Byte by Bite

WiFi at home or office can easily be boosted

by Marv Dealy

Hooking up a wireless network is pretty simple, however, you need to remember that some of the signal is lost each time it must go through a wall, a stairway, a closet or a person.

The typical WiFi access point (this is where your DSL or whatever plugs into) probably has two “rabbit ear” antennae to send the signal around. An example is the Linksys BEFW1184 Wireless-B Cable/DSL Router such as I use at my office to allow us to provide access to the public if they have a WiFi equipped laptop (about $20 at Amazon.com).

Because walls and other things sometimes interfere with the strength of the signal from the router (which starts out at about 110 db), sometimes folks put better antennae on their access point, or even a signal booster. You’ll need similar equipment if your location involves “dense” walls (lots of pipes or wiring between the drywall, or use of steel 2x4 studs). An average wall will soak up about 30 db of the signal, while a human will soak up about half that amount. So you can see that the signal will weaken rapidly with several walls in the path.

The802.11 b/g radio signal itself doesn’t bounce off windows or ceilings or walls or the atmosphere, but passes right through them, unlike other radio waves. If you need to extend the reach of your WiFi signal throughout your home or office, you may need to either run more Ethernet cable and add more access points, or use something to extend the range, such as a repeater like Linksys’ Wireless-G Range Expander (about $82 at Amazon.com).

This unit will receive your WiFi signal from the “home base” and will rebroadcast it, thereby giving you more access in a broader area. Remember that this type of unit will be a bit slow if you’re trying to do large file transfers, as it has to both send and receive. However, it does that job at much higher than typical broadband speeds, so if you’re just using the WiFi to access the Internet you’ll be fine; if you’re trying to move really big files around your network, you won’t be as happy.

You can also boost the output of your access point by putting better antennae on the router such as the ones Linksys provides for its routers, the HGA7T antennae replacement kit (about $42 at Amazon).

You can read all about boosting your WiFi signal in an excellent article from the SmallbizPipeline by Scott Koegler (http://www.smallbizpipeline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=60404195)

California Hacker Pleads Guilty to Felony

Some good news from San Francisco where a 20-year-old hacker has admitted to setting up a zombie network of hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected computers, and using the network to serve pop-up ads and renting his zombie net to people who mounted attacks on Web sites and e-mailed spam.

Jeanson James Ancheta pleaded guilty to four felony charges and faces between five and 25 years in prison. According to an article by Elizabeth Montalbano at Techworld.com (http://www.techworld.com/networking/news/index.cfm?NewsID=5225) the conviction marks the first time a hacker has been convicted not just for creating and spreading malicious code but also for making money on the scheme.

The little crook apparently made nearly $65,000 through a combination of renting access to his zombie nets and scamming the affiliate programs of online advertisers. He also pleaded guilty to “government intrusion” for hacking into computers at both the Weapons Division of the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, CA and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), part of the U.S. Department of Defense.

In addition to potential jail time (he won’t be sentenced until May) the plea agreement also calls for Ancheta to give up about $58,000 in profits and an older BMW that he purchased with the ill-gotten gains, in addition to paying the government another $20,000 for the intrusions at China Lake and DISA.

Mail Bag

The e-mail bag continues to overflow with laments from more faithful readers concerning the tradeoffs they’ve made to live in our beautiful section of the world.

Typical is from Judy Miller from the south shore of Lake Tulloch who writes that because both she and her husband are heavy Internet users, they finally broke down and went with Direcway for satellite Internet access. She writes “Uploading is only a tiny bit faster than dial-up used to be but downloading files is a fantastic improvement. It is of course much more expensive than the high-speed SBC keeps advertising but won’t provide for us.”

Judy adds: “Just across the lake from us, the folks are serviced by the tiny local phone company known as Calaveras Telephone. They have had high-speed access through that little company for several years now. We are so jealous and we don’t understand why a tiny company like that can provide what a huge company like SBC cannot or will not provide for us.”

Writes faithful reader Dave Holton of Twain Harte: “As one of your millions of faithful readers, I thought you’d be interested in the message I sent to Brent Wallace immediately after your January 13th column.”

Dave writes that he receive an auto-generated “thank you” e-mail almost immediately but has yet to hear back from anyone in the county offices concerning slow Internet connectivity hereabouts.

“It appears the County’s auto-response program works better than the routing and response of the ‘requested department.’ I guess we’ll have to keep trying.”

It would appear here that we’re still not getting the attention of anyone in the Powers That Be tent.

Finally, from new reader Jeff Newcomb of Salida: “I’ve worked in and around the Internet industry since before there was an Internet industry. I have always specialized in getting technology to people who like to live in the sticks, mainly because I used to live in the sticks and understand the pain and agony caused by 2KB downloads.”

“The only drawback to rural communities like yours, and one of the main reasons few wireless providers risk going out there, is the cost of getting a data line established. It can cost upwards of $1500 in a place like Sonora, whereas in Salida it can be as low as $350. Pricing for Internet service in a $1500 area would be about $300 for the equipment and $60-75 per month for basic broadband. That's not cheap, but terrestrial based wireless Internet is a much better alternative to any form of satellite system. Without a starting base of at least 50 people and a good location for a tower, it would be difficult to get it off the ground.”

“Some things your communities may be interested in are the new government programs that help rural communities develop Municipal Access Networks. There are grant monies available to wire entire cities (funny how they 'wire' a city for wireless, huh?) but it has to be applied for and someone has to cut a lot of the red tape before a business can move in and provide the service. But in the end, your city enters the 21st century. We are negotiating with several cities that have already begun this process, and will soon be offering Internet in the same manner they offer water, sewer and garbage services now, for a flat, monthly fee.”

I called Jeff at his office and we talked about what his company, Fire2Wire (www.fire2wire.com), might be able to do for some of us in the sticks, and he referred me to Bill Moreno, VP of Marketing for the company. Bill and I talked at length about where his company presently provides coverage, and their plans to expand. He indicated that he’d be happy to talk with “movers and shakers” to see about getting something underway in our corner of the sticks. Further conversations are planned, but who knows where they will lead, if anywhere.

In the meantime, keep the e-mails coming, we clearly need to keep applying pressure if anything is ever to happen. If you’ve missed some of my columns, we republish them at www.throck.com/articles.html. And of course, this column is on the UnionDemocrat.com every week, as well.