Hobart - June, 2001
Adagio now has a 65 kbyte/sec wireless LAN connecting the boat to Hobart-based
ISP. Our current connection is fast because at the ISP end our Apple Airport
base station is connected via 100BaseT directly to the ISP server network. More
typically, we would be connected to somebody's telephone line, so would have
56kb modem bandwidth.
If you need a reasonable speed Internet connection from your boat (or house,
...), this will work for you anywhere you can get somebody with a landline to
plug in your base station within line of sight, and within a range of up to
(possibly) 15 km - haven't tested over water, but that is supposed to be ideal
conditions for wireless LAN. Our configuration is:
- Apple Airport Base Station, which will connect either via built-in 56kb modem,
or Ethernet
- a pair of 16db planar antennas, one at ISP, one on rail of Adagio's coachroof
- Airport cards in G4 Tower and Powerbook G4
The signal strength from the base station + directional antenna is sufficient
that we can wander around the boat with G4 laptop achieving better speed than
a 56kb modem link. But to get real speed of course we need directional both
ends.
Searching the net, I found a chap in NZ who had achieved similar performance
at about 12km using nominal 12db Yagis. That was over land, over water we might
do better.
Cost is about MSRP US$299 for base station , and $99 per Airport card (based
upon a WaveLAN silver PCMCIA card, also in base station).
This configuration works on PCs as well, IEE811.2, just need to download an
Airport base station configuration utility written for Windows, or buy a base
station such as the Linksys which comes with Windows software.
Constantin von Wentzel maintains a
site containing very useful information on this topic, including other definitive
links, such as vendors specializing in wireless networking. He changes his site
from time to time, so look for links to "Apple Airport Base Station".
Constantin is rehabilitating a 1992 Prout Escale catamaran - he provides a lot
of detail on the problems encountered. There are also well-written reports from
their honeymoon travels around New Zealand and Australia (with lots of photos).
Robert X. Cringely, who writes for PBS, has built a similar wireless LAN to
access DSL. His Sonoma County, CA, home is too far from Pacbell switch for
DSL, so via telescope he found a house in Santa Rosa which he could see through
a gap in the hills, about 10km away. He then negotiated with the home owner
to let Bob pay for the DSL service provided he could access via his Airport
base station. If the Cringley link fails it is likely because PBS has moved
the page. You can find it again by linking to PBS,
then searching for Robert X. Cringely, whose archives will then be found under
his "Old Hat" button.