I have been approached by a number of people in the Marlborough Sounds wanting a solution for fast internet access. Current broadband internet access in the Sounds does not provide good coverage due to the unique mountainous terrain, and is quite expensive in the few areas that access is possible.
At the moment a proposal is underway to enable this to happen by creating a community of wireless users in the Sounds in a similar fashion to the main project. The main objective is to share access to a single broadband connection between several homes from a point that has acceptable coverage.
As work progresses, I will post complete details and photos so show how the Marlborough Wireless Project can benefit the Marlborough community.
There is a new node running in the Redwood area of town using a similar configuration to the old Marlborough Centre. Most notably the polarisation is now vertical so you will need to rotate and relign your antenna. For exact location details contact me.
Make sure you check the connect page for complete information.
As the network now features WDS support I would like to encourage future users to consider installing a WDS capable access point to further help increase coverage.
For those new to the concept, WDS is a technonolgy that enables access points to communicate with each other as well as clients. The advantage of this means that instead of everyoneconnecting to a single central location, access points can be distributed and clients can connect to the nearest access point available. Using this we can easily spread coverage all over town with very few participants.
I had my first go with a low-profile 5GHz Rootenna from Pacific Wireless today. The Rootenna is a panel antenna designed to accommodate electronics as well so you can have a completely integrated unit.
I thought I’d throw a RouterBOARD 532 inside and be done but found there was a bit more involved than what I originally expected (next time I’ll be getting the full-size version). Because of this I thought I’d share how I went about things in case anyone else runs into the same problem. I have also made a scale drilling template available.
A note to anyone planning on using a RouterBOARD 100 series in one of these; order the full size version! The filter capacitors on the board are much taller than on the 500 and therefore will not fit in the low profile version.
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I’ve had the 400mW card for a while now, however I finally have a working RB 532 after the first one failed and had to be sent back under warranty. What does this mean for you guys? Faster access from more places!
Unfortunately I can’t get around to installing it yet, I hope to have this done within two weeks. I will keep the status posted here to you know what is happening.
All the parts I use are sourced from WISP-Router as it is cheaper than sourcing from NZ based suppliers and I have found their service to be excellent.