The solution I described will not use the wifi receiver internal to your
laptop due to the limitations I described in my earlier post. Instead will
use your laptop's Ethernet connection, which runs into a simple POE
interface box. (See the following url for the POE wiring instructions
http://www.nycwireless.net/poe/ ).



The input to this POE box is dc power and the Ethernet connection from your
computer. The DC power comes from the AP or Bridge supplied power adapter.
The output of the POE box is a cat-5 Ethernet cable spanning up to 300 feet
in length. This cable runs to your nema enclosure and now combines the DC
power and Ethernet.



If your access point or bridge is compatible with the IEEE 802.3af standard
one simply plugs the cat-5 cable into the AP or Bridge Ethernet connector.
If you do not have a compatible AP or Bridge one simply splits off the DC
power and wires it directly to the PCB's dc input power terminals.



This solution works equally well irrespective of the use of a desktop (
http://www.fantasia35.com/images/nav-1-03.jpg ) or laptop computer within
your vessel.



I hope this clarifies my wifi implementation strategy.



Regards,

David

"Skip Gundlach" skipgundlach sez use my name at earthlink dot fishcatcher
(net) - with apologies for the spamtrap wrote in message
...
Hi, David, and thanks for the post (left below).

Are you saying that you hoist an antenna which is also a bridge? And that
the cat5 uses 2 sets of the twisted pairs, one for power and the other for
signal?

Where does the power and signal come from in your laptop/computer? In my
case, the wifi is built into the computer. I was hopeful of not having to
buy another card, carrying coals to Newcastle, so to speak...

Thanks.

L8R

Skip

--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig
http://tinyurl.com/384p2

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you
didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail
away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore.
Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
"David Moore" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I went from being able to receive one access point with high packet loss
to
receiving more than 20 solid high signal strength access points.

The problem with most wifi receivers is that their interface to your
computer is either pcmcia or usb. In both cases there is a severe
limitation
to the height of your antenna.

My solution was to use a Netgear wifi bridge. This product has ethernet
out
allowing the device with antenna to be elevated up to 300 feet. In my
application I simply installed the pcb of the bridge into a water proof
nema
enclosure and hoisted it up to within 3 feet of the top of my mast. In a
standard ethernet cat 5 cable there are 8 wires and only 4 are used to
make
a connection. I used the unused set of four to provide DC power to the
bridge. This therefore means that there is only one cable going to the
elevated box.

To my delight, the first time I powered up the elevated bridge I was able
to
receive more than 20 access points.

This solution has worked so well for me that the next time I pull my mast
I
plan to mount the nema enclosed wifi bridge perminately to the top of the
mast.

Hope this helps.
David