[MLB-WIRELESS] [TIB] A new offer has been added to TIB -23/01/2003

[Fenn Bailey]

> This is astoundingly cheap, and from the doco 
> it seems to be fully
> featured. What is wrong with it? What is it missing compared to the
> DL900 or DL900+ (aside from 22Mbps)?
> 

Nothing as far as I know apart from the 100mw hack that you can do on
the dlinks. That and there's a LOT more documentation/people using the
Dlinks (afaik) and they're about the same price ($140 from vak).

> I figure a AP is the cheapest/easiest way to get an omni on 
> my roof. My
> concern with AP's is their lack of flexibility compared to a Linux box
> with AP capable WNIC. Is there anything that this AP can't do 
> that will
> make me wish I'd put a linux box in my roof?
> 

There are some fairly important issues. These cannot do IBSS (ad-hoc)
mode, so anyone in your area who wants to go ad-hoc with an omni won't
be able to connect to you. They would be restricted to go to BSS as a
client, which means they cannot 'pass-on' their connectivity to anyone
else without a second interface. Unless of course they have an AP that
supports some sort of multipoint bridging (I don't even know if that's
possible).

The other issue is that you still need a PC to backup the AP if you want
to do anything like routing (OSPF/etc), in which case it's not really
all that much simpler.

It's a bit of a problem that there is no official standard for
melb-wireless configuration, though I believe IBSS is preferred (for the
reasons listed above).

On that note, I just bought one of the dlinks myself for the very reason
you listed above, but I'm planning on not making it my main node, just
as a 'repeater' to get a bit further (a means to an end).

So, overall (in my opinion), it's a bit of a much of a muchness - a card
in a box will give you much more flexibility and is around the same
price - it's just less convenient and probably more pricey when you add
up the cost of cabling/etc.

Anyway, I hope that helped :)

	Fenn.


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