15-Mile Wi-Fi Shot At 4 Mbps Up and Down

DarnComputers writes "5G Wireless (FGWC) announced that it has documented a long distance Wi-Fi shot of 15 miles at a throughput of 4Mbps upload and download speed. The shot was completed this last weekend, in a competitive Wi-Fi shootout at the Defcon convention in Las Vegas, Nev. There were many participants with both commercial-grade and homemade entries in a variety of categories at Defcon's first annual Wi-Fi shootout.http://home.earthlink.net/~wifi-shootout/"

Last weekend?

[LinuxGeek]

This story was posted last summer. Check the dates on the linked page...

Last weekend ? or more like a few dozen Weekends ?

[kbsingh]

Defcon is usually end of summer kinda things... the 2004 Defcon is posted for July 30th - 4th Aug 2004.

I remember looking at this story a while back - and the same page was linked. might be worth looking back on ./

Cardboard and tinfoil antennas

[yppiz]

I built a copy of the cardboard antenna that the winning team used at the core of their mongo-horn. It turns out that the design is quite robust (that is, even I can make it) and with just the amount of cardboard you'd get from two standard 16"x16" boxes, it's possible to make a 16db gain directional antenna.

What 16db means in terms of wireless use is than instead of picking up 4 access points from a rooftop using Netstumbler, I saw 40 different access points, including the BAWRN public node over eight miles away (with clear line of sight but an enormous amount of clutter in the fresnel zone).

I used this design [seattlewireless.net] from Seattlewireless.net

I strongly recommended trying this as a project. It's easy and pretty cool.

--Pat / [e-mail]

Earthlink Link.

[MooKore 2004]

For those who dont want to copy and paste, here is a link
http://home.earthlink.net/~wifi-shootout/ [earthlink.net]

Re:Last weekend?

[jooon]

http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/0 8/06/2153238 [slashdot.org]

Re:Only 15 miles?

[yppiz]

I think the winning team was shooting from their ~24db horn to a 5-8db omni. Not bad, especially considering their horn was a Home Depot special.

--Pat / [e-mail]

Re:Legality?

[afidel]

Yep, point to point limit using a 100mW card is around 28dBi.

Wireless Homebrew Website

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is a website for homebrew/amateur radio related wireless experimenting. It covers the construction of homebrew amplifiers, antennas, receiving converters, etc. They also have path analysis and line-of-sight analysis CGI utilities.

Green Bay Professional Packet Radio [gbppr.org]

Re:Cardboard and tinfoil antennas

[Technician]

If you need it for outdoors, I would recommend using the aluminum coated insulating sheeting that can be purchased at any good building supply. It's the plywood with metal coating. Using the metal tape the HVAC guys use to seal up seams in ductwork would work well for assembly and provide weather protection.

Georga Pacific makes some. It's description from the website;
GP Thermostat Radiant Barrier Sheathing enhances Plytanium plywood sheathing with a highly reflective aluminum foil. Thermostat Radiant Barrier Sheathing can reduce heat flow through the ceiling up to 50 percent and save up to 20 percent on cooling energy consumption in hot, sunny climates. (1) Best of all, it's made of Plytanium plywood, so you know it's strong and durable.


http://www.gp.com/build/product.aspx?pname=Plyta ni um%e2%84%a2+Thermostat%e2%84%a2+Radiant+Barrier+Sh eathing&pid=1741&hierarchy=

Re:Cheap

[shaldannon]

Dunno if this will help you, but Linksys has a signal booster [linksys.com] for your Linksys wireless device. Pop the antennas off the existing one, pop them on the booster, connect the booster to the access point, and (according to Linksys), you're good to go.