wireless card or wireless car and access point?

vanroth · 04-22-2004, 07:52 PM

I'm currently in the planning stage of designing a carputer (ok, truckputer) system for my Land Rover Discovery II. I have an IBM T30 (w/o a LCD panel) setup as the CPU.

Currently a miniPCI 802.11a/b/g card is installed in the laptop.

What is the most popular wireless installation that everyone is using? Just a wireless card, or wireless card and an access point?

I'm thinking that I want to have a wireless access point installed in the truck (I have a spare Cisco 1200 and 1300 AP) bridged to connect to my home wireless network (currently using a Linksys G router). My thinking is that this will increase my wireless range as well as allow me to have a mobile wireless network. My current plans are to use an external antenna such as this one : http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/hgv_2410u.php .

My biggest concern about using a vehicle mounted AP is power consumption (the cisco's run hot). I'm already planning on installing a large inverter for such uses as well as a dual battery setup (dual optimas - http://www.expeditionexchange.com/au...gDualBatt3.jpg ). However I will have addition power drains from the CB, winch, pocketPC, carputer, lilliput, and fog/spot light arrays.

Any suggestions/comments on the best way to use wireless in a car?

Thanks!
vanroth

P.S. Love this site! I've found so much useful info and ideas!

john1701 · 04-23-2004, 12:09 AM

for my car i have this
http://www.netgear.com/products/prod...ID=147&view=hm
connected to this
http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/cab...nection=RP-SMA
connected to this
http://www.streakwave.com/Product-2440-Indoor.asp
connected to this
http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/cable_feed400.php
connected to this mounted on my trunk
http://www.hyperlinktech.com/web/hgv-2404_06_09U.php

this should give you some ideas

vanroth · 04-23-2004, 09:25 AM

Thanks John!

So it appears that you are using the booster on your wireless NIC to connect to the outside world. I did notice on your profile that you also have a wi-fi/hub (or is it a switch?) installed as well. Is this serving any purpose or just for future use?

-justin

john1701 · 04-23-2004, 09:16 PM

the carputer has the netgear to access wifi, On xp I have it sharing the connection to a 3com nic. The 3com has cat 5 cable connected to a 5 port hub. The 5 port hub is mounted by the rear seats. Reason is if people sat in the back seat each with a laptop, they both can plug into the hub and when the car has internet wifi access, they too can surf the web without disturbing the main computer playing movies, music, etc. Basically you could call it a MLAN (mobile local access network).

ryguy · 05-19-2004, 08:57 PM

what type of range do you get with this setup? (your wifi) with the booster...and larger antenna's etc?

tnx

lgbr · 05-19-2004, 11:03 PM

Jesus christ you love to war drive don't you? a 300 dollar amplifier?

Tech^Cellfish · 06-03-2004, 07:18 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by lgbr

Jesus christ you love to war drive don't you? a 300 dollar amplifier?

I noticed that too. Very expensive... I have the same hyperlink antenna at home. How much longer range do you get? I've been thinking about an amplifier myself, but it would probably be illegal because of the stupid laws...

falconey · 06-08-2004, 10:46 AM

So is there a way you can connect using wifi when you're not in range of your home unit? I hate that this is such a noob question, but I have to ask because I'm confused. I'm going to be using my sprint phone to connect to the internet, but if I can just plug my wifi in and use it I want to do that. I'm not understanding how this happens though. I have comcast broadband so does this mean anytime I'm in range of a wireless signal from comcast I can use the internet? Sorry if I've hijacked this thread.