Free internet using wifi

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freeinternet

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Just wondering how many of you have tried this:

Connect your home LAN to your office LAN+ADSL using wifi and directional antennas via a high point running on solar power.

I'm using the Senao (www.miro.co.za) access point and bridges. The version I installed last year allowed me to have bridges at my house and office and an access point in the high point. This allowed me to add many nodes via the high point from anywhere in town by adding additional bridges. The nodes use directional yagis and the high point uses an omni.

Calculations indicated that the system needed to survive for three months before I broke even with Telkom's charges. I've been going for over a year now.

So, I've had free internet for more than a year now! :)
 
No u haven't, you've merely extended your network range, unless you're not the one paying for your office adsl.

Telkom - South Africa's Handbrake to progress.
 
... and if your office setup doesn't belong to you, make sure you remit appropriately for services provided, unless you're fortunate enough to enjoy these as a perquisite...
 
Am I getting it free or not? Let's see:

Our office only uses the ADSL by day, at night only the mail server uses it - plenty of spare capacity there. I've got permission to use it - so I'm not stealing it either. Effectively I've only connected the office LAN to my home LAN and in the process gained ADSL access.

We have connected a number of employees up this way. We have only one ADSL account but a number of people are using it from different locations. We didn't need to buy any ADSL hardware and we're not paying Telkom for any access other than an additional 3GB at around R200. So we get four for the price of one.

So am I getting it free? Well I haven't paid for any internet access in over a year, so I'd say yes!

Personally I think this is completely legal other than something about wifi not going over public roads or some cr*p like that which I really am not going to be concerned about.
 
Nice. It is, of course, illegal, but i'm with you in not bothering about it, big brother's days r numbered anyway. I think its great that your company spreads it around like that.
ditto freeek's question, give us the lowdown on the setup.


Telkom - South Africa's Handbrake to progress.
 
im sure the hardware setup isn't that hard. Pretty much 2 AP's with booster antenae's (flat panel or wateva). How do you set it up tho?

..- dot dot dash ;)
 
Didn't need to do anything in software other than set up TCP/IP's gateway. The hardware handles it all transparently.

In the office we have ADSL connected to a switch/hub which everyone in the office is connected to. The switch is connected to a wifi bridge with a directional antenna. This points to a access point. At our homes we have the same setup, switch/hub connected to a wifi bridge connected to a directional antenna pointing to the access point.

Unfortunately our office is well hidden behind buildings and things so I had to go through the "high point". This is the point we all bridge through. The is literally placed at a high point in the city where everyone can see it. There was no power so I'm using solar panels.

You need to use yagi's (directional) at the bridges and an omni (360 degrees) at the access point. So anyone anywhere in the city can bridge through the access point.

The bridges and access point is set to "point to multi-point" mode. When I got this gear over a year ago you had to buy each function specifically. Now they have all they functions build in.

Our furthest node is about 7 km from the access point. I'm now moving out of town about 30 km away so now we're going to change the omni on the access point to a 18 dBi sector antenna from the current 8 dBi omni. I've gotten used to my free internet so I'm extending the range ...

Check Miro (www.miro.co.za), they sell the Senao gear. These are 200 mW units (non amplified) which are more powerful than many at 100 or less. More power is better!
 
What city are you in? 'cos unless your high point is the sentech tower or ponte building or maybe jhb hospital, you sure as f#ck aren't in Jo'burg! From what you're saying it seems that your town must be pretty flat...Bloem? Kimberley? I'm racking my brains to think of a city which will have 30km LOS to a high point.

Can you give some feedback on your 30km experiment...I think that you may be breaking new ground here.

<i>Sold my soul to the great Satan: Telkom ADSL. Yes they're evil but still better than Sentech</i>
 
Nope no ground being treated here.
At defcon this year the wifi shootout managed to get a signal unboosted to a reciever 65Miles away. also there was no high site involved in this experiment.

makes ya think what you can do with a little cute AP he?

Proud South african rip offs.
 
Let's just say with a solar panel and a deep cycle battery you can pretty much put it anywhere.

Only problem without 220V is limited output. I can't use an amplifier for my 30 km link (draws 1.5A), but I can use a narrow beam antenna to focus the output. I'm going to try the 18 dBi flat panel (http://www.miro.co.za/ProdAntennaFlat.htm) on the solar powered access point and a 24 dBi grid at my house. Will let you know next month when I have moved house.
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by armitage</i>
<br />Nope no ground being treated here.
At defcon this year the wifi shootout managed to get a signal unboosted to a reciever 65Miles away. also there was no high site involved in this experiment.

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Well actually it was 55 miles, and there were two high sites involved as both 9-foot dishes were on mountains. But impressive as this is, it is in no way a true real-world solution as it took place in the desert with no real RF interference, true LOS, and freaking HUGE dishes!

When I said breaking new ground what I meant was, that I haven't heard of any 802.11 installation in SA covering that kind distance (i.e 30 km). (I am still trying to think of a city with 30km LOS to a high site.)
 
Don't know if this has been mentioned but the boys at Miro have a stunning new toy - APTenna ... basically the antenna with built in AP/Bridge ... all nicely water proofed.

you only need to run an ethernet cable up the pole (with PoE)... damnn that's sweet
 
lol. thats wat all the wisps use! Been out a while now. Whats their price like? When last i checked everything was like R1600 alltoghether

..- dot dot dash ;)
 
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