mrbueno
join:2002-08-03
US
1 edit | This was never the intended use.
It's that simple.
WiFi outdoors can work, but you have to know what you are doing and you have to have some clue to do an install. Most of these installs try to ignore the fact that 2.4Ghz doesn't like wood, water, concrete, or metal. 2.4Ghz wants it's space.
Those of you wanting a working WiFi experience in one of these cities should buy an outdoor unit and get it above the trees. That will help alot. Then all you have to worry about is the interference created by hundreds of APs seeing each other on the same channel, the fact that 802.11b/g isn't meant for outdoor use, and the nearest AP having too many associations. |
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SandShark
So it goes
Premium,MVM
join:2000-05-23
Santa Fe, TX
clubs:
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| We don't have city-wide wi-fi, but there are a few free hot spots provided by the local visitor and convention bureau. It's always there, but I don't find myself taking advantage of it that much.
Here I am in the white van on a slow work day. 
Smile. I'm on Candid Camera!
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patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| reply to mrbueno
said by mrbueno  :It's that simple. WiFi outdoors can work, but you have to know what you are doing and you have to have some clue to do an install. Most of these installs try to ignore the fact that 2.4Ghz doesn't like wood, water, concrete, or metal. 2.4Ghz wants it's space. Those of you wanting a working WiFi experience in one of these cities should buy an outdoor unit and get it above the trees. That will help alot. Then all you have to worry about is the interference created by hundreds of APs seeing each other on the same channel, the fact that 802.11b/g isn't meant for outdoor use, and the nearest AP having too many associations. There is nothing like being in a NYC park in a hip upscale urban area in Manhatten with very tall buildings on all sides. And when I try to get the park's wifi, I get over 400 SSID. Plenty of open APs. 
You need to attenuate or use a directional antenna to have ANY hope of loging onto a AP. Wifi was designed so its signal dies by the time it gets just outside your house, so your neighbors can reuse the channels. Its not a cellular protocol. Its very difficult and expensive to make a good throughput cellular/mesh wifi network. You need low enough transmit power so APs dont hear each other, but then shitty wifi laptops/clients cant hear, so you need more APs. Plus frequency reuse is hard when you only have 3 channels effectivly. |
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