[MLB-WIRELESS] introduction - first posting

[Steve Wright]

Hi Guys.

I'm in Enzed, and I'm researching a wireless solution for my local area. 
 So I'll be asking lots of really dumb questions here for a while.  ;-)


My reasons for wireless ;

1.) High-speed access to the Internet.  

2.) umm...  8-/

There's no ADSL where I live, and Telecon says "there aint gonna be 
either."   I can buy off-peak 2MBit/Sec access to the 'Net for quite 
cheap (cheaper than a DSL connection) and they're happy to put a dish on 
their tower and talk to my P-to-P to my AP.  (see I know some jargon 
already.  ;-)

There's a 1500 ft mountain 15KM LOS from here with reasonable fres 
clearance if I use a highish pole.  There are 2 approachable (and one 
hostile) site owners on the hill and I favour my chances of getting 
tower space.

Yes, I could P-t-P to the bandwidth supplier, but there isn't a LOS path 
*at all*.  (flat terrain, 10KM, trees, both sites at sea level.)

So, I want to look at P-t-P to the mountain site, and then 
P-t-multipoint for the connecting sites.

I can see how to use a Linux firewall box, a WiFi Card, pig-tail, coax, 
2.4GHz feed, and a dish, to talk in P-t-P mode to the Mountain site - 
with the same gear (in reverse) on the hilltop site.

I have found cheap (new) dishes and feeds for 2.4GHz and 5GHz (hint: the 
Amatuer Satellite service uses these frequencies..)  so the Antenna 
hardware is not an issue.  I can find lots of locally supplied 11b and 
11a PCI and PCMCIA bits at reasonable prices.  CMOS Linux based boxen to 
be tower-mounted is not a problem.

I understand Linux' stuff well, like DHCPd, TFTP-booting diskless boxes 
etc, so please don't spare the boffin-speak.  I am utterly unfamiliar with
anything 802.11x, never laid eyes on it.   8-/   I accept the best way 
to learn would be go buy some.

 From there, I am in the dark.  I can imagine the Mountains' AP would 
probably have a 90degree Patch antenna, and the connectees would use a 
little dish of some sort.


So;  to start the dumb questions rolling ;

How many users can connect to the AP when the AP is just *one* 
card/antenna  ?

What routing requirements there are between the WiFi Cards themselves.. 
 Is this still at the WiFi level, or are we up the TCP/IP level yet?




If my posting is O/T in this forum, please advise.


regards to All.
Steve



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