Campground Wi-Fi

[Hartley]

The number of access points needed for a given area are based on signal strength.
If you have stock off the shelf wifi routers they only generally have 28 milliwatts of power. that's barely enough to get down the driveway in most places.

I have a couple of Lynksys WRT54GL routers with wifi, the factory limits them to 28 mw output. I couldn't get 50 feet away or lose signal and I have the high-gain optional antennas on the one I am using.

Enter one of the other Bus Nuts, emails me and we start tech talk.... I downloaded a firmware upgrade for the router. installed it and ramped the power level up to 150mw output. It sits inside my little office building on a shelf about 8 feet above ground level.

I took my stock compaq laptop and got on the golf cart. started netstumbler and started driving towards the back of the property. At 1,000 feet I still had a 48 megabyte connection to my network, at 2,000 feet I had slowed to 11mb speed. @ -80db on netstumblers signal level screen.

I went the other direction to the other end of the property and still had a rock solid connection even with a low signal strength.. 11mb, I never lost signal and stayed on the network at every corner of the 17 acres. That's 2,500 feet of road frontage too!

I did buy previously a NOC-3220EXT long range wireless AP unit and a couple of USB high gain antenna adapters. If I put the NOC3220 online @400mw I probably could shoot a full mile up or down the valley.

These results are probably not typical, But neither am I.....

This is a vast improvement over the previous 50 feet that I could get if I was lucky.

My Thanks to Jay for the heads up...

Now if I could just get cellular signal down in this valley all would be great...
No cell signals, No nextel, No aircards, No pagers or anything gets in here. Well maybe low band radio and that is iffy at best.

This is the best or worst part of living 1/2 mile past the end of power and phone lines.
I have power now and soon maybe a phone once they build the lines. I might be somewhere between the boonies and civilization. Oh Fun....

The options for the campground on a pay per use can be done. Just a few hassles that are technical in nature. There are companies that will handle all the payments and authorizations for you at a price. ( revenue sharing )....

Dave.....

[DavidInWilmNC]

The options for the campground on a pay per use can be done. Just a few hassles that are technical in nature. There are companies that will handle all the payments and authorizations for you at a price. ( revenue sharing )....

Dave.....

I think this is what the owner has in mind. 

[Hartley]

The options for the campground on a pay per use can be done. Just a few hassles that are technical in nature. There are companies that will handle all the payments and authorizations for you at a price. ( revenue sharing )....

Dave.....

I think this is what the owner has in mind. 

You or He may want to do a little research into what is needed and what can be expected.
Personally I would rather keep any revenues from such a system but in a case where
an operator doesn't want hands on technology controls and control over his own use of an extensive network then the alternatives may be the key.

He would still have to commit to a sizable investment in equipment and technology and maintain the system on a daily basis to kep it running.

Try: http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/1449051

This may help....