geolemon

After being fed up with having no internet options other than this NetZero dialup (or $99/mo. satellite ), a friend of mine (who is hardly a computer geek, nor am I unfortunately) suggested I might be able to piggyback on his internet connection - he lives less than a mile away, across a pretty suburban area that doesn't even have too many trees, and very few two-story houses (we hope none in the way, apparantly).

So, I've shelled out so far for a couple directional grid antennas (used from Ebay, wasn't too bad - about $60 each, 18dB gain I believe).

I also shelled out about $60 for two lightning arrestors for the antenna cables, and another $75 or so for two 15 foot antenna cables / connector adapters that have the right ends to hook it all up.

I bought a Linksys WRT54GL router, only because I've heard there are scripts that could be used to "hop up" performance - I thought might make a last-ditch effort in case he's too far. He had a router already, we moved it into his attic space so the antenna cable could reach.
And I had to buy a NIC card for my computer (Linksys too).

This is adding up!

Anyway, I finally got things wired up tonight...
Antenna, lightning arrestor, cable, router, Cat5 cable, NIC card in computer.

I obviously have nothing to plug into the "internet" jack on the router...
...that's what I'm hoping to get THROUGH the router!

The setup CD has a wizard on it, and it won't get through the wizard because I have no internet plugged into the router. Huh?
I had to exit out of it, never completed that setup.
Does that make sense that it would require it?

Also, I installed NetStumbler on my PC, because I need to try to aim the antenna and see if he'll show up as I move the antenna.

But...
...NetStumbler just says "no wireless card detected" (or something along those lines).

Of course there isn't - I'm trying to scan through that big 18dB dish antenna mounted up on top of my roof, through a router that I had to install in the attic so that the antenna cable could reach it (I was told that a long antenna wire would degrade the signal - obviously a concern given his distance from me).

How do you use NetStumbler with a setup like this?

geolemon

Or in other words - what's wrong here?
:cry:

streaker69

You're not much on reading documentation or doing research before hand are you?

Had you bothered to even do some research before you purchased all this gear, you would have determined if you had proper RF LOS first, calculated your Freznel Zone and if those antennas would actually do the trick.

You would also have found out that which Wifi card will properly report SNR so that you can align antennas in such a way. But since you haven't even completed the first steps, attempting to align them is kinda moot.

Oh yeah, you may want to have your friend actually read his TOS/AUP of his ISP and find out that he's actually in violation of his contract with them by allowing to you do this.

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geolemon

Not knowing what a fresnel zone is, having read simply that "larger gain is better", not knowing what RF LOS stands for, I wouldn't know the proper questions to ask.
Not to mention, everyone I talk to seems to give a different answer. Shall I abritrarily pick one person, and listen to them? I doubt you would either.

I'm not terribly worried about the equipment investment - I've tried to mitigate that by
1) purchasing used antennas
2) purchasing equipment that has resale value should it not work out

I don't have a wifi card. For the reason I described:

That's the point - the antenna is located on the roof.
The research that I did indicated that long antenna wires are a no-no, 15 foot was longer than some seemed to believe in - but at least that leads into my attic, through a vent. My attic has real limited access - I wish I could post a picture... a hole in the top of a closet.

But I have a WRT54GL that's installed up there, that the cable can reach to. And I have my computer connected to it as well, with a LAN card fed through my ceiling at this point.

If you have suggestions on this configuration, let me know. I'm here to learn

If you want to play elitist, and just keep your precious knowledge inside rather than sharing it and trying to help - I'd ask you why bother participating on forums anyway?

I'm just trying to solve my problem - that being no internet connectivity, and very compromised dialup performance.
Without rehashing my past 6 mo. frustrations (we just moved into this house summer 2005), this is the only glimmer of hope I have - I'd like to make it work.

streaker69

If you don't have a Wifi card there's your first problem, since NS requires a compatible card, this information is easily accessible via the help file that's included with the installation as well as on the website where you downloaded the program.

I'm not being elitest, but this site does not spoonfeed, we expect people to do the research and then ask intelligent questions, which you have done neither.

I have you terms that you could have just have easily searched upon, you said you don't know what they mean, but instead of posting that you don't know what they mean, you could have googled for them and found out their definitions.

Anyone that told you 'larger gain is better' is a fucking idiot and doesn't know the first thing about how the technology works.

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geolemon

I perhaps wasn't clear...

How would a wifi card help me, when I have an antenna on the roof, and a computer in a basement?

This is the hardware forum, correct?

No offense, but your torrent of acronyms and lack of explanation is hardly an approach that's going to give me confidence in your words in the face of IT people I know personally giving me suggestions (unfortunately some of them conflicting, perhaps leading me where I am now), and online reference materials that conflict directly with what you say:
http://www.radiolabs.com/Articles/wifi-antenna.html
Not that I have these things bookmarked or anything.
No - I must be just being lazy, as you assume.

That's been my problem - in the face of conflicting information, who do you believe?
Forums are typically great for that- possibly not this one.

All I know is I have a finish line that I'm trying to reach.
I'm not an expert. That was clear in the title, no?

The research that I've done has left me "up the creek". Conflicting information. Who knows who to believe.

Hence- I've come here for advice, which you've expended a LOT of energy avoiding doing.
I haven't gotten one good suggestion from you on what resources are out there to help me. If you don't want me here, send me... where is "there"?

Am I supposed to blindly search things like "Fresnel" on Google, without having a clue why I'm searching them out? What else might I search? Hey, why don't I search for WiFi on Google, and then write down every term I find, and research it - that would be efficient.

Let's be real.
And thanks in advance for real help.

geolemon

Also - things like "fresnel zone calculation" seem like a nice tweaky thing to do to fine-tune, get things working optimally...

...my problem seems more fundamental, more hardware-level oriented.

I need to get the hardware working together, and the software (maybe netstumbler isn't it - it worked with my laptop!) to recognize it.

I'm not at the tweaky stage here - I'm looking to get things mechanically "together' first, if you will.

Dutch

As streaker69 said : This site does not spoonfeed.
Read through the FAQ section, do some legwork, and then come back.

Thread closed.

Dutch

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streaker69

By you even asking this question even proves my point even more that you haven't done the slightest bit of research. If you don't know why you need a Wifi card to use Netstumbler, then you haven't read a single bit of information about what Netstumbler is or how it works.

Yep, it is.

You're right, you have no reason to believe anything that anyone says here. But are your IT guys that you know personally professionals in the field of Wifi installation? I would say they're not since they're giving you conflicting information and one apparently making the statement that the more power the better. Which is just silly because if he knew the first thing about RF in this band, he would know that more power is not necessarily better and could quite possibly be dangerous.

When I first started on this forum and before I even made my first post I read hundreds if not thousands of posts here. Every single time I came across a term I didn't know, I searched for it. I did a contextual search. You know, typing in like phrases in relation to the term you're searching for so that you find relevant answers. If you can't do that, then you're already in way over your head. It's amazing how much information you can find if you'd search on the phrases that I posted originally and do a "+wifi" to it.

If you don't have the time or the patience to learn about what you're doing then you're already in way over your head because apparently you don't even realize the danger involved in what you're attempting to do. If you don't know that you're doing something potentially dangerous then that's even worse.

You should have done a Fresnel Zone Calculation before you even made your first purchase of any hardware. As well as determined if you actually had RF LOS. These are all basics of building a functional Wifi system like what you're doing. But hey, go ahead and believe those IT people that you know professionally because they certainly haven't steered you wrong so far. I'm guessing that not a single one of them even mentioned any of these things to you. Which just proves that point that they don't know what they're talking about to begin with.

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