DIY Internet

Post Reply New Topic

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/gre ... y_id=92429

Link won't load. Hourglassed.

There are some amazing networks in India with links more than a mile apart using the tennis-ball tin reflector (just a regular wifi antenna inside a metal tube that once held tennis balls, at exactly the right distance from the closed end). The corner-bracket reflector is impressively effective - just a rectangular piece of steel bent into a right-angle, the right distance behind the antenna. I have some steel book-ends that work well. It only takes a few collaborating links with UPS to provide very good links to schools and clinics, especially where email and light data transfer is the main traffic.

My daughter had good results with the "Australian colander receptor", which consists of putting your 3G dongle in a metal bowl-shaped object about 10" diameter. I guess it cuts interference rather than boosting signal. Her reception in a neglected run-down neighbourhood went from unusable to speedy.

I've always wondered something about these ad-hoc networks in the hinterlands: how do you ensure that one of the critical nodes has enough electricity? I mean, if net access is so bad, why are the power lines assumed to be highly available?

(I guess they could put an exercise bike connected to a generator, but still...)

a router can run for a very long time on a car battery or two, also easily recharged with cars.
just my 2 cents

Our freezer, fridge and one kitchen light-bulb used to run off an inverter fed by a crate full of lead-acid vehicle batteries. The batteries were continuously charged from the mains supply, but there was a little petrol-generator outside for long power-outages. In theory the generator could be started automatically, but we had a pull-cord starter like a boat engine.

We had power cuts most days in the summer heat, when the air-conditioners overloaded the grid, and long outages every once in a while. The ad-hoc system never failed.