Seeking clarification of free wireless internet hopes

How to get authentication or authorization to use their facilities.

Don't need it. Perfectly legal...As if that mattered.

I would think looking from the roof to see if you can see the proposed source would be a start

Uh, so you have no idea if there is a provider nearby? Just guessing? Are you in the city or what?

Sounds wierd. I guess that you are hoping to get onto some neighbor's LAN ? Or maybe there are businesses around you?

Steve

If they're open hotspots which don't require authentication or payment,

No, actually it'd be a criminal act if you broke into someone's network or used it without permission, but I guess you knew that.

oh,oh...

Do you have line-of-sight to their antenna? Wireless is picky about LoS.

If you can get signal.

They won't be sticking up a directional antenna just for you (unless you're paying them of course) so you may need more signal than they're transmitting with.

That may be a problem but not sure. The closest hotspot is just barely visible from my roof. Probably a little better up on the tower.

If you read my post you would see the I said "There are 3 WIFI hotspots withing about 3 miles of my house. The closest is about a mile and a quarter."

Not at all.

I guess that you are hoping to get onto some neighbor's

Thats right...your quessing.

Sounds logical, but I don't see that question in my post.

Did I say I was looking to break into a private network?

Thanks you for answering my actual questions, Mark. I appreciate it. There seems to be a lot of people around hear who don't actually know anything and so they sit here and pretend to be WIFI Keystone Cops who assume everyone but themselves is a criminal of some sort or another. Even if I was a Soviet Network spy, I still have the right to seek knowledge. And if they don't know the answers they have the right to got to the childrens newsgroups where they can handle the easy questions.

No, those of us who actually know how it all works try to ignore idiots like you.

How many people reading this can see the glaring flaws in Bill Kearney's one and only contribution to this thread?

Hints: #1) No words that actually refer to the subject of this group. #2) An attempt to draw attention to his intellect even though #1. #3) Displaying the need to speak for others in an attempt to draw attention to the facts of #1 and #2.

You missed my point...I'm not even touching on the legality.

I'm answering your question.

You need to know if you'll need a user name and password to connect (where connect refers to "authentication or authorization").

[quote] What else do I need to know? [/quote]

Basically wifi does not ground wave so line of sight or the odds are it wont work , I suggest you make a simple gain aerial and see whats about and that you can legally access

Does this card have a maker and model number? "In my PC" implies a desktop with a PCI wireless card. Did I guess right? If so, you're about to have a problem with a long coax cable run.

No, the next step is to haul your PC contrivance to a window and see if it's working. It might be broken, comatose, badly installed, defective, old drivers, sick, or getting clobbered with inference. If you live in any sort of metropolitan area, you should pickup at least one or two access points from anywhere higher than a dungeon.

It really depends on the antenna. The rubber ducky (2dBi) that comes with the typical wireless card is very minimal. Indoors, you can reliably do about 20ft through one wall. Outdoors, if you have perfect line of sight, you can do perhaps 200ft.

At the other extreme are the 24dBi dish antennas, which is about as big as one could practically install on a pole or tower. You can do many miles with such an antenna. However, there's a catch. If there are any other wireless devices along the line of sight to your intended target and beyond, you're going to have interference problems. The bigger antenna increases the signal strength of interference just as well as it does the desired signal.

1.25 miles = about 6,600 ft. That's going to be a stretch because the WiFi hotspot is probably a coffee shop with an indoor wireless router and an insipid 2dBi rubber ducky antenna. I can calculate if you have a chance, but you need to supply some hardware info and topography details for both ends of the link. It's possible that it might work, but offhand, my guess(tm) is that it's not going to happen.

Do you have absolutely clear line of sight between your proposed antenna location and your proposed victim...errr hot spot? If not, what's in the way?

Do you have a clear Fresnel Zone? At 6600 ft, you need clearance of:

about 21 ft radius about the line of sight at midpoint. If you're

15ft off the roof line, methinks it's going to be close.

Sure. You can mount the antenna, but then you have to run a LONG length of fat coaxial cable to prevent the coax losses from negating the benefits of the antenna. The best approach would be to forget about your internal wireless card and install the client radio in a waterproof box next to the antenna. No coax losses at all. Power can be supplied with PoE (power over ethernet). Some such devices have integrated antennas and are made for exactly what you're trying to do from scratch.

Yes, miracles do happen. Prayer or burnt offerings might help depending on your religious inclinations.

Yes, it can be done. However, you've only supplied one number and no descriptions, so I can't divine if this is going to play.

Upload? Oh-oh, a P2P file sharing user. You're not going to be very popular at the hot spot.

- Permission from the owner of the hot spot?

- What hardware you have to work with?

- What hardware is at the other end? Antennas are hardware.

- Got line of sight? Any obstructions?

- Fresnel zone clearance?

- Interference (do a site survey)?

You have it backwards. Everyone that answers your questions is probably a WiFi criminal of sorts as it's almost impossible to use a wireless device and not break a law or two. For example, in Florida, it's illegal to "access" someones network without permission. Unfortunately the definition of access is lacking along with what constitutes permission. Anyway, being a criminal of sorts, I simply assume that anyone asking is currently innocent and will soon become a criminal. Welcome to the dark side.

Yep. Data is free. Information, you have to fight (or pay) for. Please consider my opinions to be data. Incidentally, that's the "Former Soviet Union" type of spy. The current incantation are now our friends and scientific collaborators.

Try the wireless FAQ at:

It doesn't directly answer your question but there's plenty of useful information. If you're really into learning the subject, I suggest reading the Intel Wireless Hot Spot Guide, which disappeared from the Intel web pile but is available (illegally and without permission) at:

Lots of background, standards, buzzwords, acronyms, and clear explanations.

I don't read the childrens groups, so I would not know anything about their abilities to answer wireless questions. Judging by the apparently growing number of academically inept children produced by the American educational system, I would deduce that either the childrens newsgroups are failing to properly advise parents and teachers, or that they are unable to answer even the easier questions.

Perhaps the political newsgroups would be more useful. Those offer endless arguements, without any final decisions, with no recognition of authority, and an amazing amount of creative thinking. You can obtain almost any answer you want in the political newsgroups. Personally, I prefer the conspiracy newsgroups.

I agree, but its worth noting that many people here (me included) have strong views about theft of service. If someone asks a question that seems to be leading towards such an act, they're likely to get short shrift.

Its more likely that people knew the answers, but weren't prepared to provide info because they objected to what sounded like a plan to steal something.

No, they have the right to stay right where they are, and learn. After all, its what you hope to do....

You may want to consider your own last two or three comments in the same light. After all, you could simply have ignored Bill.

For what its worth, Bill was doing no more than pointing out you were being arrogant & abusive of the group and that you were likely to get killfiled.