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Thread: wireless antennas, help please

  1. #11
    Senior Member RoadClosed's Avatar
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    Ya that's what I was getting at, high gain and directional. I am asusming You already have a wireless router at your house and I am assuming and you need to access the other house. You can just try and add a USB high gain antenna to your friends house and let him connect to your wireless gateway. Several people have posted great links. I have found this one useful when pointed directly at a gateway.

    The stand alone USB adapter is here:
    http://www.hawkingtech.com/prodSpec.php?ProdID=158

    And the antenna only is here:
    http://www.hawkingtech.com/prodSpec.php?ProdID=143

    These are all indoor antennas
    West of House
    You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
    There is a small mailbox here.

  2. #12

    Lightbulb decent description of the wireless security hype

    http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959...09KTX1K0100440

    its a "management" level article that more or less talks about "security" via wireless and via wired connections. Each has its limitations, and being aware of the problems and acting accordingly should be enough to keep things under control.

    Again, limit your services (in other words, don't run netbeui or netbios protocols with share level security). Shut down unnecessary ports (run some firewalling software), and be aware that some people may want to get your information. Much more likely, however, for the home user, is that people may want to steal your bandwidth for downloading, etc.

    If you are more or a "corporate" level wireless person, then using an IPSEC VPN tunnel to a singluar WAP access machine may be preferable. That way, all wireless traffic is encrypted using a very tried and true method, and it is cross-platform, including Mac and *ux support.

    Also, if all the traffic is encrypted with REAL encryption, then people can't steal bandwidth, information, or anything else. Use a revolving key/random generation setup, and the likelyhood of being cracked lessens.

    There are many examples of secure wireless implementations, not the least of which would be limiting the area that can "hear" the WAP. They offer handheld WAP detectors inexpensively, and doing a quick sweep of your premises can determine that the WAP may need to be moved, or a different type of antenna may be more optimal.

    Unless you are running large network software, or large inter-network file transfers, remember that your internet connection does NOT utilize the bandwidth limitations of even 11mbps.

    Be smart, read up, and be aware. Heck... if you're so inclined, remember that to hack a Wierless Network, the cracker is ALSO broadcasting packets, and there are a few key packet types that may indicate a crack attempt. Having a SNORT installation to sniff out others sniffing around may give you an indication if you NEED the additional security of an IPSEC VPN or other solution.

    If you are looking for a hand in designing that system using inexpensive equipment, grab an old p2 machine, install the latest Linux Kernel (use the "beta" 2.6 for included support) and run a simple VPN with the linux box acting as a IPSEC router. I'm using this at the office, and I'm feeling much more secure.

    I'd be happy to provide some pointers/instructions in setting up this environment.

  3. #13
    Regal Making Handler
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    Jun 2002
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    RoadClosed, i believe what you suggest would only work in one direction so the network would not be that good would it. For a wireless network to be effective all pc's that want to be part of it must be able to communicate to each other in both directions. Adding an antenna to one pc may make it possible to transmit the signal from that pc but will not mean that the other pc will be able to communicate back to it.

    For a network to work effectivly,(assuming that the wireless network cards can not communicate with each other or other wireless equipment) all rx and tx equipment must be in communications with each other. If one or more pieces of equipment are out off range because of antennuation etc, the onlyway to solve the problem is to resight the antenna of each peace of equipment so that they can both communicate with each other or add a relay that works in both directions.

    It therefor stands that Johnymeir would nead to install two antenna's one on each house. They would nead to be directional, ie Parabolic or yagi. Add in the cost of coax cable and tuning units. It would be uncost efective.

    He only neads to work over a distance of 100ft .Wifi is supossed to work upto these sorts of distance. Just put an access point in the network and sight it well. That will save you money.
    What happens if a big asteroid hits the Earth? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad. - Dave Barry

  4. #14
    The Doctor Und3ertak3r's Avatar
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    Directional antennas are not one way.. it just means that there performance (recieve and transmitt) is best in one direction..


    cheers
    "Consumer technology now exceeds the average persons ability to comprehend how to use it..give up hope of them being able to understand how it works." - Me http://www.cybercrypt.co.nr

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