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Well, sorta...
I'm in the process of trying to prove that it can be done. So far I'm not succeeding. Because I don't want to be connected by a cable (sorta defeats the purpose of wireless), I'm trying to do it all up the mast. Unfortunately, a bridge, even the high powered Engenius Senao 2611 Deluxe 200mw AP/Bridge (choose which you want), can't both talk to my computer and some hot spot. It needs an AP (Access Point) to talk to it so that my computer can find it. Yes, I could run a Cat5 up the mast, and plug it into my computer, and, it's even available off the shelf, with an N antenna connector coming out of the NEMA enclosure (they put the unit in and provide the appropriate pigtail). Buy the appropriate high-gain omni antenna, connect it and run the cat5 as Larry describes, and you're in business, even using POE (power over ethernet) as an option if you like. However, for whatever reason, the same unit, used as an AP, connected directly with a crossover cable, won't play nice, and generates IP conflicts regardless of what I have done to eliminate that (months of many-hour days, plus many hours of telco comms with the rep notwithstanding). I sorely wish that a bridge, up the mast, with its high powered antenna, was all I needed. I've benched that here on the boat, and, sure enough, it won't talk to anyone. Make it an AP, and it talks to my computer just fine - but won't talk to anyone else (find a hotspot), not being a bridge - but I *could* let others find me, as it's an AP. FWIW, I am familiar with the Fantasia35.com site, and the particular boat, as it was one of the ones we considered as a class - but couldn't squeeze me into the aft berth. The particular boat is an extremely nice example of the type, and what he's done for his installation is seriously cool - but it's a fixed computer, not what we'll have. So, I can't, much to my regret, yet, comment on the feasibility of having a totally up-the-mast solution to our wifi quest. If the rep can work out the compatibility issues, I have no doubt it will work. FWIW, what I am trying to make work is two Senao 2611 deluxe units, one each AP and Bridge, connected with a cat5 crossover cable, both powered by 12 volts. The AP has a high-powered rubber duck, to be able to hear me (and most likely any other boat in the harbor), and the Bridge has an 8.5 dBi gain omnidirectional antenna from Hyperlink. Conceptually, the AP will talk to the Bridge, which will see any hot spot (someone else' AP, basically) in up to a few miles, and I'll talk to the AP, which will feed me the output from the Bridge, as well as transmit back through it, my transmissions. Unfortunately, several hundred dollars later, all I have is a bunch of components which won't play nice together, and because it's a custom job (the off-the-shelf one had only one unit in the NEMA; they had to build one from scratch with a larger enclosure, squeezing the guts of the two units into it), it's not returnable. Stay tuned - if I am successful in working this out, I might even start selling them, as clearly the rep is struggling with this as much as I am; once I've done all the hard work, cookie-cuttering it again won't be difficult. But for now, I continue to use my Hawking interior directional antenna (I'm on the hard so my direction doesn't change) suspended in my dodger, connected by an active USB to the laptop below, on which I can browse, email in and out via smtp, and even do VOIP on my Vonage softphone (if you'd like an invite, we'll both get a free month if you sign on). It's all these things which is driving what has turned into much more expensive and time consuming in its execution than I could have imagined - we want to maintain this connectivity when we're at anchor... L8R Skip, refitting as fast as I can, and about to go off for yet another shoulder surgery at the end of the month Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig http://tinyurl.com/384p2 - The vessel as Tehamana, as we bought her "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 |
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