Sorry if this is a little disjointed. I'm half asleep (which is usually when I get ideas - always a dangerous thing especially when I'm half asleep). ;-)
Every summer the CLL at the Aboriginal Centre shuts down for the month of August. Normally I ask the owners of the parent company (a recycler) if I can borrow some equipment for both July and August so I can learn more about specific computer related things. Normally they are topics discussed here or at the MUUG meetings. I know it is only almost April but why wait until the last second... The owners (Alvin and Karen) usually like me to have some clear goals in mind when I propose a project. As a result I thought I'd bounce a few ideas off the pros and semi-pros here...
Thanks to Rob D. I think I finally have my head wrapped around the concept of port forwarding. A couple of months ago he asked me to set up a Minecraft server for development purposes and so far things seem to work.
My current physical assets are a D-Link 655 wireless router, and a (Debian) LAMP server running on a G4 server (which I should update soon), a USB "N" dongle which may or may not work, a Mac Mini which can connect to the router via the "G" protocol, and an external antenna for the router. Oh and I have those two Check Point wired routers.
Chris H. says when the router is running the "N" protocol in the house the range is the edge of the property in the front and can not be picked up from the back. Inside the house was no problem. The router was located on the ground floor near the front of the house. The guys from the seniors radio club think it might be because of the stucco on the house. I could re-position the antenna to be in front of the front window.
Anyhow the ideas I had were to try a bit more on the port forwarding thing by having second machine connected to the router and use the router as the main method of connecting to the services I am running. As before this would not be connected to the internet. The method I used last time was to connect to the IP of the LAMP server (eg. 192.168.X.Y instead of the router at 192.168.X.1 port 80).
Then I'd try to extend the range to the back yard by using a second router at the back of the house. The second router would get the wireless signal from the first and repeat it.
I'd like to know if there are any routers, custom built or out of the box, which will say transmit with the "G" AND "N" protocols as opposed to the "G" OR "N" protocols. The D-Link router will allow the first connection to determine subsequent connections. For example of the first connection is a "G" connection those wishing to connect with the "N" protocol only will not be able to do so. My temporary solution is to limit the router to "N" only. This means my Mac Mini can't connect since it doesn't support "N". With some fancy wiring I suppose I could use a couple of wireless routers together and have each do a different protocol.
Since the Lab is switching the classroom to Windows 7 and half the machines are running cards which don't have new drivers (and don't work) I may be able to snag some "G" cards for testing under Linux. Are there any G/N cards people here would recommend to the parent company? I'm thinking if they are going to order a bunch they may as well order some spares (and I can use one for testing).
So far I'm looking to request a PC (to run Ubuntu Server and Minecraft) and an "N" router. Maybe a couple of PCI NICs and another external antenna. Do folks here think my ideas are clear enough to bring to the owners?
I had half a dozen more ideas when I started but forgot most of them when I turned on the computer. ;-) Is there anything more which would be worth checking out given I am a slow learner with a high level of frustration at the moment?
Later Mike