Topic: Seeking recommendation for a bulletproof WiFi adapter to hook the controller to

[DaleReid]

Since I put my RED station on the air, the only way I can get reliable access to my router is to run CAT5 across the living room floor, down the stairs and under a rug into the computer area.

There have been several 'suggestions' that the temporaryness of this situation is just about used up.

I had thought that there were plenty of gizmos that would allow me to simply plug the controller board via a short patch cable into said box, and box would become a wireless connection to the WiFi portion of my netgear router.

Well, the guys at Best Buy are beginning to wonder when I walk back in with the latest box that didn't work.

I did order a little set of boxes that was supposed to use the house wiring to set up an access point by plugging one box in near the router and feeding it with a patch cable, then the other box in near the controller and supposedly voila.  Well it was more like nada, and the reason a local ham came up with (used to using X10 a lot) was that maybe one circuit was on one side of the 220 entrance, and the other opposite, but we could never verify that, nor was I willing to put some little capacitor across the split in the entrance box that he had suggested as a trial.

So, having tried the cheap, then the easy, now I've gotta just get it done.

So, has anyone found a good, reliable box that I can plug the controller board into and make it seem that is hard connected to the router, but do it via the WiFi that I know is working, since many other devices enjoy connectivity that way?

Brand and model suggestions guys, if you have them, please.

Dale

[Maumelle Weather]

Hi Dale,

I have my RED, which is out in a storage building about 75 ft. from the house, connected via shielded CAT 5 to an Apple Airport Express ($99 at Best Buy). This in turn talks to an Apple Airport Extreme ($199 at Best Buy) in the house, which then talks to my AT&T gateway/router, all wireless. Both the Express and Extreme have not had anything done to them since I plugged them up in May, when we moved here to our new house and I did the initial setup on them. The only time they have been off is when the power went out because of severe weather. I have had very good luck with these products.

The Express out in the storage building has had a fan on it to help it keep it cool during the summer months.

John

[ke9lz]

I plan to use an old router that is dd-wrt compatible and use it in client bridge mode to make my system wireless.  I have used routers with dd-wrt firmware in several other projects and work great.  You can picked up a Linksys wrt54g or similar for little or nothing.

[jmcmurry]

Dale,

I used a Netgear N2500RP router that could be set to bridge mode.  It's plugged into Red which has a fixed ip, talks to my Linksys main router and works great.  I also have a similar setup for a web cam that uses an old Linksys flashed with dd-wrt.  The key is bridge mode.

- Jim

[scarecrow93]

Dale-

I use powerline network adapters to connect my red from it's location in a 2nd floor bedroom closet to the wireless router in the basement.  I run Cat5 from the controller board to the powerline network adapter in the bedroom.  One more run is needed from the downstairs adapter (plugged into the wall near the router) to one of the ports on back of the wireless router.

This is the adapter I've been using: http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-XAVB5001-Powerline-Network-Adapter/dp/B004DVEW8I  Been as solid as a rock so far.

-Lance

[miraculon]

I have a ZyXEL WAP3205v2 running in wireless client mode. I use this for an old Gateway MP3 player and it works well.

My RED controller is actually out in the garage and I use a Grid Connect Industrial Wireless Access Point also running in client mode. I have another one used as the WAP dedicated to the Blitzortung controllers (both RED and the OpenWRT TP-MR3020 running "Green USB6.8"). I also have a Raspberry Pi on the same client. I chose this because of the temperature spec which was good for -30°C to +80°C.

Since yours is indoors, the ZyXEL should suffice at a lower cost.

Here is a link to NewEgg for the ZyXEL: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833181281

Here is a link for the Grid Connect if you are so inclined: http://gridconnect.com/industrial-wireless/wifi-adapter/industrial-wireless-access-point.html

Greg H.

[n2qew]

Ubiquity Nanostation / Picostation for a few hundred feet or Airgrid / Nanobridge if you need to get back a mile or two or twenty.

http://www.ubnt.com/products/

I've bought stuff from these guys
http://www.doubleradius.com/store.html?store_category=98_555