Arthur Francis Tyde III

A long time ago at Linuxcare, we cooked up a white paper called Linux and Open Source Demystified to try and help people understand what this strange new thing called Linux was. I have enhanced and maintained that document, it’s a great primer for management or anyone else who doesn’t understand how Open Source Software is developed and distributed. It’s certainly no substitute for deeper reading on the topic. You can dive into software licenses, development methodologies, project management principals and so forth in far more depth elsewhere. Authors like Eric Raymond, Richard Stallman, Lawrence Lessig, Martin Fink and Chris Dibona’s collection of essays “Open Sources” are excellent anecdotal reading. However, if you are looking for something quick and informative you might find this paper useful. Obviously, comments, criticisms and re-writes of entire sections are welcomed!

I travel frequently to places that like to charge a lot for wireless access and have been in many situations were the open signal I wanted was just a bit too far away. Looking for a solution I discover numerous hacks designed to add range and capability to the MacBook Pro. People have experimented with drilling the case to add an external antenna connector; you can also ship your machine off for more professional case modifications. Many more have been waiting for an expresscard or USB solution that supports an external antenna. (I was unable to find any) In short, there seems to be no easy answer.

This weekend, I took a different approach to the problem. Rather than hack up my MacBook Pro I went and purchased a D-Link DWL-G820 Gaming/Bridge Adapter and a D-Link ANT24 7 DBI omni directional antenna. The DWL-G820 is an interesting device with a small-embedded web browser for configuration. It has a SMC connector (for the antenna) and an ethernet port. If you had a gaming console or some other device that was not wireless, you can simply consider this as one way to attach your wired device to a wireless network.

I connected an Ethernet cable from my MacBook Pro to the DWL-G820 and bought up the web-based interface. Then, I connected the high gain antenna to the G820 and told it to scan for nearby access points. The scan function will show you a page with all the nearby access points and what type of security is being run on them, if any. At this point all you have to do is choose a location, pick an open access point and you’re on the Internet. The G820 supports WEP, WPA and other security features so you can easily add this to a secured wireless network if boon-docking on someone else’s wireless is not your plan. At $10.00 a day for wireless at my current hotel, this solution will pay for itself before the end of my current business trip.