Neighbourhood Connections Sharing?

[rsachoc]

Hey Willie, just a quick question which hasnt been mentioned here, and I cant for the life of me find it on the Gigabyte web site, does the AP mentioned (AP-16B) have any ability whatsoever for an external atenna? ie does the built-in antenna come off or can you hack it with an external antenna?

BTW I have a Gigabyte B49G, havent actually tested it yet though, cause I dont have a wireless card to test it with

*Edit* Sorry buckinghamrd, since you have the AP, you would also know []

 

[podo]

rsachoc,

I'm afraid not [].

The antenna seems to be very much permanently fixed to these little APs. I'm sure you could modify it to take any antenna though, but that will probably void the warrantee, so don't try it unless you have cash to experiment.

Willie Viljoen
Web Developer

Adaptive Web Development

 

[rsachoc]

So in other words, extending the range of these little puppies is going to be difficult? Cause without a decent external antenna, range is going to be limited.

How easy are they to open?

Know offhand if the 49G supports bridging mode? I'll check tonight when I get home anyways.

Thanks

 

[TheRoDent]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by podo</i>
<br />However, if you are only using a very low power transmitter and are very far from any Telkom equipment, you should be alone on the ISM band in your area. If that is the case, you should be able to get away with using it, provided you stay inside the legal limits for transmission power on unlicensed civilian devices. This means, no amplifiers, no custom antennas, ESPECIALLY not those high-gain and often dangerously high radiation-level Pringles "Cantennas" that so many people like using these days.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Willie, I'm intrigued by this statement of yours. FCC regulations in the US state that essentially, a 200mw transmitter and a 24dBi antenna is within the regulations. A cantenna is thus not nearly dangerous, since even some of the best yagi/pringles designs don't come close to that level of gain. Do you have any information regarding CPE equipment and allowed transmission strength from ICASA?

(Aside from your legal cordless phone, of course [] )

There's some interesting reading at http://seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/FccRegulations


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[podo]

TheRoDent,

As far as I am aware, ICASA doesn't "legally" allow any transmission strength at all, unless you have a device that's been approved and licensed by them. However, if they can't see it, is it really there? []

As for the regulations, there seems to be quite some discrepancy between acceptable safety levels and FCC regulations. The FCC regulations were not originally drawn up with radiation safety in mind. Mainly, FCC rules are designed to prevent interference with other transmitting or receiving devices on the same channel. Some countries have accepted FCC standards as being within safe limits, but this is not the case everywhere.

The safety limits for human exposure to RF or MW radiation can be found in this document (http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=9745) from the U.S. Dept. of Labour Occupational Safety and Health Administration. In terms of the document, the safety limit for RF or MW exposure is 10mW per cm squared over very short peroids, or 1mW per cm squared for 6 minutes. mW here is microWatts. 1 microWatt = 1 miliWatt divided by 1000.

In some countries, the safety limits are much lower than those expressed in the document above. In Switzerland, the legal exposure limit is 0.1 microwatts per cm squared for 1 minute. In Switzerland, even very low power Wi-Fi equipment is illegal.

Willie Viljoen
Web Developer

Adaptive Web Development

 

[rsachoc]

Just to let you know, the B49G does have WDS support, and external antenna support. They go for about R800 at Rectron, so they are double the price of the A16B, but can obviously do some longer distances with the right antenna. So creating a "community" is possible with a couple of A16's and a couple of B49G's for the longer links.

Think I am gonna try this sometime soon, now to drive up some support in my area []

 

[John]

Omni-Directional antennas - 15dbi for $7
Make yourself. We could mass produce these ourselves by
making a template with a CNC machine.

I think www.poynting.co.za will get into trouble with Icasa
if they provided 15 dbi omni's

http://members.iinet.net.au/~mtszolk/wireless/downpipe.cgi
http://martybugs.net/wireless/antennacomp.cgi

 

[podo]

I'd stay away from making antennae, it is not just a matter of putting together your own "caantenna" and hoping it works, antenna design is a complex science best left up to physicists well aware of the dynamics of electromagnetic waves. Building a microwave antenna without getting it approved by a communications regulator might also get you in to some real trouble if you cause interference or become a radiation hazard.

I can't see how Poyinting would get in to trouble for selling 15dBi Yagi antennae. In fact, they also sell 25dBi parabolics, which I also can't find any legal issue with. These antennae comply with legal emission limits and are approved by regulators.

Buying these devices is also not illegal anywhere in the world, why, one might just want to put a parabolic on the roof for marketing perposes, without ever putting any signal through it. You might even use it for short distance "branch to branch" bridges in the same business.

Local municipalities around the country and even Telkom themselves use Poynting products for all kinds of applications. Here in Bloemfontein, our water board use the parabolics on water towers, providing a cost effective way to monitor electronic sensors in the water towers from a central location.

You might find yourself in trouble with ICASA if you use these the wrong way though. It is quite well known that they tend to look the other way where users chose to form a small community network on the ISM band or where industrial and medical institutions use the band for local communications.

However, ICASA are known to frown upon the advertisement of ISM band technology for commercial gain. Setting up 25 omni antennae at high sites around a metropolitan area and advertising internet access to the masses will get your equipment confiscated almost immediately and will probably bring about a huge fine.

Hot spots for commercial gain, as long as they do not provide communication over property lines are still allowed though.

Willie Viljoen
Web Developer

Adaptive Web Development

 

[John]

Podo you say one could get a huge fine.
When I spoke to Andries he clearly stated to me that he can
only go to the police. Infact Andries nailed a company transmitting
with illegal equipment in the 98mhz radio band and the person
was given a 5year suspended sentence.

I again refer you to http://sawireless.tripod.com as I don't
want to repeat myself.

He sealed one Duxbury highsite using 5.8ghz transmitter with a court
order, Duxbury told me the client was not fined, simply can't
use the highsite.

As I understand it Icasa can't fine you, only a court can.
Would please clarify your statement? Did you speak to Andries?
Can you document your statement with a precedent setting case?

Why has Andries not fined www.gin.co.za ? Andries told me he laid
criminal charges against GIN, but the police are ignoring him.

Your statements on the waveguide antenna are puzzeling, from the
websites given (did you read it ?) they clearly state that it is easy
to produce. Once you have a template made with a CNC machine, one
could mass produce these in a community effort.

There is a very simple way to avoid problems with the omni's
Since there is no profit from the waveguides, give the templates to an unemployed person. Everybody will order it from the person and if
he is shut down, get another person! Gotcha regulator!