDM was designed to work at short range in crowded radio spectrum., and it works very well for that. However, you try and deploy it in a rural WISP model, which is exactly what SFLAN has become, you'll find that it's use of spectrum will cause problems for you and everyone around you. Putting up long links is fun but it doesn't begin to serve the goal of providing universal bandwidth. If you're interested in creating a pervasive network you have to put it together at street level, not on the rooftops. http://blackbox.istumbler.net/dotpublic.com/radios.html
This post was modified by alfwatt on 2005-06-16 07:44:04
This post was modified by alfwatt on 2005-06-16 07:47:06

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Poster: Orethrius Date: Jun 22, 2005 8:02pm
Forum: sflan Subject: Re: Highpowered nodes using the Atheros b/g chipsets?

Speaking of "at street level" what are your thoughts regarding the New Zealand "Poor Man's Wifi" site?

http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/

Admittedly a tad off-topic, but am I the only one that thinks that a node built with maybe $100 of invertible umbrellas, cabling, dongles, aluminum mesh, and black spraypaint + plastic bags with rubberbands to complete the feel would look *really* cool? Not to mention discrete.