802.11 Connection @ Nats
 

Is there going to be a open 802.11 connection @ Nats this year?

Team 108 put that on last year, and as of right now they aren't qualified for the championship. Im guessing that if they aren't there its not going to happen this year, unless their engineers come and set one up, which is a high possibility.

The CD user: Soap108, who I think is named Kenny would know. I think he helped organize it last year

Rumor has it around our team that Soap will be at houston regardless if our team goes or not. Thursday is out next meeting, so I'll find out more then. If soap's there, we should be wireless!

...and yeah, Soap108 I do beleive is Kenny's name, however, you might want to try one of the sigma names (I forget them, but you can look them up in the memebers directory, use the members>by team>108 feature), those are mike's names, and he finds answers better than most. Hope this helps!

How did it work last year? Was it connected to the internet? If so...how? Satellite? And what kind of hardware was used to set it up...I'd imagine a linksys router wouldn't quite do the trick...were there more powerful antennas or what?

Heh, well, last year I believe we got hooked up to the FIRST Internet feed (T1 I believe...). They allowed us to do that because we were asked to provide wireless for the competition. Hardware-wise, we used Cisco Wireless access points. It was all DHCP but our DHCP switch/server thingy kept dying (I'll try and get DHCP moved to a computer, I'll talk to them thursday). Router-wise, we had a few Cisco Catalysts under our table, [sarcasm]perfectly balancedon boxes to not fall... [/sarcasm] Remember, the sigma names will have more info then me (Im an animator!), so you can PM him and ill tell him to check his PMs.

if 108 isn't able to do it at houston (or doesn't have enough hardware), my team has a ton of equipment and about 7 people who can network it up. hopefully we're gonna hook up the st. louis regional...

*jeremy

Does this mean I should invest in a wireless card for my laptop? Do they even make 16-bit 802.11b cards?

Uh....16...bit... ::Brain begins to hurt...:: Try..umm..ebay?

hey
 

For technical details contact CD user jnatt. I'll email him about this thread so he can comment.

We do plan to attend even if the SigmaC@T robot doesn't. If we're there we will digitize all matches and make the files available. We may need help to staff the digitizers, though. ANY VOLUNTEERS?????????

I highly expect wireless to be present (802.11b) I doubt 802.11a will be used. Will Airport cards work? dunno ask jnatt. Will WEP be enabled? dunno ask jnatt. Can you get to the Inet off the wireless? Should, but ask jnatt. (do you see a pattern yet? ;) )
Can u connect to the SOAP Video Server over wireless? Yes, that would be a requirement.

KA-108 :cool:

Teamwork
 

*Raytheon provided a T1 to the Inet.
*Cisco donated a beast of a router/switch... Catalyst 7600??? Ask CD user jnatt
*Fiber and CAT5 provided by ???
*WAPs provided by Motorola, Cisco, Nexland, and me (i brought my own :))


KA-108 :cool:

Re: 802.11b @ Nats
 

I have spoken with the guys at First and Cisco Systems.


WE WILL HAVE Wi-Fi at NATIONALS.

With the Help of SOAP 108, Cisco Systems, Motorola and a few other people Wi-Fi will be available. I will post in the next few days how everything will work.

This is what I can tell, while we will not have WEP enabled and will provide to the entire Pit and Competition area. We will require everyone to register either in advance or at the competition.

Additionally, remember Wi-Fi is limited in Bandwidth and as such
we will have to work together to support everyone.

- jnatt

Awesome!
 

Just let me know what the settings will be so I can get on. Will we have any real time stats availible as well?

Re: Awesome!
 

Attention all Desired Wi-Fi Users:


As of today here is the initial plans.

On the Thursday of National we will have a table set up for people to register their 802.11b WLAN Card. You will need to register your WLAN cards MAC id to use the system. We will not be using any special WEP Keys. I will be publishing the SSID and other information in the near future.

If you have any questions and will be at either the UCF or Chicago events in the next 2 weeks I will be willing to talk with you directly. Otherwise please email me at: ejn018@motorola.com.

Hope this helps you all some.

Joel

Wi-Fi @ Nat
 

I have just gotten the map of how the fields will be deployed and I will now need to re-evaluate the entire picture.

5 Fields including Einstein, but cause they are all so close together we may need to make different plans.

I will keep you appraised.

Equipment
 

I have a sponsor for my team that helped my set up Kilowattnet at the UTC Regional. They provided me with antennas to provide good coverage to the entire event. I had some 15dBi Panel antennas and some 12dBi Omnidirectionals. I hooked them to some D-Link Access Points and they blasted the area. If you guys need any high-gain equipment, I will be willing to talk to my sponsor and see if I could you guys some equipment on loan. I am willing to help you guys with equipment and administration.

Check out my Sponsor's catalog, http://www.fab-corp.com and look in my signiture for the link to Kilowattnet.

I look forward to helping you guys!

-Jamie

802.11b Wi-Fi at Nationals
 

ATTENTION ALL:

I will have the official information up on Thursday after I meet with the Cisco and FIRST people at the Midwest event.

Keep everyones fingers crossed :)

Joel

What you guys are suggesting is not allowed by first.

http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/2003...ampionship.pdf

I understand that it would be nice, but FIRST has requested that this not happen. I hope that you will not go ahead with this, as it is, I repeat, not allowed.

Though I am confused why FIRST is assisting you with something they have requested not to occur. Very likely someone will prove me wrong somehow. Oh well.

I also fell into this problem at UTC, I didn't bring my own internet access, I talked to the proper people in the arena and provided the internet that was already there.

I believe team SOAP wants to "provide" the internet that is already there.

I am here to help you guys, just send me a pm.

-Jamie

All the equipment has been ordered for Nationals and we will have numerous items to impress and delight you all.

Keep tuned for more information in the near future.

So there will be internet access at Houston?

Great.

How far does 802.11b transmit? I'd assume quite a ways out in the open. I guess it's time to start scouring ebay for cheap wifi cards :)

I had a meeting today with FIRST, SPS and The local people in Houston. This is the break down. We will provide Internet Hot spots in the pits. Currently we are planning to have the ability to dial up to local #'s; additionally I am already working to have the Wi-Fi configured.

For Wi-Fi you need the following:

an 802.11b client card and the ability to handle both 40 and 128 bit WEP.

I will have more on Monday.

Just got my 802.11b card today and I am already scummin my naighbors connection!

I love technology.

BTW- I called the Raddison (the hotel my team is staying at) they only offer data ports NO HIGH SPEED CONNECTIONS / WIRELESS. I dunno if someone wants to do something about that

Tell me if I am gettin this right, we are dialing into on 56k and than sharring that?

My card says that I can set it to 64 and 128 bit WEP will that be ok?

Whats the set-up going to be like? Big attenas? Enough to shoot the signal over to the Raddison?

Keep us posted

No, actually we will have there Internet spots where anyone can dial into a local ISP # (e.g. AOL or Earthlink). This will insure that anyone without a Wi-Fi Card will be able to get to the Internet. This is costing FIRST a large penny. So we will see how important this is for future planning.

No large attenas to beam to the Hotel. Check with your hotel maybe it already has High Speed in the rooms.

As long as you do 128 bit you are insured to operate. I am not certain how I plan to do this portion yet. We will have to see. I know we encountered several key problems this weekend at the Midwest. But they did get resolved.

I will post more later this week.

See you at Nationals

-JN

Guys, I would like to offer myself also for any help that i may be able to render, I play with wireless as a hobbie and can contribute an access point, or 2 and (probally) some 3com switches(16 port), and i have 10 megabit hubs out the wazoo....

I was thinking maby if we had the room i could set up one of my access points in point to multipoint mode and provide wired connectivity for ppl without a modem or wireless card but they have a normal network card, if that were done then just about everybody should be able to get online.

Just an idea and volenteering

Anyone want to set-up a wireless connection inside the raddison... all you would have to do is connect a notebook or something to the data port and than use a Wireless card to set-up Proxy server.

Anyone up for it?

I am not sure, but the 782 "Box" (Our Computer Enabled Crate) will have a Linksys Wireless Bridge inside it with an external antenna to provide wired access to my computers inside. I may have a table with an ethernet hub on it, but probably not.

Just I thought.

-Jamie

Be careful bandwith wise... Keep in mind bandwith is still limited among wireless clients, and I can only imagine using bridges to set up hub tables would drain the resources quite a bit...

Any setup for bandwith moderation? I remember last year in the "Internet Station" it was always very crowded, even with just the terminals and dial-up. Wireless broadband should be nuts, as long as it can support the 100's of potential clients that may connect. Bridged hubs on tables I don't think would be a good idea, if anything just hardwire into the network, don't take up airspace if possible.

CANOPY!!!

Pardon?

I believe he's talking about Motorola's Canopy system, which is a fixed wireless system designed for use by ISPs to provide wireless Internet connections to homes over greater distances than 802.11 is capable of.

keep in mind that most hotels, when refering to "data ports" mean a phone jack that you can use to dial out on.

it also means you're subject to the hotel's local phone rates, which, are generally undesirable ;)

well, if local calls are free... you could set something up dialing into Netzero for free

WOW! that canopy system is pretty sweet. How much do one of those cost?

Well as I said, it's designed to be sold to ISPs, so it's expensive relative to consumer products like 802.11 (but pretty cheap compared to most other ISP equipment).

A starter kit that includes one access point and two subscriber units is $2500.

How do I find my AirPort's ID? Will I have to do something special that our Tech Service would have to unlock since our iBooks are locked down?

I have a sony with an 802.11b card which I use to tap into my airport on my network. What will I have to do to make it so that I can tap in at nats?

I've seen a few 802.11b mods online that will allow you to build a transmitter that can broadcast 1-2 miles using a pringles can and some cabling. It's very uni-directional though, so you'd probably have to put a reciever somewhere and rebroadcast the signal into the hotel. Cost of pringles can: $3.50. Cost of cabling, $10. If you can be so precise as to aim it at your hotel window, I'd guess you'd be in good shape :cool: :p

http://www.fab-corp.com

Proud Sponser of my Team, they sell stuff to do exactly what you want to do.

-Jamie

Aww... cmon, where's the fun in buying stuff... it's so much more fun to jury-rig things and take 5 times as long to get them working...

Yeah, well.. when they give you stuff for free, its kinda different ;-)

-Jamie

True, however, it is immensely more fun to use pringles cans, especially when you get to eat the pringles while jury-rigging :yikes: