"I'm trying to get a mesh-net running though all
of the Market, and you're hammering me. Jesus, I was ready to rat you
out to the radio cops at the Canadian Radio and Television
Commission. Dude, you've got to turn down the freaking *gain* on those
things."
"What's a mesh-net?"
The kid moved his beer over to Alan's table and sat down. "Okay, so
pretend that your laptop is the access point. It radiates more or less
equally in all directions, depending on your antenna characteristics and
leaving out the RF shadows that microwaves and stucco and cordless
phones generate." He arranged the coffee cup and the beer at equal
distances from the laptop, then moved them around to demonstrate the
coverage area. "Right, so what happens if I'm out of range, over *here*
--" he put his beer back on his own table -- "and you want to reach me?
Well, you could just turn up the gain on your access point, either by
increasing the power so that it radiates farther in all directions, or
by focusing the transmissions so they travel farther in a line of
sight."
"Right," Alan said, sipping his coffee.
"Right. So both of those approaches suck. If you turn up the power, you
radiate over everyone else's signal, so if I've got an access point
*here*" -- he held his fist between their tables -- "no one can hear it
because you're drowning it out.
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