[MLB-WIRELESS] WL-500GP / USB-Wifi (was: Meraki Mini) My 2c

[Rockwallaby Deluxe Model]

Yeah that's along the lines of what I want to do. I now have a wl-500GP, so as soon as I get some spare time, I'll have a bit of a fiddle. The USB idea is great, and I've seen some people do this and this for external antennas. I didn't realise there was such woe-full USB support in Linux though. This will be my first venture into the world of wireless, so we'll see how far this develops.

I was thinking of using the wl500gp as a long link and using 1 or more USB  dongles as shorter distance/broader angle connections.

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:54:18 +1100
From: "Dan Flett" <conhoolio at hotmail.com>
Subject: [MLB-WIRELESS] WL-500GP / USB-Wifi (was: Meraki Mini)
To: "'Peter Buncle'" <peter at nmc.net.au>, "'Phil k'"
    <hakzor_x1 at hotmail.com>,    <melbwireless at melbournewireless.org.au>
Message-ID: <BAY141-DAV111C9BE31364F893B20E87AF700 at phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain;    charset="us-ascii"

Yeah, I'd also recommend the WL-500G Premium for anyone who wants to take
their node to the "next level" - i.e. multiple radios, extra services,
attached storage and peripherals (webcams, etc) via USB.

I'm keen to see if anyone can get a USB WiFi device to work on a USB-enabled
router such as this one.  Doing so means we can cheaply and easily add extra
radios without having to worry about extra CAT5 runs or extra power supplies
for multiple routers.

The main problem with USB-WiFi radios is they tend to be lower power -
typically 13dBi, and they rarely have external antenna connections - still,
they may be useful in some situations.

Someone on the OpenWRT forums has gotten a Ralink RT2570 USB WiFi dongle to
work with OpenWRT Kamikaze after compiling it themselves...

http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=9623

If you download the current Kamikaze source, or a known good revision of the
Kamikaze source, you should be able to easily add support for the RT2570 to
the kernel and compile the driver just by doing "make menuconfig" and
selecting the RT2570 package.

OpenWRT makefile for the rt2570 driver
https://dev.openwrt.org/browser/trunk/package/rt2570/Makefile

How to use the rt2570 driver
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=106846

Lists of devices that use the rt2570 driver
http://www.vendorwatch.org/index.php?title=Ralink

http://ralink.rapla.net/

How to get the Asus WL-167G to work (using the RT2570 driver)
http://folk.ntnu.no/gronslet/blog/2005/06/05/asus-wl-167g-usb-wireless-wlan-
adapter-in-linux/
Staticice shows the Asus WL-167G for $AU33 at msy.com.au

Link to the Netcomm wlg25usb adapter which has a non-removable external
antenna (which might be easier to hack another antenna onto)
http://www.dynalink.com.au/products/wlg25usb.htm
Staticice lists these as AU$32.39 from Minidigital in WA.

This is a funny USB-wireless solution which might actually be useful:
http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=9412
I.e. you could use the USB power from a WL-500GP to power a Meraki Mini, and
connect the two routers with a crossover cable inside a weatherproof box.
Or it might be possible to power the Meraki with PoE and then pick 5V off
the Meraki's board to power the WL-500GP.

Cheers,

Dan





Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wireless.org.au/pipermail/melbwireless/attachments/20070318/6fc12c05/attachment.html>