[MLB-WIRELESS] Asus wl500g units available - openwrt and mini-pci compatible

[Morphonius Maxor]

Hi Peter.... (or anyone else who can answer) (Seeing as i'm a newbie)
I was just hoping if you could de-mystify your email for me...
I.E.
Can you please explain:

1) the advantage of purchasing the CM9 hardware in addition to the Asus 
router...(I.E. what extra functionality does this provide as opposed to 
just having the router only?) - would i be correct in guessing that this 
would allow you to install the router up on the mast and connect to it 
wirelessly with-out the necessity of running the signal over a very long 
and lossy cable...(I.E if the router was at your PC and you had to run 
the long cable up to the antenna)
Is this right?

2) GPIO? i see (from searching the MW site) this is an acronym for 
General Purpose Input Output) ......
A general purpose port? can you give some typical examples of what this 
port would be used for with-in the context of a MW application?

3)and  "Bitwise addressing?" (this term is not even in evidence anywhere 
on the melbourne wireless website?)
What is the advantage of this type of addressing (with respect to the 
GPIO port..... I.E i making the inference here that as you touted this 
feature it is obviously somehow relevant to an MW specific application?

And, sorry for being so ignorant but:

4) what is an uplink....and what is the difference between this and a 
point to point link?

Thanks for your patience.///....

Anyway sorry for the 3rd degree... Im just a little lost is all... i 
need to connect a few dots in my mind.....help appreciated...
thanks
David

Peter Buncle wrote:
> Hi Guy's / Girls,
>
> I've managed to secure a LIMITED number of new Asus WL-500g access
> points
>
> See http://www.melbourne.wireless.org.au/wiki/?WL500G for full specs
>
> These are great little units for uplink / point to point links and have
> USB 
> And a parallel port that can be used for GPIO with bitwise addressing.
> (I use this for remote re-powering) or runung a webcam.
>
> You can even get these to boot of a usb harddisk !
>
> About 50% of the melbournewireless network is built on these unit's
>
> I'm offering them for use on MW for $75 each or $135 including a CM9
> wireless card.
>
> The cm9 card supports 2.4 or 5Gig , which makes a VERY cheap 5gig
> combination.
>
> Regards
>
> Peter
>
>