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  • From: James Miller <jamtat AT mailsnare.net>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] Udhcpc and Loop Linux and Kernel Compilation (was:[delete])
  • Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 11:35:32 -0600

On Thu, Dec 21, 2006 at 04:50:11PM +0000, sindi keesan wrote:
>
> We have a pringles can. What size dish? Why mesh? I have several
> stainless steel strainers of various mesh sizes. Do you use these to
> reflect a signal like you can do with low-quality radio signals?
> Sometimes I pick up a station better by standing on the opposite side of
> the radio from the source.

Look up "cantenna" using scr/google. There are all kinds of plans out there
for making
directional antennas for wifi from scrap. I also saw a very simple one
someone made from
hardware cloth attached to a couple of plywood semi-circle cut-outs that
turned an
omnidirectional antenna into a directional one. But all this presupposes an
external
antenna, which your PCMCIA cards are unlikely to have. I did once borrow an
old wavelan card
that had a little plastic plug in the end that, if removed, exposed a fitting
to which an
external antenna could be attached. There you start to run into expenses
though: the
fittings, of which there is a bewlidering array (usually referred to under
various acronyms)
and which defy traditional notions of gender (they all look hermaphroditish
to me), and the
cable, which is some kind of mini-coax that looks like it requires
specialized tools to
operate on. I did manage to find some external omnidirectional antennas for
cheap (ca. $7)
on newegg though--complete with 4' of cable (you need to check if the fitting
is right for
your card, though). I think I once ran across a site that showed a dissection
of a PCMCIA
wifi card, and how someone had attached antenna leads directly to the card,
since it didn't
have a fitting for an external antenna. There's a large wifi antenna hobbyist
network out
there with lots of information.

> All these signals are 2.4GHz, same as newer (newest?) cordless phones.
> iwlist with the airo card (orinoco card does not support it) shows the 8
> strongest signals. First has address FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF - maybe this is a
> cordless phone? Next is the one I briefly picked up in the kitchen,
> followed by two lines of 00:00:etc. which sometimes change so that one or
> both match the second line, and four more lines. I have picked up the
> existence of SSID "" "Netgear" "Apple" "Linksys" and "2Wire".

The "" likely means that someone has told their router not to broadcast the
E/SSID--which
makes it a bit harder to tap into their network. Any that have a router
manufacturer's name
for the E/SSID may have been left with their default settings (as they came
from the
factory), which means WEP/WPA encryption may be disabled. You might also be
able to log into
the router administration web page and check how they have their network set
up since they
may not have changed the default admin username and password. All this is
ethically and
legally questionable, as you will doubtless understand. Of course if you can
find out who
owns the router, you might just ask to share their connection for a nominal
monthly fee.

James




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