4 Aug 2004

A wifi connection - from 55 miles !!

Just when i had thought that making a Wifi connection with my laptop from 100 meters was an acheivement, along came this article "Wired News: Wi-Fi Shootout in the Desert" that talks about some teens from Cincinati recorded having established a 551 mile long Wifi connection !! The contest held at Defcon 2004 required participants to setup a pair of computers, get an 802.11b Wi-fi connection working and see how far apart they could keep going until they lost connection. All this had to be done using home-built equipment and commercial antennas (no ampli-s !)


The Guinness world record for Wi-Fi connection stands at 310 kilometers (about 192 miles) Swedish Wi-Fi equipment maker Alvarion and the Swedish Space Corporation. The company did this by using a weather balloon.


The teens were confident of being able to achieved an even greater distance, but said, "but there was no road left."


The prize was a stack of O'Reilly books, Best Buy certificates and über-hacker badges, allowing the teens lifetime admission to DefCon for free.