Modifying old satellite for wireless internet

I've seen stuff like this on the net, one design was based on a pringles can...called the cantenna..also some flat plate designs....I think the main prob is getting sensible test results to allow experimentation. Search for 'cantenna' 'wireless link antenna' diy antenna etc...

Good luck..sounds like a good project.

I am planing on doing a write up on this exact project in my blog Workbench Creations in about a month or less if you can wait that long. I will have some pictures and data, as I experimented with all sorts of antenna designs for use with a dish and without. I have some general advice and a few websites for you now however. For one I would steer away from the pringles can antenna as there are better designs that are less complicated. You can play around with a can antenna which uses a simple 1/4 wavelength wire in it like shown on this site but I think you can do better. The design I would go with if I were you is called a biquad designed by Trevor Marshall, the details are available on his site. I have found this design to be excellent for use with a dish and also on its own.

Oh, by the way, I really like your Workbench Creations blog, got some cool stuff in there. Really like that lcd projector... I've always wanted to try that...

Can't wait to see your version of the wifi dish antenna in your blog, that should be cool.

Nick

I would get a written consent form from the marinas that offer the free wifi. Just a week ago a man was in his car parked outside of a coffee shop that offered free wifi. Since he was not inside the coffeeshop, the police cited him and he faces jail time and/or fines since he did not have written permission from the owner of the coffe shop.

Oh wow... that's ridiculous. I never would have expected they would do that. I think it would be pretty hard to catch me though... being miles away on an island with only 50 year around residents... but point well taken. I don't even know if I could find the marinas for contact, because all I know of them is that when I had my laptop on the beach, it saw probably 5 to 8 open access wifi connections that all had "yacht club" or "marina" in the names (nothing that really identified them as I remember because there are a lot of marinas on the mainland) but I couldn't get enough of a signal to do anything. Now I should be able to get a signal. I'll see what I can do.

Thanks for the heads up,

Nick

I don't understand US law officers at all, or the owner of the shop......but as I live in Europe, that is not a requirement!!!

In Europe, any Wireless LANs that are open to anyone are still the responsibility of the owner, not the user....you can find them almost in any town here....

The correct way to operate such a LAN is to protect it fully and give legal users the details to allow them to log on.....and change the details daily at least.....

In Germany, anyone who sends or receives child pornography (for example) is liable to arrest, the owners of such LANs could be in serious trouble if one of their clients started sending this stuff this over their network....

I would think that all you'd need is a repeater.

f your laptop can see the network, you should be able to get a simple antenna, hook it up to a repeater or rf amplifier, hook that up to another antenna and you'd be off. You probably won't need the dish.

Ah.....if he doesn't need the dish ..

He could use it to build a 'KrisDel' Raster Scan Solar Toaster?

(Ya gotta eat toast whilst on the net..it's rules)

Er, no. 'Reason why I gave that suggestion was because I was going to ask him for it.

The key is the antenna. You can find lots of wifi antennas with 16-18 dB gain, it must be more than enough. If not, you can find ready-made wifi preamps (some of them have direct ethernet output and can be mounted immediately to the focus of the dish). Building or modifying a 2.4 GHz circuit is not a simple task. My opinion is that easyer to discard the old dish and install a wifi antenna.

Recieving is one thing. You will also need a transmitter. We use 2 way satalite where we live out in the sticks, it is either that or dialup at 26Kbs ... ugh :(

You can get satellite internet installed at your cottage for about $600. It isn't too bad for speeds, the download bandwidth is pretty good, but upload is only a few times faster then dial up. If you think you will be using it for online gaming, think again.. the latency is brutal and will make for a very frustrating experience. Usually my latency is around 1200-2000ms.

The monthly fee for satellite internet gets pretty steep. If you dont sign up for a 'plan' and pay month to month you can expect to pay around $100 a month.

Good luck!

You will need a yagi antenna made for this use.

drill here

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wifi+%2Byagi

They are easy to make

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wifi+%2Byagi+%2B%22build+your+own%22&btnG=Search

Antenna gain means that the antenna will virtually amplify the received signal and, in transmitting mode, it will virtually increase the transmitted power in the direction of the main lobe (ERP value). So the proper antenna is able to extend both the recepcion and the transmit range.

I do believe no matter what you try it will not work because 1)the distance (6 miles is to great and 2) The signal you are receiving is merely a signal bouncing across on the water something like a ghost signal. No matter what you do, you cannot increase the strength of that signal ........I'll relate it to something called skip from a CB radio....just because you add power to the signal or turn your antenna doesn,t me you can communicate with the incoming signal. ........maybe im wrong.....good luck.

Recue

27 MHz and 2.4 GHz are acting a bit different way :-)

I "bricked" my wireless router then fixed it, I was trying to put some special firmware on it that lets you use it as a wireless adapter, like what would be built in to your computer. The new firmware lets you adjust the output power from 1 to 246 mW (not that the large number would work but you can boost the power for range but at a loss of signal quality I've read). I also have a USB wireless adapter where if I put it at the focus of the Dish, it gave the computer an extra two bars if the dish was pointed in roughly the right direction.

Thanks again for all the ideas.

Nick

it is quite possiblle for a line of sight over 5-6 miles with a multi-element yagi if the shop has a reasonable power circle of a few hundred feet

http://www.fab-corp.com/product.php?productid=2086&cat=258&page=1

I have just searched the Google for "wifi distance" and found this:

http://www.wifi-toys.com/wi-fi.php?a=articles&id=91

They used a large dish. Even so a Yagi should be capable of 5-6 miles line of sight. And it was 2 years ago!!!

New World Record for Wi-Fi Distance: 125 Miles
Posted by Mike on Saturday, July 30th, 2005 @ 09:35 pm [News]

My pal Frank Keeney tells me that the world record holders for the longest distance for an unamplified Wi-Fi link (55.1 miles at 30mw) blasted through their own year old record today at the Defcon Wi-Fi Shootout. Team PAD shot their signal a distance of 125 miles from outside Las Vegas, Nevada to a location near St. George, Utah, winning them a new record in the "unamplified" category at the shootout. This possibly qualifies them for a new Guinness record as well.

Frank is the founder of wlanparts.com that provided the Wi-Fi gear to Team PAD. He tells me they used the Z-Com 325hp+ PCMCIA cards running at a built-in power of 300 mw on each end of the link. The cards were connected to one 12 foot and one 10 foot diameter satellite dish (see photo) on each side of the link. The computers they used were running Linux. And their link quality was so fantastic that they got 12 ms ping times, ran ssh shell commands, and even used vnc remote desktop.

He also said that Team PAD may use the same gear to attempt smashing our old Bluetooth record of 1.08 miles.

Team photo and my estimated link locations follow. I'll post more as pics and video become available. Congrats guys! Maybe Wired will make an annual comic strip in your honor.

A recent one, 237 miles

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/06/w_wifi_record_2.html