Hello.
This is my initial post as a new forum member but I am merely requesting information for usage by my 12-year old son. I experience the weather, like any other creature, and read about it (Watson's "Heaven's Breath" is a great book) but my son is the weather geek - for now (you all know the fickleness of youth). He was gifted with a personal weather system (Ambient Weather WS-2090) [from his grandfather - unless situations are out-of-hand a parent does not want to incite a war by telling the grandparent what to, and not, do when it comes to their grandchildren]. Anyway, eventhough we have cable access internet service I do not keep the pc on 24/7.
I have given my son permission to create a Weather Underground account (KPAPHILA40) and to upload the data to that site. This is working out as intended: no connecting issues, data uploading to WeatherUnderground when the pc is on, and after he starts both EasyWeather then Cumulus [we also trialed a program called "WeatherDisplay" but I am not seeing the big woop enough to purchase it for 70 (USD)]. My dilemna is sending the data over the internet 24/7 without the pc, a desktop running Win7, etc.
Our home is in Philadelphia PA, a large 3-story brick dwelling built in 1865. Our internet access is through Comcast Motorola modem and I have an Amped R20000G High-Power Wireless 600mW Gigabit Dual Band (2.4 & 5 GHz bands) Router, along with its sister Extender, an Amped SR20000G. Each of these Amped devices have USB 2.0 port, which the manual states "for storage devices", which I am not certain allows me to attach the WS-2090's cable for internet access.
From that verbose presentation here is my question:
I am trying to figure the best (=ease of operation and initial set-up outlay) WIFI direct-to-internet protocol.
Ambient Weather sells the Meteobridge {wifi to internet} device, #F5U407 2.0 USB Hub (
http://www.ambientweather.com/amws2090weatherbridgekit.html) for 160.00 but when I look at the specifics of the item it seems it is merely a TP-Link MR3020 device selling at Amzn (
http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-MR3020-Wireless-Portable-150Mpbs/dp/B006DEBXD0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376915778&sr=8-1&keywords=tp-link+mr3020) for less than 50.00. Can I use the latter or is it best to just go with the Meteobridge? I do not want to get the standalone MR3020, try to get it running as intended, and end up say, 'O crap!'.
Is the benefit with Meteobridge that one merely connects the WS2090 usb to the Meteobridge Hub which connects to the router, without the need for programming from the pc to get it running properly?
I am one of those users who knows enough about networking to be dangerous, meaning as long as it is requiring me to plug the baby in and input a few numbers from an analyzer I am fine but I do not go about overclocking clocks and the like. My son, as anyone born after 1990, is a byte-head but I will not allow him to mung up our desktop system. He has a MacBook Pro and a Samsung Galaxy Tablet but they are always with him so they would not be good, even if capable, for sending the weather data to the internet.
Is the $160 Meteobridge WIFI the ONLY way to go for the easiest connection to the internet bypassing my pc being on always or is there something I did not see during my research?
By the way, if he continues to maintain his weather-geek enthusiasm I will discuss with him the options to move beyond his basic Ambient Weather 2090 to something even more weather-geekier.
Thank you, in advance,
Don (Jamie's pop)