XPost: comp.mobile.android, sci.electronics.repair   
   From: rmblayrrroy@nlnet.nl   
      
   Roy Tremblay  actually wrote:   
      
   > This happens to be a 5GHz 30 decibel rocket, but the procedure is exactly   
   > the same no matter what Ubiquiti radio Rod Speed chooses to make his access   
   > point that paints the neighbor's home (as per the calculations from Jeff).   
      
   As a more easily digested top-level summary, for Rod and the others:   
   a. Station mode (the default)   
   b. Access Point mode   
      
   1. Station mode means the access point locks on to any given   
   SSID/passphrase, acting as a "station". For example, you can stand on the   
   nearest hilltop and point the radio down into the city miles below, select   
   the best signal strength open access point, and connect to the Internet (if   
   you're lucky with signal strength both ways).   
      
   2. Access Point mode means the radio acts as an access point of your   
   Internet to anyone (who can be miles away) who wants to connect to your   
   access point. You can stick the radio on a hilltop, pointing at the city   
   miles below, and everyone in the city can "see" your access point (if   
   you're lucky with signal strength both ways).   
      
   More details for setup on Ubiquiti radios such as these in my basement:   
      
      
   1. The Ubiquiti radios, out of the box, default to "station" mode, where   
   you can temporarily connect them by wire or WiFi to a mobile computing   
   device to log in (192.168.1.20, ubnt/ubnt) and point them at any access   
   point (even those that are miles away) and then lock on to either the SSID   
   or the MAC address. That's it.   
      
   After that one-step setup of choosing the SSID to lock onto, you can plug   
   *anything* you want into the radio (e.g., a router, a camera, a computer, a   
   mobile device, etc.) and it will be using the Internet of the SSID you're   
   locked on to.   
      
   2. The Ubiquiti radios can easily be set up in Access Point mode, where you   
   plug them into your router and then you can put this access point up to 300   
   feet away from the router, connected by that Ethernet cable.   
      
   This allows you to paint any part of your property, e.g., your pool or your   
   barn or your front gate, etc., or even to paint an entire city miles away,   
   with your access point.   
      
   In this photo below, you see that I have one powerful Rocket M2 (2.4GHz)   
   which is set up in "station" mode, while the other powerful Rocket M5   
   (5GHz) is set up in "access point" mode.   
      
      
   Bear in mind that these radios can go for a dozen miles line of sight when   
   connected to a similar radio, but the distance will be far less if the   
   other radio is a cell phone, a router, or a less powerful access point.   
      
   The advantage, however, of these powerful Ubiquiti Rocket M2/M5 radios is   
   that they have 24dBi and 30dBi antennas respectively, which, if you know   
   how decibels work, is a huge increase in a weak noisy received signal   
   strength.   
      
   However, even these two relatively weak 14dBi and 18dBi antennas can still   
   go for miles line of sight under the right conditions on the other side.   
      
      
   None of those figures even counts the added power of at least 25 or so   
   decibels (dbM) of power input into the antenna, so that gives you just an   
   idea of how much more powerful, overall, these radios are compared to your   
   typical SOHO router (which would be hard pressed to garner even 20dBm of   
   EIRP overall).   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)