I was trying to make a 22 mile link happen between two mountains. All the
calculations looked good, but I couldn't make it happen. On one side of the
link I could see the other side when I did an explore, but could not make a
connection. I eventually changed out every piece of hardware on both sides
of the link.
Finally I put one of the A/Ps in 802.11 mode and used Netstumbler to find
it, which it did. Netstumbler reported -70 signal and -70 noise. I moved
the link frequency to a different channel and now it works fine.
Now most of you are problem saying "I would have done that first", but had I
had the right tools for the job I would have done so too. The right tool
being my software (KN) giving me the information I needed to diagnose this
problem quickly.
This program should report frequency noise and signal information regardless
of link state. Some kind of graphical view with audio. Audio that would
either raise or lower in tone as a signal gets weaker or stronger so that I
don't have to hang on to my laptop with one hand and the antenna with the
other.
Also, I don't get having a "Antenna Alignment" option in the software when
the software doesn't have a corresponding receiving alignment tool for this
transmitting tool.
I hate to bitch, but I bought KN to save me time. Between problems like
this and deciphering the software because of inadequate documentation... it
is beginning to look like that might have been a mistake. I mean... the
Mikrotik guys (ie from Latvia) have written some great wireless software
with EXCELLENT documentation and tools. If it had polling and just A FEW
other things I like about KN... I'de likely not be using KN in favor of it.
Hey, I'm bitching because I think there is hope. When I stop bitching, you
have lost me.
Bill
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