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Campground WIFI design follow up 3

Submitted by
MahlonS
MahlonS writes "In November I asked Slashdot to offer suggestions on the best technology to upgrade WIFI service in a campground. I received several valuable nuggets of info. After the IT guy for the company failed to provide a complete solution, the campers revolted. I used your info to propose a solution, and I was hired to design, oversee installation and configure a better network. Things are now running smoothly.
The IT guy installed 2 Ubiquity Bullets, one on the ISPs router, one 200' away, served by a pair of bridged Engenius 2611P. This covered about 25% of the park quite well. I added an Amped repeater at my site, about 800' away, which provided some service to my part of the park, but everything was still routed through one AP.
After reviewing all the sites Slashdotters referred me to, I proposed a mesh network built on Open-Mesh. I added 2 more 2611P bridges for backhaul and installed 2 more Bullets at those locations (IT had those on hand) to cover most of the park while we evaluated the mesh. I built a 4 node mesh net, evaluated, and found it very workable. I added 8 more mesh nodes, replacing the Bullets with mesh gateways.This is now stabilized with over 100 users per day passing about 8 GB up and down.
Part of my proposal included management tools which can be operated by non-technical campground staff. Since the Cloudtrax dashboard charts usage and provides the ability to block individual machines, staff can now control the network instead of just rebooting everything.
Thanks to Slashdot for pointing me toward this solution!"

Comment: Re:Mobile Home or Trailer? (Score 1) 237

by MahlonS (#38190290) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Updating a Difficult Campground Wi-Fi Design?
Our early retired life was spent moving a lot, we traveled in 45 states in 4 years, including Alaska. In that case, a motor home was imminently practical, as it's much easier to park and set up than a trailer (built in leveling jacks, back-up cameras, etc). Nowadays, our traveling is somewhat constrained by the cost of fuel, we don't travel as often, and your idea makes good sense. Many folks do just what you suggest.

Comment: Re:Too high (Score 2) 237

by MahlonS (#38124264) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Updating a Difficult Campground Wi-Fi Design?
Thanks for the on-target comments. My anecdotal experience here agrees with your research. Given the canopy of trees here, I don't think a 70 foot tower will improve things, but the concept sounds perfect. I have done some strength charting using stumbler, but only outdoors. Last year, I personally used an external USB WIFI dongle to get above other RVs and outside my own walls, and given that we were about 5 rows away form the nearest AP, it worked OK. There are still areas in this park without any signal. I'm thinking that a mesh system will allow us to fill those in.

Difficult campground wifi design

Submitted by
MahlonS
MahlonS writes "I am a retired network hack wintering in my RV in a campground in southern GA. 3 years ago I reconfigured the wifi system to a marginal working ability, It's now ready for a serious upgrade prompted by a new cable net connection replacing a weak DSL. 5 dual radio HP Curve access points connect to a 6th via single or double radio hops (effectively a Wireless Distribution System) in heavily wooded space. Unidirectional antennas at the APs are placed on poles above the RVs, about 15 feet above ground. Primary hops are about 300 feet to 3 of the APs, secondary hops about the same. Signal measurements indicate that there is adequate RF between the access points. In 2008, average user count averaged about 30 users; newer devices (smart phones, etc) will likely increase that number (winter population total is about 80 RVs). While the old design worked OK when lightly loaded, I suspect that the single DSL line generated so many packet resends that the APs were flooded. APs are in water resistant enclosures. This is a quasi-State Park, so money is always an issue, but there is enough squawk from the user community that a modest budget might be approved
The main AP connects to an old Cisco router. Burying wire is frowned upon, due to shallow utilities, and campfire rings that float around the campsites sometimes melting TV cables. Since I'm not up on current wifi tech, are there solutions out there that would make this system work much better? (Resubmitted from https://slashdot.org/submission/1853742/difficult-campground-wifi-design )"

Difficult Campground WIFI design 1

Submitted by
MahlonS
MahlonS writes "I am a retired network hack wintering in my RV in a campground in southern GA. 3 years ago I reconfigured the wifi system to a marginal working ability, It now needs a serious upgrade, prompted by a new cable net connection replacing a DSL. 5 dual radio HP access points connect to a 6th via single or double radio hops in heavily wooded space. The main connect is an old Cisco router. Burying wire is frowned upon, due to shallow utilities. Since I'm not up on current wifi tech, are there solutions out there that would make this system work much better?"
Piracy

Sony Joins the Offensive Against Pre-Owned Games 461

Posted by Soulskill
from the saddle-up dept.
BanjoTed writes "In a move to counter sales of pre-owned games, EA recently revealed DLC perks for those who buy new copies of Mass Effect 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Now, PlayStation platform holder Sony has jumped on the bandwagon with similar plans for the PSP's SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3. '[Players] will need to register their game online before they are able to access the multiplayer component of the title. UMD copies will use a redeemable code while the digital version will authenticate automatically in the background. Furthermore ... anyone buying a pre-owned copy of the game will be forced to cough up $20 to obtain a code to play online."
Image

Bark Beetles Hate Rush Limbaugh and Heavy Metal 220

Posted by samzenpus
from the tiniest-minds dept.
Aryabhata writes "According to scientists, climate change and human activity have allowed bark beetle populations to soar. They decided to fight the beetles by using the 'nastiest, most offensive sounds' that they could think of. These sounds included recordings of Guns & Roses, Queen, Rush Limbaugh and manipulated versions of the insects' own sounds. The research project titled 'Beetle Mania' has concluded that acoustic stress can disrupt their feeding and even cause the beetles to kill each other."

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