22Mbps point-to-point under Linux

[Craig Mead]

| I don't know if this has been mentioned on this list before, or not, but
the
| D-Link DWL-900+ AirPlus access points are available from Everything Linux
and
| Harris Technology (amongst other vendors) for about $300 each. They are
| capable of 22Mbps (although you don't actually get that in practice). The
| reason I mention them is that they can do "bridge-bridge" mode - joining
two
| LAN segments together seemlessly at 22Mbps and with 256bit encryption
(but, I
| don't know if this newer encryption scheme suffers from the same weakness
as
| earlier WEP implementations).

They are also available from www.austwireless.com for $298.54

|
| With two of these units, I can simultaneously FTP a kernel source tree at
| 580kbytes/sec and NFS copy a 1.5MB file between two other hosts at over
| 700kBytes/sec, so that is not too bad. FTP'ing without any other traffic
can
| be done at up to 755kbytes/sec with 256 bit encryption turned on.
|
| Both suppliers listed above also have the D-Link reverse SMA - N-type
| connector pig-tail (about 40cm long) available, so it is relatively easily
to
| interface to your favourite outdoor higher gain antenna.
|
| I haven't actually tried mine with the high-gain antenna's yet, so I don't
| know what sort of range I can expect, but I only need about 400m or so.

400M or so you should be fine (as long as the LOS is reasonable). Even just
two cantennas should be more than satisfactory.

|
| Just thought some of you might like to know. $300 for each end is not a
lot
| more than a PCMCIA card and PCI adaptor, plus these things are standalone
and
| would use a lot less power than a whole PC motherboard etc. running Linux.
|
| Unfortunately, there are, at this time, still no Linux drivers for the
D-Link
| AirPlus PCI and PCMCIA cards. But that is not such a problem with these
Access
| Points so cheap and able to work in bridge-bridge mode.

Early December is still the ETA according to DLink/TI on the + range of *nix
drivers.

|
| Cheers,
|
| Bob Edwards.
|
|