WSG 4000 vs. Instant Hotspot vs. ZyAir B-4000

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All of these boxes appear to be the same product.

Are they?

Who really makes them?

Any actual difference?

Any better products out there?

Thanks,

Brew
 
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On 5 Jul 2004 09:12:46 -0700, brewerja@yahoo.com (brewgle) wrote:

>All of these boxes appear to be the same product.

What boxes. Oh, I see. I'm suppose to cut and paste them from the
subject. Could I trouble you in the future to accomidate those few
that prefer all the useful information in the body of the message
instead of scattered in the title, signature, attachments, and VCF?

>Are they?

Dunno. The easy way to trace the lineage of these devices is to
obtain the FCC ID number from the box and research their FCC filings.
http://www.fcc.gov/oet/fccid/
https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/GenericSearch.cfm
Warning: It's really slow and tricky to use. It's also difficult to
search by manufacturer. The PDF files tend to be huge.

>Who really makes them?

Dunno. The FCC ID search failed to find anything for WSG, Instant
Hotspot, and ZyAir. The FCC numbers would be a big help. Ahah!
ftp://ftp.zyxel.com/ZyAIR_B-4000/document/ZyAIR_B-4000_FCCDOC_Certification.jpg
Ugh. That didn't work.

Just type "Zyxel" in the manufactures field in the FCC ID generic
search page, wait forever, and you'll get a list of 58 of their
products. Of course, there's no way to navigate directly to the last
page, so you have to slog your way through 5 incredibly slow pages. I
couldn't find anything that matched a model number of B-4000.
However, when I went through some of the photos trying to find a
likely match, I found that many of the circuit boards shown has
"Zygate" inscribed on the silk screening and on the test reports which
implies that they at least make some of their own hardware. Lots of
the pictures were corrupted so I wasn't able to check for similar
products. Decoding the numbering system, I would think that the FCC
ID should be I88-B4000. However, nothing shows up on the search. I
would question whether it has passed FCC and can be sold.

I'll let you do the digging for WSG and Instant Hotspot.

>Any actual difference?

>Any better products out there?

Lacking proper disclosure, I deduce that you're building a coffee shop
hotspot. I've rolled my own using replacement firmware for Linksys
WRT54G routers. However, they were for free hotspots so a billing
system wasn't necessary. I've found that including snort in the
firmware is a big help with security (to prevent someone from using
the coffee shop for spamming). I didn't see any of that on the data
sheets.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558
 
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Jeff,
As a first-class-smart-a$$ myself, I appreciate you sarcasm.

I also appreciate that you put an effort into finding answers.

Yes, I'm putting hotspots in some businesses.

No, billing is really not an issue. My biggest desire is to have
users initially redirected to a designated page, then let them go
free. Oh, and I want the wireless folks to never see the hardwired
network.

I have read a bit about the WRT54G mods and I believe the splashpage
part is part of the package. I don't know if all the effort is worth
it. Any feedback here?

Brew



Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote in message news:<a30je0dd1ajq1048uvie4r7stkpd6cpmi3@4ax.com>...
> On 5 Jul 2004 09:12:46 -0700, brewerja@yahoo.com (brewgle) wrote:
>
> >All of these boxes appear to be the same product.
>
> What boxes. Oh, I see. I'm suppose to cut and paste them from the
> subject. Could I trouble you in the future to accomidate those few
> that prefer all the useful information in the body of the message
> instead of scattered in the title, signature, attachments, and VCF?
>
> >Are they?
>
> Dunno. The easy way to trace the lineage of these devices is to
> obtain the FCC ID number from the box and research their FCC filings.
> http://www.fcc.gov/oet/fccid/
> https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/GenericSearch.cfm
> Warning: It's really slow and tricky to use. It's also difficult to
> search by manufacturer. The PDF files tend to be huge.
>
> >Who really makes them?
>
> Dunno. The FCC ID search failed to find anything for WSG, Instant
> Hotspot, and ZyAir. The FCC numbers would be a big help. Ahah!
> ftp://ftp.zyxel.com/ZyAIR_B-4000/document/ZyAIR_B-4000_FCCDOC_Certification.jpg
> Ugh. That didn't work.
>
> Just type "Zyxel" in the manufactures field in the FCC ID generic
> search page, wait forever, and you'll get a list of 58 of their
> products. Of course, there's no way to navigate directly to the last
> page, so you have to slog your way through 5 incredibly slow pages. I
> couldn't find anything that matched a model number of B-4000.
> However, when I went through some of the photos trying to find a
> likely match, I found that many of the circuit boards shown has
> "Zygate" inscribed on the silk screening and on the test reports which
> implies that they at least make some of their own hardware. Lots of
> the pictures were corrupted so I wasn't able to check for similar
> products. Decoding the numbering system, I would think that the FCC
> ID should be I88-B4000. However, nothing shows up on the search. I
> would question whether it has passed FCC and can be sold.
>
> I'll let you do the digging for WSG and Instant Hotspot.
>
> >Any actual difference?
>
> >Any better products out there?
>
> Lacking proper disclosure, I deduce that you're building a coffee shop
> hotspot. I've rolled my own using replacement firmware for Linksys
> WRT54G routers. However, they were for free hotspots so a billing
> system wasn't necessary. I've found that including snort in the
> firmware is a big help with security (to prevent someone from using
> the coffee shop for spamming). I didn't see any of that on the data
> sheets.
 
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On 5 Jul 2004 15:47:31 -0700, brewerja@yahoo.com (brewgle) wrote:

>As a first-class-smart-a$$ myself, I appreciate you sarcasm.

Sorry, I lack subtlety, tact, remourse, diplomacy, and netiquette.
It's much easier to deliver a sane answer if you kindly disclose what
you are trying to accomplish. Many people paint themselves into a
corner and only ask how long it takes for the paint to dry, rather
than ask for help on painting the floor.

>I also appreciate that you put an effort into finding answers.

I spend quite a bit of time on the FCC web pile looking at photos of
boxes and reading test reports. Lots of schematics, block diagrams,
and real specifications. Anyway, I trashed about 2 hours trying to
find the Zyxel (ZyAir) B-4000. Nothing.

>Yes, I'm putting hotspots in some businesses.

Yep. Lots of ways to do that. See list below.

>No, billing is really not an issue. My biggest desire is to have
>users initially redirected to a designated page, then let them go
>free.

That's a common feature where port 80 gets redirected to local web
server with a signup page. See NoCatAuth at:
http://nocat.net

>Oh, and I want the wireless folks to never see the hardwired
>network.

Swell. I posted a rant on various ways to do that last week. Digging
on Google:

http://www.google.com/groups?selm=ok6rd05dskhorur3v4hndmpsfn36mt7v2o%404ax.com
There are probably other ways, but those are the ones I concocted for
the ocassion.

>I have read a bit about the WRT54G mods and I believe the splashpage
>part is part of the package. I don't know if all the effort is worth
>it. Any feedback here?

We have a group using those for free hotspots in the People's
Republiic of Santa Cruz at:
http://www.thirdbreak.org
Lots of other people doing it judging by the huge traffic on various
mailing list. It does have one advantage in that it concentrates
quite a bit of server related features into the access point for very
little cost. That's not the way I like to do things. I prefer a
brain dead wireless bridge connected to a more intelligent and
capeable server. Having the radio seperate from the
router/firewall/authentication/yadah-yadah allows versatility,
flexibility in choice of radio, and ease of locating the radio (away
from the router/switch where all the CAT5 LAN wires meet).

WRT54G router links.
http://www.portless.net/ewrt/index.html
http://openwrt.ksilebo.net
http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/LinksysWrt54g
http://www.batbox.org/wrt54g-linux.html
http://nocat.net/wiki/
http://wifi-box.sourceforge.net

Another all your eggs in one box solution are SBC (single board
computahs) designed for wireless applications. One such manufacturer
is conventiently located in the People Replublic of Santa Cruz (so
they get a plug):
http://www.soekris.com
One to three ethernet ports, one or two radios, compact flash
filesystem, runs Linux, fairly cheap. Also used by BAWRN (Bay Area
Wireless Reseach Network):
http://www.barwn.org/docs/BARWN_outdoor_router.pdf
There are other boards that will work but this is the only one I've
played with.

What I've been doing is fairly weird. I find that strip malls with
coffee shops tend to have neighboring shops that want internet access
but don't want to see each others networks. The usual and most
expensive solution is to get 5ea static IP's and 5 routers shared on
one DSL line. For routers, I've been using Freesco:
http://www.freesco.org
which supports up to 10 ethernet cards. The 802.11b wireless gets one
port. Bluetooth gets another. Metricom goes on the serial port (PPP
login). The other ports go to various seperate businesses. DHCP
delivers seperate class c IP blocks to each business and radio.

If that sounds like too much work or too messy, there are ready to run
solutions on Sourceforge.net. Go to:
http://sourceforge.net/search
and inscribe the word "hotspot" as the seach key. Looks like 5 good
and 5 more so-so solutions.

Gotta run...

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558
 
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On Mon, 05 Jul 2004 17:12:05 -0700, Jeff Liebermann
<jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us> wrote:

>>Oh, and I want the wireless folks to never see the hardwired
>>network.
>
>Swell. I posted a rant on various ways to do that last week. Digging
>on Google:
>
>http://www.google.com/groups?selm=ok6rd05dskhorur3v4hndmpsfn36mt7v2o%404ax.com
>There are probably other ways, but those are the ones I concocted for
>the ocassion.

Here's another way to seperate the public and private LAN's.
One routeable IP address. Two routers. Double NAT. Ugly, but worth
considering:
http://www.publicip.net/index_sub.php?show=gateway&from=hotspots


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 AE6KS 831-336-2558
 
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here's what I found when I was looking around
to see how Panera Bread was installing their free hotspots
with the ability to handle any IP address and the various
port/protocols -
I think Panera was using the Orinoco AP2500 -
http://www.goqgo.com/ComparePlatforms.html
If you have a Panera Bread Wifi anywhere near you,
give it a try -
Here's the single box that Panera Bread and others are using -
It looks pretty amazing, with everything you really need
to setup a wireless hotspot -
It is the Orinoco AP-2500 access point -
--
Here's the answer - and the hardware they are using :)
<http://www.proxim.com/products/wifi/ap/ap2500/>
Phil -