Hi, Skip.

[ Sorry I didn't follow up earlier, been avoiding computers while on leave,
and I felt this required an exhaustive examination ]

On Mon, 5 Sep 2005 08:56:41 -0400, Skip Gundlach said:
...
Connected to my computer via ethernet, and powered with 12V via separately
appropriately sized wire, both up the mast, it sees a WAAAY farther than the
card in my laptop would, allowing me a great deal more latitude in finding a
usable signal when I'm at anchor, wherever that may be.

So what you are saying is: it work with ethernet. This is good.

However, I'd really like to shed the wired connection (the ethernet
connected to my computer, as it's a laptop and I'd like to be able to carry
it up on deck without a tether).

Please correct me if I have misinterpreted something here, but the way I see
what you want is this:

+--------+ wifi +----------+ ethernet +-------+ wifi +----------+
| laptop | )))) | Cabin AP +----------+ Senao + )))) + Shore AP +-internet
+--------+ +----------+ +-------+ +----------+

And you have already managed to get this to work:

+--------+ ethernet +-------+ wifi +----------+
| laptop +----------+ Senao + )))) + Shore AP +-internet
+--------+ +-------+ +----------+

Is this correct?

So what you need to troubleshoot is getting your laptop to talk to the
Senao via the additional access point in your cabin. You mentioned
having tried a crossover cable and getting some sort of error?

A lot is going to depend on how the devices are configured.

I've looked up the product datasheet for your Senaos, it looks like
they operate as either access points, or in "bridge-to-bridge" mode,
which doesn't say anything specific to me, except that it's maybe the
case thay they can't do both at the same time. They do look like
pretty neat units, and it'd be a shame if they didn't end up being
able to do the job you're asking them to do.

Now, you are able to get your laptop to talk nicely to one of them in
the cabin, but once the two are connected to each other you're not able
to get the laptop to talk to either? I'm thinking that if one is in AP
mode and the other in point-to-point mode, their connecting to each other
by both wifi and ethernet, and this won't really work.

One possibility is to make note of the MAC addresses of the wifi interfaces
in both, and in your laptop, and then configure the device acting as an AP
to allow connections only from speicific MACs, list your laptop's wifi
interface's MAC but not hte other bridge's one.

And of course it must be a crossover cable between them.

You talked about trying to get vendor support on this? Maybe the diagrams
above will help with which bit needs to be sorted out. If it's possible,
you could take both devices and your laptop in to somewhere one of their
engineers can make the difference between the diagrams above work for you?

I hope this help, please feel free to chase me up by email if you reckon
me talking through it and identifying the bits that stand out to me as
issues is of some value.

Cheers,
Damian