wireless network to wireless network??

Deliberant LGO2AGN 802.11a/b/g + a/b/g Connectorized Dual Radio has two antenna ports.

For that price you could by two other routers; one as a client and the other as an access point.

Yep, I've used this setup in several situations. Put one router setup as a client to connect to the external network. Then run ethernet wire to another one configured as a router providing local wifi. Works great. I used Linksys WRT54G units with the dd-wrt 3rd party firmware loaded on them. By using two different routers you get the advantage of placing them where it's convenient for THAT purpose. This lets the router providing internal wifi be located where it gives the best coverage. That leaves the external router free to be placed as CLOSE AS POSSIBLE to the antenna picking up the external wifi.

But basically any maker's devices, one that allowed being a client and the other a router, would suffice. I simply point out linksys' WRT54G (the early models and the L model) as being capable of running the more flexible

3rd party firmware choices (other vendors have units that can do this also). It's worth having this option when getting into non-standard setups like this.

-Bill Kearney

For that price you get reliability.

And single point of failure.

whereas 2 devices is at least 2 single points of failure (probably 4 if you use boxes with wall wart PSUs).

>

There are two radios and two power supplies in a the box, and I don't think a steel box is a likely point of failure.

The ONLY reason *I* don't go that route is if I need to replace a radio, its easier and faster to simply unconnect the power lead and coax line than to open up the box while sitting up on a tower in the dark in the rain. Plus I don't risk taking down an entire node of back hauls and sectored access points.

And going back to the point of the original thread, such a box wouldn't be terribly useful anyway. Multiple radios on the outside isn't what he's after. That and, as I suggested, being able to place the radios independently, and use situationally appropriate antennae (very likely to be different) would make a lot more sense.

Thanks Bill, Just as a note these consumer grade devices are enough quality, failure isn't really an issue. At least for my requirement if one box or another fails it is no biggie other then rounding up a replacement for the failed part within a week or two time span (this would actually allow going to ebay or some similar source). I noticed from the thread that we got off into a reliability discussion. In many cases I can see where this would be critical, in my case if it fails some one says 'darn it failed, can you get me going in this room again before the end of the month?' This just isn't mission critical and in truth my user will not be in 'the room' but occasionally (we stick out of towners in here).

Now to the point, I hadn't considered two DD-WRT boxes, but that is indeed a clear option. Do you know of a more 'compact' solution. What I was envisioning, though this appears to not be an option, was stick one of those USB wireless receivers on the end of a usb cable and have it hooked into a wireless router via the WAN port or similar connect point. The reason I thought (wrongly it appears) this might work is way back in the early days of 802.11b I had a Linksys (before Cisco) B wireless router that actually accepted a USB connection. Do you know of anyone making a compact bridge device like this, that in effect converts the USB 2.0 to ethernet on the other end. I admit I'm no engineer so this may require more electronics then could fit in a device that small. I've seen bridges that of course are a wireless 'receiver' with an ethernet output for hooking up say an old laptop or a desktop to a wireless net, but the bridge I saw was a rather large physical box, I was hoping someone knew of similar in a package like one of those USB wireless devices (plus wire of course). Power on either end is not a problem.

Thanks again though for reminding me of the obvious solution though a bit 'large'. I feel silly not thinking about two DD-WRT devices. Like I said I was just hoping for something smaller and more portable. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

Right in my case I don't need weather proof beyond the most basic. Indoor equipment is more then rugged enough. I'm looking for cheap and compact, I can sacrifice 'reliable/rugged' since as the engineers say you can only have so many options. When I say I can sacrfice relaible I mean a failure of a part now and again is not a deal breaker for me in this application. As long as I can make this work more often then not. Compact is my most desired feature with cheap a close second.

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

Commercial grade in weatherproof boxes is isn't the significant point. The important thing is that in such a box, you don't have useful convection cooling and thus the equipment is more heat tolerant.

Sadly, without proof you can only hope that's the situation. Thermal management inside enclosures has to be designed-into the circuit boards. It has to deal with not only heat, but cold too. I'm guessing more than a few such enclosures don't handle it right.

Then there's the other downside of the resident firmware lacking desired features. A true "carrier class" device would be expected to have a more robust set of features... for carrier-oriented management.

Yep, I trolled for a few spare WRT54G units off fleabay and now have a decent supply of replacements should anything actually fail. Which, to my pleasant surprise, has not been the case.

I suppose it might be possible with some of the WRT-based units that have USB ports. They generally use the port for network attached storage. But since it's just linux there's not much to prevent using it for a wifi device. Trouble would be getting the driver configured properly. That and it would not be configurable from the web UI. You'd have to use the command prompt via ssh or telnet, and then know the right IP routing setup info. A bit more of a hassle than you might think.

What's the driving need for it to be small and portable? I'm not arguing against it, rather just curious.

The proof we have is reliability we experience. While we use sun shields on our client radios, we have not yet found a failure. Extreme cold may be an issue for far norther states, but even at zero degrees there is enough internally generated heat to keep them warm.

If you check recent threads in the NG, you will find my posts regarding problems with unheated enclosures in No. MN where we have had more than a month of nightly temps between -25 F and -5 F; this summer I will be adding a heater as the radio drifts off channel when the temp is below

0 F.

Michael

A compelling reason to stay in Texas where I have never seen more than a half inch of snow in my life...and that was a snow drift under my truck.

Occasional desire/need to pick everything up, toss it into a bag and move literally to another old building. They really knew how to build in the

20's and 30's. These interior walls could stop a bullet I'm convinced. Anyway they sure stop rf, some of the rooms even cell phones fail with a cell tower literally in sight of a nearby window. Most all of the networking is wired, but there are a couple of place where wireless connetivity is extremely desired and for some reason fishing a network cable is not a desired option (crazy IMO, but I don't get a vote) but running the rig as I describe is, tell me the difference in practical terms . We have wireless in some hallways etc but a couple of rooms even with doors open don't seem to offer the right 'reflective' properties to get the signal to 'fill' the room.

I've about decided wireless isn't suitable for an office environment. I'm a developer (map data, a little ASP, we need a program to...) for the company and am not a network type and yet I spend all my time these days with 'why won't my laptop connect to the network'? Anyway there are a couple of rooms where people who are visiting for a few days (not customers) are stuck so they can have some office space. The desire is just to have them drop the laptop on a desk turn it on, configure to the proper password etc and away they go. I don't so much need them on my network as to provide them with Internet access. The Exchange host is in another city so everyone has to have Internet access.

fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong.

We, as in you're pimping your company's own rigs here. Thinly disguised spam, eh?

Well, you have to balance between gauging how often you want to move, and how well the equipment (and usage) will tolerate BEING moved around.

It sounds more like you're faced with a serious construction issue (signal blockage) and a lack of planning (and budget) to correctly deal with it. It may well never be cost-effective to bathe that facility with total coverage. You're probably better off with putting wired ethernet into strategic locations and then using a simple wifi access point in them. Trying to use two radios will continue to be a headache as you'll have to deal with re-aiming the antenna each time (or often depending on user 'accessibility' to it) and the constant support hassles associated with that.

In that building, yes quite probably not.

-Bill Kearney