Right now we're finding a satellite internet provider. Once I get that hooked up I'm going to share the connection with our guys wirelessly. We can't just run CAT-5 to every hooch I don't have the time or resources to do that. I've got a laundry list of questions and I was hoping you guys wouldn't mind offering up some advice because they are mainly terrain and equipment related questions.
There is a local here that sells D-Link wireless access points and routers. He's got B and G routers, and two different D-Link access points. One of the access points does load balancing. What that requires, or how best to effectively use an access point is new to me. I thought a wireless router basically did the same thing as an access point. I'm not sure which I should use in my situation.
The situation is about 50 (or fewer) guys with laptops, with D-Link WiFi cards or the card that came installed in their laptop, and one Airport Extreme card (mine). We are living in small temporary buildings about 15 meters long, about the size of a small trailer home and built out of most likely the same materials. That means, light metal on the outside, and possibly metal studs on the walls. There is no foliage to speak of where we are at. Just heat and regular dust storms (which I discovered in Kuwait doesn't hurt WiFi signals much). As a matter of fact, in Kuwait we could hear a network that the medics had put up at least 250 meters away, maybe further. The signal passed fine through canvas tent after canvas tent (probably 8 to 10 before it got to us). Maybe the less dense hot air helped. That gives me hope, but the metal in these buildings bugs the crap out of me. The buildings are spaced about two meters apart, with a road about the size of a small two lane separating the buildings into rows of two by five buildings. The buildings that we occupy probably take up an area no more than 200 x 200 meters. We are not evenly distributed though. There is another unit sprinkled in with us. In a map I've made we actually clump up in to two opposite corners of this grid.
So it has become apparent that I might need to put an access point at the two opposite corners of our neighborhood just to get a signal through these buildings. Has anyone worked with buildings like this? How many of these temporary buildings can I expect the signal to penetrate? Can I have the AP inside and run a line to an antenna outside? If the AP is outside it's going to have to endure dust storms and 140 degree temps. Will elevating the antenna above the buildings help (they are only one story)? I can't give everyone a Yagi antenna and orinco card, that would be impractical and too expensive. I can at least run CAT-5 from the gateway/firewall to two AP/Routers.
My questions boil down to this: Should I use AP's or routers? How far can I expect the signal to go in said terrain? What kind of antennas should I use? How should I position them?
Please keep in mind that this is being paid for by all of us with laptops so we can't afford alot. The satellite setup is already going to stretch us thin.
BTW: If anyone can help me find a satellite provider they know or trust, I'd be open to the referral. I only get about an hour on the Internet every other day and it's very far away so trying to get info from these providers in the UK is going sloooow.
If you are interested in the war and politics, please email me off this list, I'd be happy to talk. I might surprise you.
-ryan
--
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
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