Wifi

[MEdwards]

My experience on the south side was similar to the others'. No WIFI signal anywhere in Vintage. It wasn't saturation, there just was no signal. There has been some signal the last three years, there was none this year. Something was wrong this year.

I did connect successfully during a visit to the North 40, so I know it can work routinely.

As for the local hot spots, not a bad idea, but they didn't work for me. I tried at Tall Pines and at the ultralight barn. Good signal both places, but my laptop was unable to connect. Tried several different times, nobody around, so it was not saturation. It just didn't work. If connecting via those local hot spots is different, requires different settings, than your EAAWIFI service, then you need to tell people that.

I, too, wrote to the email address you gave. Got no response. I guess to you "It doesn't work" means "think about fixing it next year."

[Jim Hann]

I was able to connect in Scholler, much better than last year although it still had a tendency to drop off after about 20 minutes. Guessing it was my distance from the hotspot by the west camp bath house (at or in my camper @12th&Sunset.). John, good improvements over last year, I hope you can build on that success in this data hungry world!

[John Carrier]

The settings between EAAWIFI and the DSL-enabled Wi-Fi locations (e.g., Tall Pines, Hangar Cafe, Vintage Cafe, and Vintage Barn) were basically the same - both were public, broadcasting, and unprotected. However, the EAAWIFI locations, in most cases, were fiber attached, they required T&C acceptance, and they would time out after about 1 hour. The DSL locations were outfitted with consumer (not industrial) grade DSL devices with little ability to configure/customize - you just hopped on. We provided the DSLs so that at least some Wi-Fi would be available at these locations. Without them, the farthest south we would be able to provide Wi-Fi would be the Communications Center. It is quite possible that the DSL devices became overwhelmed by demand. Although not as convenient, we did offer other Wi-Fi enabled locations.

I again apologize for the email snafu. Although messages were checked, my help didn't realize some messages were an appeal for help versus pointing out opportunities for improvement. This will be corrected next year. However, we also provided a telephone number that one could have used to explain their situation and seek assistance.

[Treetop_Flyer]

Thanks for the great responses, John! Sounds like your team is already hard at work for 2013. Those of us craving connection at Oshkosh thank you and your team for your efforts. It's going to be a growing process every year as more and more "gadgets" show up. Seemed like I saw way more people with iPad's in 2012 than in 2011.

[nickn]

The DSL locations were outfitted with consumer (not industrial) grade DSL devices with little ability to configure/customize - you just hopped on.

If the lack of ability to configure the consumer devices caused an issue, why wasn't an aftermarket OS such as DD-WRT installed? While not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, I have successfully used off the shelf WRT54G routers with DD-WRT installed to support up to around 30 concurrent users.

John, from what the forum is saying, it seems like many users were either having trouble finding a signal, or could not initially connect to the local access point. For both of those issues, the backhaul infrastructure, which is what you keep citing, is not the problem. You said the budget was low, but has the I.T. department looked into getting some better access points? I wasn't at the show this year, but last year, it looked like you only had 2.4 Ghz nodes set up. Was that the same this year? While of course I didn't go around and take a full site survey, a quick scan in one location revealed that there was an extreme amount of activity over the entire 2.4 Ghz band, causing every channel to have a large amount of interference. If you haven't done so already, perhaps you could buy some multi radio /multi band APs, and use band steering to move all capable devices over to the 5Ghz band. Meraki, for example, sells several decently priced multi radio APs with large antennas, which would also help with the reception issues. In addition, Meraki has a nifty and easy to use cloud based management UI that would allow you to check on the health of, and gather data from, all of the APs on the grounds. You wouldn't need to wait for users with problems to come to you, and then have to remember what number AP they were on, as you could immediately see and log what nodes were overburdened as the show was going on.

I was in Row 75E and could see the WiFi access on the iPad, but was never able to connect. I suspect it was Saturated as you state. It would be great to see this on the capital improvement plan for 2013.

In many places I was getting a signal, but unable to connect.

[Eric Page]

For those having trouble with WiFi signal strength, you might consider making yourself a directional high-gain antenna. They're quite simple and work amazingly well if made properly. Shouldn't be too much of a challenge for a bunch of aircraft homebuilders.

Click here for a site with simple instructions to build a DIY "cantenna" for WiFi.

Here's an Amazon link for the required N Female Chassis Mount Connector, and here's a link for the connector and the required coax cable as a kit (choose RP-SMA for the cable, unless your laptop has some other style).

Speaking of coax cable, you'll need one to hook the antenna to your laptop. For most computers, you'll need an RP-SMA Male (internal threads, central pin socket) connector at one end and an N Male (internal threads, central pin) connector at the other. Look here or here.

If your laptop doesn't have an external antenna connector, you'll need to turn off its internal WiFi adapter and use a USB adapter instead. Don't worry, they're cheap. Look here, here, here or here.

To disable your internal WiFi adapter, use the appropriate hot-key combination. If your laptop doesn't support hot-key hardware switching, or you don't know what I'm talking about, do this: Click "Start," "Control Panel," "Device Manager." Expand "Network adapters." Click to highlight your wireless adapter. Click "Action," "Disable." To re-enable your internal WiFi, follow these instructions but at the end, click "Enable."

One final note for smartphone and tablet users: you're out of luck. Without an antenna connector or USB socket, the built-in adapter/antenna is your only option.

[John Carrier]

Thank you for the Wi-Fi recommendation. Our Wi-Fi infrastructure was essentially unchanged from last year - we made little investment in it given other capital needs. As for the technology available, we are well aware of the options. We tended to steer away from 5Ghz systems given its reduced range and ability to penetrate obstacles (we have a very unfriendly Wi-Fi environment).