*** LONG POST ALERT ***
The second laptop is the workhorse running Kismet on top of Knoppix 3.8.2 installed to the hard drive with a Globalsat BU-353 GPS puck, a Mobile Mark 5.5 dBi mag mount antenna from Fab Corp, and a 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g 1 Watt Indoor Amplifier with 16 dB gain, and a Engenius Senao 200mw PCMCIA Card (2511-CD-PLUS-EXT2).
How do you hook this together? I have a rebranded 200mw Senao card [sonicwall 01-ssc-5510](2511-cd-plus) and currently just toss this up on my dashboard as I drive. The downside is this means I tend to get better reception from the houses on the right vs. the ones on the left as I drive down the street. Also Since I drive a large metal box, I dont see any access points once they pass abeam. I've wondered if this affects their placement on the WiGLE map. The GPS is a Garmin GPS35-PC OEM sensor on its mag mount base on the roof.
The two laptops are not tied together. One is running XP Pro and the other is running Linux. That's not to say they couldn't be connected, but I don't.
Ahh, I was unclear... I was refering to your use of the bridge/repeater/ext-antenna setup. I understand the external antenna (I already drive a wire brush) for an omni directional receive path. My directionality comment was because of how the notebook sits on my dash, the antenna is on the right side of the car with the notebook hiding (antenuating) the signal from the houses on my left. Since the triangulation is done in part by received signal strength I would think this would have bearing (no pun intended).
Do you just use a Serial Y cable to share the GPS signal? If So then I'll have to add another Y, or a second GPS receiver later this summer after another project.
I guess what I dont undserstand is what purpose does the bridge fulfill? I would think that would block your ability to see all SSID's and what their correct channels were. From what I previously read, it seemed everyone was connecting their Ext Antenna directly to the pcmcia card. The receive is quite good on the Senao cards to start with.
I'm running in auto mode though I have thought about forcing the card to 1 Mbps mode for the increased sensitivity. Would it probably play havoc with WiGLE's plotting though?
Some specs from the SonicWALL Long Range Wireless Card User’s Guide:
Range (Open Environment)
11 Mbps - 1476 ft. (450m)
5.5 Mbps - 1969 ft. (600m)
2 Mbps - 2461 ft. (750m)
1 Mbps - 3937 ft. (1200m)
RF Power Output: 23 dBm for FCC
Antenna Integrated with built-in diversity Sensitivity @FER=0.08
11 Mbps < -87 dBm
5.5 Mbps < -90 dBm
2 Mbps < -93 dBm
1 Mbps < -95 dBm
What you discover is only as good as your antenna setup and the WiGLE map placement is your vehicle's GPS location unless you drive a circle around the networks or pass on multiple sides so it can be triangulated. That's been discussed a lot and it always going to be an approximate location.
I'm familiar with the problem. It is at least in part, because of the amount of selective (cant remenber the term) accuracy? availability? that the GPS network is currently providing and how many sats the receiver has in view and their locations relative to you at the time. Since I've been hitting some nice narrow blocks with this stronger card I have been geting the required extra angles, but WiGLE doesnt like the slightly older NAD83 that the GPS-35PC uses, All of my points are within 75m though so it isnt too bad.
You'll want to verify your hardware against the hardware requirements of the version of Linux you choose. Do the research and you'll be OK. If you've never played with Linux, I'd recommend trying one of the live Distros like Knoppix. Kismet is already included.
I classify myself as an advanced user level *nix user though I'm partial to SysV syntax (learned on SGI-IRIX). Being self taught means I need to take out the rubber mallet to get some things working (for use on the machine or my head as needed). I'll probably be putting it on my PII 400 notebook which should be plenty to handle it and setting up a dual notebook configuration similar to yours since that makes sense and seems to work well.
Thanks again for all the help, switching to this better card has made my WiGLE stat change dramaticaly. I'm now 160 with GPS and 188 overall. not bad for a month of roaming. Although because I'm not currently keepping track of where I've driven seperatly, 1253 networks that I did back on the 8th some how didn't get referenced with the GPS data. So NOW I get to try and figure out where I drove that night. Of course when I do, I'll be re-driving it with the better card.
I_Do_Dew
PS: For something amusing take apart a Netgear MR314 Router if you can get ahold of one. I'll probably be posting something about this later.