This morning I heard that the wind had stopped blowing. So, I jumped out of bed and climbed up my tower. Switched out the DWL-900AP+ with the Linksys WAP11 2.2. Now everything is back to normal. Gesh. I sure wished that the D-Link stuff worked. The DWL-900AP+ and the DWL-800AP+ are such nice systems. They have build in DHCP, 22Mb/s, nice logging, screw mounts, and they are smaller. A lot nicer than Linksys, thats for sure. Only one problem. I can't get connections to work right. Linksys does not connect to them as a client. Even the 900 to 900 would not connect right. I have a WET11 with a 24DBi dish the same distance as the DWL-800AP+ with a 24DBi dish. The Linksys would connect no problem. The D-Link would not. So, I guess I'll have to use Linksys for a bit longer until I get the money to upgrade to real WISP equipment ($9k+).

Another rough day of wireless. I put the D-Link AP in the main tower and found out that the WAP11's would not talk to it right. So I went to my repeater and switched it out for D-Link hardware. It didn't work. So I brought everything home and tried it out here. It works here just fine, but I can't get it to work at the repeater location. So it's back to Linksys hardware.

Nope, it didn't work.

I tried and tried, but I could not get the signal through the trees. So I'm looking for another place to put the repeater. I have a place in mind and I am trying to get in contact with the owners. I have been told that they are real nice and will probably let me put the repeater up on their building. I'm also going to give them free service for letting me put the repeater there.

Web Cam and XHTML Validation

I did it. The page will now validate with the Web Cam on board. I had to do some digging to figure it out. I found in a web search the JavaScript function getElementById. With this I could just set id="value" parameters on my objects. But, the problem is, it would just give me the error, “getElementById is not a function.” Well today while reading Netscape DevEdge, I came across the fix.

if (!document.getElementById)
document.getElementById = function() { return null; }

I'm not sure why this is, I'll have to read more about it, but it works. Now I can use the function getElementById, and my page validates as XHTML 1.0 Strict.

Happy Happy Joy Joy.

PNG Support on MS Windows version of IE

Going back to the bad PNG support for MSIE on Windows, something that I touched on a few weeks back. All I want to know is, why doesn't Microsoft build in full support for PNG's? Just why? I do not understand why they will not do it. I can not think of another browser that does not have full support for PNG's. Even the Mac version of IE has full support.

The reason I am so upset is that using PNG's would save me a lot of trouble and headaches. Just the other day I wanted to make a generic tag for a bunch of different web sites. The only thing I could do is make a square block and put the tag in it. If I could use PNG's it would have been a nice cut out that I could put on any web site no matter what the background color was. You may think, “Just use a transparent GIF.” If you create a GIF on a white background, then try to put that on a black background web page, you get a white outline around the GIF. It's very ugly.

So a recap.

Browsers that support PNG's; Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, iCab, MSIE for Mac, and even Apple's new Safari browser.

Browsers that do not support PNG's: MSIE on Windows.

Antenna Mast At The Parts Store

Well, today is the day. I am going to try and get that antenna mast up at the auto parts store. I'm not too sure about what I have for a mast. I think it's not going to be strong enough at the joints. I put it together the other day and found that when I lift it, it turn into a U. There is another mast that I can use, but it is not long enough. I need about 30 feet. I do have the guy wires for it now, so I hope that will work. I'll write about it more tonight after I try it out.

Well, the mast went up today. Now that its up I have to zero in my parabolic here on my tower. I'm crossing my fingers that I can get good signal over to the parts store. It's going to be really hard to zero it in also. I just have to keep messing with it. One person will be at the parts store and I will be up on my tower. Then I will make small adjustments to the dish until the signal comes in at the parts store. Fun fun fun.

Well, there it is. The Web Cam has been resurrected. I'm not sure how long it will last, but there it is.

In other news... I still have not put the antenna mast up at the auto parts store. I'm so busy with work and stuff that I have not had time to do it. I wanted to do it the other day, but the wind kicked up and I did not want to go out into it. Maybe I can get that setup tomorrow....Maybe.

I may have one more repeater going up on the south side of town. I know that there are many people interested in wireless internet over there. There is a guy on a hill that may let me put the repeater there. If so, then I should have at least three more customers at that time.

This week I need to find a way to get my repeater going at the parts store. The problem is getting the signal over the trees. My plan is to put the omni up on a 30' mast. That will get it up about 50' from the ground. That may be high enough for now, but when the trees grow leaves, it may still need to go up another 15 - 30 feet. The Fresnel zone is almost 30' at 2 miles. I have my tower up at 60'. That means that I have a 30' clearence under the Fresnel zone. That will clear most houses and small trees. But the trees in question are almost 50'. So I'm mostly screwed on this connection.