Bexley Link

Bexley Link Up and Running

On June the 12Th we completed the Bexley link, making Bexley a useful part of the network for the first time since it was first installed about a year ago.

The Bexley ridge repeater, which is the first of two to be commissioned on the Bexley ridge top will provide coverage beyond the ridge to the South West, extending the networks coverage dramatically. The second Bexley ridge repeater, already linked to the network, faces North, and North-West, is currently out of action, requiring a repair to it's coax run to bring it on line.

This news item is to document the link between Brighton-Le-Sands and Bexley. It is an 802.11B link currently. The reason for this is that it is easiest to commission a link using 802.11B and then move it to 802.11G, so given that it was only completed yesterday afternoon, we havn't had a chance to try it out at 802.11G.

The Brighton-Le-Sands end of this link is actually the 802.11B/G part of the howardlink link - a Senao NL5354 Aries2, in AP mode. It's a semi-stealth installation on the peak of a rooftop, so the antenna is a Vagi (pictured) which is quite low profile yet quite effective.

The Bexley end is a Linksys WRT54GS, running Talisman software, with to a rather large 24 Dbi grid dish up a guyed mast atop a two storey building. Getting the antenna up was quite a job, which including installing the link took two of us about two days.

The link was quite easy in fact, but the thing that makes this installation particularly interesting is the setup of the WRT54GS as the router using the Talisman software. Chris is in the process of writing an article about that right now, so I won't go in to that at the moment.