Re: [PLUG] OpenWRT and covering a large area with wireless

["Will Dyson" <will.dyson@gmail.com>]

On 2/14/07, Randy Schmidt <x@altorg.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Two things that may be somewhat related. I am thinking about playing
> with flashing a router with OpenWRT and wanted to know if anybody had
> suggestions for hardware. I remember hearing Chris Shank talk about
> doing this with some Buffalo routers.

http://wiki.openwrt.org/TableOfHardware

I like the Buffalo units because:

1) They are cheap
2) The model number on the box clearly identifies the hardware
(contrast to Linksys's habit of bumping only the revision number to
indicate completely different hardware)
3) Almost all their units are supported anyway :)

> The other thing is I have a friend who has a business where the
> warehouse/offices are on her property but separated from her house by
> a few hundred feet. Currently she has an Airport wireless router in
> the warehouse trying to share the network wirelessly with her
> computers in the house. The problem is the signal is extremely weak so
> she cannot reliably connect to the network from her house. I was

This sounds like a perfect application for a directional antenna.

OpenWRT also supports increasing the router's Tx power, but this does
not help nearly as much as you might think (because it has no effect
on Rx sensitivity).

--
Will Dyson
http://www.lucidts.com/
Linux/Mac/Win consulting
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