[plug] broadband with linux

[Paul Antoine]

Coral/Ben:
> Unfortunately not, the 3 network is limited to perth and the larger 
> towns like bunbury and albany - although I do check their coverage 
> fairly regularly to see how far it goes. I think out here (15km south 
> of narrogin) we can get 'roaming' access to the 3 data network, but 
> that is charged at a much higher rate and isn't high speed, I might be 
> wrong - i've looked at a lot of alternatives, none of which were 
> feasable, in fact we officially don't even get nextG coverage, I have 
> a car antenna bolted to my tin roof and a long cable that goes from 
> that to the modem, and even then I only get about 30% signal.
The long cable will significantly attenuate your signal. If you can 
place the modem right at the base of the antenna you will get 
significantly better performance. Naturally you'd need to route power 
etc. to it, but the result will be a lot faster and more reliable.

Long cable attenuation is avoided in long distance WiFi installations by 
placing the WiFi router in a weather-proof box at the base of the 
antenna with power provided up the ethernet cable (PoE.) Perhaps there's 
a market for a similar solution for rural NextG users :-)  I'd be happy 
to work on such a thing.
> but, I digress...
Digressions are wonderful... they often lead to expanded thinking, IMHO.

Paul