The Q-Bridge 4-mile wireless point to point
By Ryan Block 
posted October 18th 2005 9:20AM
posted October 18th 2005 9:20AM
It's a wireless Ethernet bridge that links point A to point B up to four miles in
distance (assuming line of sight, of
course), just don't call it WiFi. Granted, it does appear to use long distance WiFi for hauling the data, but it's not
a WiFi solution, per se, it's an Ethernet solution intended meant to bridge two Ethernet devices (or networks) using
WEP encrypted WiFi as the medium. But hey, while we're on the topic, seriously, WEP encrypted WiFi on an integrated
$450 system? We know it's "budget" for those antennas and whatnot, but what do we have to do to get some WPA in the
house while we broadcast our data for miles around?
[Thanks, Scott]
So what's the target market segment here? Are there that many budget conscious households wanting to stretch signal for miles while limiting security?
Well I guess it would be useful if you were in the middle of the Navada desert and wanted to check your stocks....
Target market is businesses, of course. You save a ton on bandwidth costs by linking your production facility with your offices, for example.
Instead of running another T-1 to the factory, you run this... This would pay for itself in a month, tops.
And seeing that it's directional, I'm guessing the leakage ain't too large... But I don't know what the radiation pattern of the antenna looks like, so I can't tell you for sure.
But I would bet if you've got these things 30 feet above your roof properly pointed directly at each other, it wouldn't be all that easy to sniff traffic (but that's speculation).
Those look like about 14dBi antenna, so the pattern coming out of them would be quite wide. Even with 3' 24dBi dishes, the pattern is 7 degrees wide, which after 4 miles, is a fair bit of space.
According to the Data Sheet (http://www.connexwireless.com/Q-Bridge/about/Q-Bridge_datasheet.pdf) it will 64/128bit WEP, WPA or TKIP 802.1x.
Regarding WPA security.... WPA standard doesn't presently support bridge mode, only access point/client mode. The Q-Bridge supports WPA in client mode but not bridge mode. The WPA2 standard which will support WPA in bridge mode is not yet finalized. When finalized we will be adding to the product.