[MLB-WIRELESS] Just a good news story

[emdeex]

Hi All, I just thought I'd share my experience of building a wok-fi
transciever setup and having a look around with it.

I live about 50kms from the CBD in a semi-rural area, and can get very
bad dial-up on the Telstra "copper" or nothing at all.  (I dont mind
too much as I work in the city and have DSL as much as I like there.)
We were considering getting Satellite internet, but its expensive and
slow for the money, and with an 18 month contract period.

I have been reading up on Stan Swans, "Wi-Fi Wok-Fi" experiments, at
http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/ and decided it sounded cool.

Following his instructions, I built an antenna out of a $2.50 dimsum
fryer and mounted a Netgear WG111 54Mbps USB 2.0 WiFi dongle onto it.
I connected it with a 5m active repeater extension cable and taped it
to a tripod, waterproofed it, and put it on the roof.  I scanned
around looking for what I could find.

I found a few home networks, but importantly I found a small
commercial ISP that had put a Cisco AP up on a hill about 3km LOS
away.  Now, a few days later, after getting in touch with them, I'm
connected at 256/64, no setup fee, no equipment fee, no minimum
contract term.

Thanks goes to Stan, and also to all on the list here who helped me
with various questions along the way.

Viva Wireless technology!