Forum

  • I am looking to share my road runner connection with everyone in my apartment complex, but to help pay my bills I would like for them to pay a petty fee (eg: $5~ month). I plan on using 3 or 4 2watt amps with huge 14dB antennas all focused in a 360deg pattern so I'm sure at least a few hundred people will be able to see the network clearly. I'm sure this may break FCC regulations but I need another source of income.

    What subsriber boxes (preferably with no monthly fees) do you guys use? Thanks!

    ~Greg

  • Although I am tempted to tell you this is a horrible idea, I will instead just inform you that, first off, disobeying the FCC rules is a real good way to get yourself in trouble. Selling your broadband (unless it is DSL in which case you are free to do this, usually) is also another surefire way to get yourself into trouble (here it is less legal trouble and more risk of losing your broadband, or being sued by the broadband company)

    As for helping you, I havn't a clue what you are talking about, i will assume that that is a typo and you want to know what 'subscriber boxes' we use??? is this a cable term, do you mean like set top boxes, but for internet??? Regardless, I think this is the wrong forum for you to be posting because unless I am just out of my mind, I don't think that a 'subscriber box' is a part of WLAN infrastructure.

    Also, if you read the CWNA study guide you will most likely decide that the setup you described will be quite counter-productive for lack of a better term.

    Then again, this is just my 2 cents, and I really am just a newb... one with a passion for wireless tho, and I hope this helped although I still don't know what it is you are talking about. :-)

  • Yes there are subscriber boxes for wireless (sorry for the typos, been porting my head for my car all day). I am referring to the kind that makes users go to a portal page where they have to login to their paid account or pay by credit card for the time they spend online before they are allowed to go to any websites.

    I am wondering about the proxim ap-2500, but I'm not sure if thats a good one or not, even though I know proxim makes great products. :)

    Also I never heard of it being against TOS frpm cable internet providers for the base user to resell their bandwidth they are paying for.

  • I recommend against the login page just from a cost basis. An easy way to do this on a small basis is just use WEP or WPA and use a secret pass phrase or WEP key to make sure only your "subscribers" get access.

    As far as what you will use for your AP's, don't use such high power. 16dBi antennas don't do as much good as you would think they would. They have such a tight horizontal beam width that their coverage in a building isn't very good. I'll give you the secret formula. Use a 1W amplifier with a cheap 7dBi antenna and a 18" LMR 195 cable. When you do the RF math, taking into account 1dB of loss in your cable you will be within the 4W FCC maximum. And, with the great beam width of the 7dBi antenna, you will cover a lot of space.

    Now, sharing your cable connection is a no-no. Cable is a shared service, so if less people are on the connection, you go faster. So if you have your own customers, they will be taking speed away from paying customers so that is why it is a big deal. With DSL, you pay for a set speed and you get that all of the time. So, if you choose to sell it, you are only affecting your speed, not other paying customers.

    With the formula I gave you, you can cover a large area (maybe 10 to 15 apartments) depending on the building's construction.

  • lou.cal is right on the money. Using amplifiers in this way is illegal in the U.S., and sharing your internet connectivity violates user agreements regardless of who your service provider is. I've worked for BellSouth, EarthLink, and others - all of whom require the end users of their services to sign an agreement stating that they will not resell the service or share the service with others outside of their immediately family. They will cut your service off for that misuse.

    elementalwindx, please do not use our forums to request information on how to perform acts that both break the law and violate user agreements for companies that are making a legitimate profit.

    thanks,

    Devinator

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