On Apr 1, 9:20 am, Wayne.B wrote:
On 1 Apr 2007 08:32:21 -0700, wrote:
Power run through 14ga. tinned, multi-stranded wire enclosed in a
thick and resliant cover and called "marine grade duplex" is many
orders of magnitude more chafe, UV, corrosion, and voltage drop
resistant than even the best marine grade ethernet cable.
I think we'd all agree with that although 14 ga is way overkill.
That said, I do have ethernet up my mast, but if it fails and I am not
planning on dropping my stick soon, I'll revert to repeater mode.
Multiple redundancy is good seamanship.... even if WiFi is a non-
mission-critical extravagance 
All well and good but does it leave you with the option of
reconfiguring your bridge to a new SSID, or sign on to a WiFi proxy
site? In other words, can you still communicate over the repeater
link to the bridge if no shore connection to an AP exists?
As I said, I have not done this but based on my knowledge of the DD-
WRT firmware, I'll project what I think the answers would be. If
anyone has direct experience, please correct me.
Regarding new SSID: This is the beauty of the Auto AP script. It sends
out a ping to a time server on the internet every 30 seconds. If the
ping fails, it automatically reconnects to whichever AP has the
strongest signal. It requires no input from the downstream computer.
In fact even when it is used in a wired bridge mode, you will not
always have access to the device as it may be on a different subnet.
This is expalined in the Wiki referenced in the original post.
If you need to sign onto a wifi proxy, you can always contact it
wirelessly by manually changing your IP address to the same subnet as
the bridge/repeater. Make your changes and then go back to DHCP for
bridging into the network of choice. If this fails, you can regain
access to the device that is aloft by cycling its power. This will
return it to its original IP address and you can certainly contact it
as previously described.
Wayne, you seem to be a little skeptical about all this and I can
understand that. I have bought about 5 wireless routers and access
points trying to accomplish this project. Each one had some limitation
in the software that prevented them from working the way I knew they
were capable of operating. Once I discovered DD-WRT, it was this
amazing playground. Every option available in every router plus more
was all rolled into one. Plus contributors were writing code and
scrips that added into the firmware to create even greater
functionality. I suggest that you dig out some old router that you
have lying around and load DD-WRT on it. You will quickly see the
power inherrant in this firmware. But don't forget the Buffalo router.
This is an amazing piece of hardware for the money. I regret that I
didn't take any photos of my project before I bolted it to the top of
my mast, but I may be building a system for a friend and will take a
series of photos of that. It is the 5" x 5" board that makes this
router so ideal for using aloft. I even do some board level mods to
make it easier to fit into a small case.
David
S/V Nausicaa