Includes: Hot water, Hydro, and Internet?

Moving into a new place can be chaotic, thankfully the internet traditionally makes the transition easier by providing local information such as grocery store hours. Talking to my new landlord he assured me that internet was included, though he mentioned that it was localized to the living room window that should have been my first clue...

Sure enough coming in after class I popped my laptop open excitedly and checked my airport list, not knowing the SSID I tried a few of the available ones with the password I had been given; no luck. Thankfully I had great cell reception and after a brief conversation with the landlord I had an SSID to hunt for. Apparently my laptop battery has decided to work again so I was able to trot outside in the rain down the end of the house to pull up the network. One Nifty trick I discovered for identifying the quality of a connection was to [ hold option button + click on airport icon ] this revealed the severity of my problem.

{Picture of above}

View of the airport drop down window

Receive Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) -80 with a transmit rate of 1 ?!? Well at least it existed... Armed with this knowledge and a preferred network connection I popped open istumbler and began walking in a grid around my apartment. The living room and kitchen area had an average RSSI of -87 with the majority of the space failing to discover the connection at all. Similarly the bathroom was patchy, though the back of the shower produced a dazzling -75 for a brief period. At last near the end of my mattress a somewhat stable -80 zone appeared, it felt like going back to dial up but at least I could check my email. Suffice it to say this was unacceptable! Internet is a pretty major staple of my diet, far more so than the 'cable' that I could apparently connect into in the living room. So I weighed my options...
a) Complain to the landlord in the hopes that eventually he would do something -
b) Phone shaw and order service for my suite alone - high cost and delay
c) Ask to modify his router with a directional parabolic antenna - That's a hard sell
d) Find a repeater - High cost?

After a brief stint on google sitting out in the rain I pulled up information on converting your router into a repeater using DD-WRT via lifehacker Ideally I would have an old router lying around, but my recent mobile lifestyle has left me used electronics light. So of course option 2 is a involved a brief visit to craigslist.

This one looks good

Pulling up the specific model number led me to the WRT 54G v3 model DD WRT wiki as well as a wealth of supplemental information available at the bottom of the post. Sifting through the bulk of this was a great way to pass the time in class and by the end of the day I was sufficiently terrified of bricking the router to begin. Or at least that was my assumption...

While this post and similarly my internet should have gone live a solid week ago however I never would have guessed picking up a router would be a problem. My first clue as to the sceptical origen of the router I had selected came when my contact neglected to leave a contact phone number and instead told me to email him closer to the time. Finishing up my course work early I realized that I would be down at our appointed meeting location (the Starbucks at 330 W Broadway) a good hour before I had anticipated. No matter I dashed off a quick email informing him of this fact and would be somewhat early and proceeded down to the coffee shop.

5pm - Glancing around at the assembled patrons I can see no one likely to be hiding a router about their person. I checked behind the counter briefly in the hope that the barista was making some extra money on the side selling off Bell access points.

5:05pm - Squeezing into one of the tables in direct line of the door I pop open my laptop and take a quick nibble at my newly acquired cookie; no reply.

5:30pm - The dregs of my coffee are getting cold, ah well I guess he doesn't regularly check his email

6:00pm - A sketchy looking man enters carrying several bags of mismatched items; I look up eagerly trying desperately to catch his gaze. Glazed eyes drift over me as he shuffles to the back of the coffee shop. Not perturbed I call out the name of the contact i'm supposed to meet...nothing. Crestfallen I turn back to my laptop and fire off another email to him letting him know I was there and what I looked like (Tall, dark and unbelievably handsome!)

6:18pm - An older gentleman walks in purposefully his beady eyes rake over the motley collection of addicts, the eyes of a buyer. The sketchy gentlemen from earlier is away likely taking advantage of the free soap in the bathroom leaving his possessions huddled against the wall. "Are you looking for Graham?" I ask, perhaps he knew something more than I did about my mystery contact.

6:25pm - Nope! Well at the very least we were looking for someone interested in selling both a candelabra and a router, odd...

6:30pm - Returning from the bathroom the gentleman of interest is spotted by my new friend who trots over to ask him if he's got a candelabra. The man wags his head back and forth, some vague semblance of language dribbles out between cracked lips. Similarly defeated the man rejoins me to wait.

6:40pm - A third man walks in, cash in hand. I'm beginning to wonder if this is some elaborate social experiment to lure strangers into an awkward social bonding experience. Coming to the same conclusion as we had the third man approached the tempting collection of objects festooned around around the far table. "Graham?" we hear him ask. Without batting an eyelash the man reaches into one of his bags and pulls out a collection CD's and trades it for the mans fistful of cash. Observing this exchange in silence I match skeptical eyebrows with candelabra man.


For what ever reason Graham seemed to have determined that both of us were not to be blessed with a sale that day. Could he have thought we were undercover cops? Was he worried that I would have attempted to hurl him through the confectionary cabinet for wasting my time? Regardless there was no point in waiting around and after a few final attempts to coax a router out of this mysterious merchant I departed the Starbucks empty handed.


{Picture of the router, E cable, router, beer}
Resources required

For safety sake I decided to use firefox to flash the device

Additional Links
[1] Peacock expansive WW DRT forum thread
[2] DD WRT Installation guide
[3] Linksys WRT54G v3 wiki
[4] Parabolic Antenna Forum post
[5] Free Parabolic Antenna Template