Our long distance wireless testing... 1.2KM wifi ;)

[FrenchTart]

Just thought I'd post up with the results from the "wokfi" test we ran yesterday as when we announced we were going to use something similar for our LAN event, some people were a little skeptical

Basically, we built two "wokfi" dishes (as shown here), mounted one in the back window of my friend's house (facing over a valley) and drove round to the other side to see what we could find...

Picture of the view from our connection point, with a circle showing the house

Getting out of the car and firing up the laptop was about as long as it took to pick up the signal - full 11Mb/s at ~1.2KM distance

We even managed to use my friend's PDA (with it's inbuilt antenna) to pick up the connection.

The plan now is to setup a link to the TA centre we're running the LAN at and see if we can get better results with 802.11g. The distance involved is a fair bit less (800m) but the interference is probably going to be a bit higher. Should be very interesting

[cptwhite_uk]

Haha brilliant - is this legal? Don't really know who wireless works to be honest - doesn't it use a certain range of radio frequency (at a guess??)

[johnny02004976]

mate that is VERY impressive - as above what is the legal aspects of it?

[FrenchTart]

It's fully legal as long as long as you don't exceed the power limits set by the EC. If you use 802.11a (rather than b or g) then you need a license to run it at the sort of power that you need for long distance, though you can get even longer distances with 802.11a

Obviously if you used it to try and get access to a load of unsecured APs in your area, it might be slightly less legal

In /re to frequency, yes - b and g use the ~2.4ghz frequency band, a uses ~5ghz. In theory, the lower the frequency, the better it is for long distance but you have much more strict limits for 2.4ghz power levels than you do for 5ghz.

[unreal]

Haha mate, thats utterly fantastic I get wifi dead zones all over my house so it makes my wifi seem pathetic

[RavenNight]

That is utter, utter genius... How easy was the antenna to make?

[johnny02004976]

mate any chance u can get some pics of the antenna?? im looking to boost the signal strength between me and my mates place

[Nick F]

How much did this cost to setup if you don't mind me asking?

[DR]

Very impressive =)

[FrenchTart]

Sorry for the slow reply people - ironically, I don't have internet at my house at the mo In work now...

I'll try and get some pics for you though reading this: http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/ will be a big help.

The cost for each parabollic scoop was ~£6. Then you've got the wireless cards (usb) and the usb cables...all of which add up to not that much

Annoyingly, I can't get pics until I go home...which means no pics until tomorrow :/ Basically though, I drilled a hole at an angle to the wood of the handle (ascii pic below) and then rammed a chop stick through there (keeping with the oriental theme). I then attached the usb card so that the antenna inside (open it up and you'll see a silver plate..that's the antenna) was at the focal point, which in my case was 9.4 cm from the centre of the dish (I used the no12 scoop which already has all the working out done for me on the site I linked to above..check the pics.

We then set one card up to ad-hoc mode and leaned it against the window, pointing outwards and up the valley.

I then grabbed the second wok and (roughly) aimed it at the house from our valley vantage point. Result: Strong signal As a test we also tried my friend's pda phone and it's tiny little wifi antenna picked up the signal fine too - I was pretty shocked to be honest

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Note: Despite my "great" ascii there, flat-bottom woks are very bad for this

[FatalSaviour]

Fantastic mate.
Very impressed

[mrbanana]

Lol. Fantastic.

Ever thought of adding one of these to the mix:

http://www.allendale-hosting.co.uk/antenna/500mw_g.htm

And maybe a Linksys router with a 3rd party firmware where you can up the output.

You'll be able to cook pigeons before they hit the ground.

[FrenchTart]

Lol..I may try that for the 8km network I want to make ;p

Kind of illegal to have that kind of power level though...

[unreal]

It's Ok, I won't say anything


lol @ the power antenna... an expensive but brute solution to a lack of WiFi signal

[Odc]

Nice job. Certainly beats the old home networking

[FrenchTart]

Okay...now I need ideas for a cheap way to build a 20m strut to hold the wokfi steady...

..anyone?