<snip> > We also have two WiFry antenna ready for range testing (photos will > follow soon). These have been lovingly created by Neil, Rik, Bruce and > myself over the past two weeks and a more detailed breakdown of issues > (like USB cable legnth) will follow soon. > > In summary, > > Thank you very much to the kind donor, GURU Neil for his persistent > support, Rik for a trip to his roof (to be explained at a later date), > Bruce for his cable advise and my loving wife for putting up with the > mess all over our tiny flat!
Don, your time settings are incorrect. You are talking to us from the past (which is probably why a Pentium 133 sounds so exciting). On the WiFry front, I assume you are referring to the idea of putting a USB wi-fi dongle at the focal point of a wire mesh fat skimmer from the Asian Food Warehouse? I built one of these about a year and a half ago and got nearly 10km range from Edgeware to Yobbo on the hill. The USB spec. limits the cable length to 5m, although you can buy active repeaters that extend this range. Either way, since the signal is converted to digital at the point of reception 5m of USB cable is effectively lossless (compared to 5m of your favourite and expensive coax). That aside, it may be nice to have received a free PC, but you'd be better off paying for a low-power mini-ITX system with a VIA EPIA motherboard. It consumes little power and is physically small. Put the WiFry on the roof, with a 5m USB cable into the attic. Put the small EPIA box in the attic with a spliced Ethernet cable connected to its ethernet port and power input, then run that for (up to) 100m to your comms room somewhere else in the house, where your 12V power adapter and network hub is located. Just IMHO, A
