AlphaShield announces WiFi router with 1.2M square foot coverage

Canadian company AlphaShield has taken the wraps off its new AS-8800 wireless router, promising a mighty 1.2 million square feet of coverage (in ideal conditions, no doubt). Supposedly, the router's Power-G technology (not to be confused with Super-G, Xtreme-G, or Kenny G) gives it up to 20 times more power than traditional routers, allowing for the wireless signal to pass through concrete walls with ease and giving you speeds up to 108Mbps over a distance of 1,200 feet indoors and 3,900 feet outdoors. To round out the package, AlphaShield's also outfitted the router with no less than five Gigabet Ethernet ports, as well as a firewall, USB print server, and VPN support, among other standard router features. You'll have to wait a bit to put all that range to the test yourself, however, with the router set to launch in January for $250.

[marcos @ Dec 7th 2006 6:51PM]

mmmm. 20 times the cancer.

[Solareon @ Dec 7th 2006 6:53PM]

umm, yeah if it has more than 100mw of transmit power on 802.11b or g it is in violation of fcc regulations.

[adam.henson @ Dec 7th 2006 8:02PM]

Not necessarily, the FCC regulates EIRP output, which includes the antenna. The cap is 1 watt (1000mW) EIRP for an unlicensed access point handling point-to-multipoint traffic. With a 5 dBi antenna and 0dB of loss, this thing could go up to 300mW before nearing the limit:

10dB of gain will increase the EIRP by roughly 10x. 3dB of gain will increase the EIRP by roughly 2x.

5 = 3+3+3+3+3-10
but RF gains and losses are multiplicative/additive, ergo 5dB = 3dB*3dB*3dB*3dB*3dB/10dB

300mW*5dB = 300*2*2*2*2*2/10 = 960mW or 0.96W. Still under the limit.

[Juaquin @ Dec 7th 2006 6:55PM]

Sign me up. FCC be damned.

[Matt @ Dec 7th 2006 10:41PM]

Id be happy with it, my router barely goes 60 feet.

[Phillip P. @ Dec 7th 2006 7:04PM]

Just don't let your school children sit on top of these!

[ccb @ Dec 7th 2006 7:19PM]

I think the kids with the pointy hats (the glue-eaters) should be allowed to sit on the "magic" box.

[GJP303 @ Dec 7th 2006 7:21PM]

ha ha ha , that is absolutely the funnest thing i hears almost all day. They would feel the vibration like current and think they are special.

[KC @ Dec 7th 2006 7:20PM]

I think that's going to hit a few G spots!

[Manuel @ Dec 7th 2006 7:22PM]

Does it have a compartment for frying eggs at 20x speed ?

[Sizer @ Dec 7th 2006 7:22PM]

I would take this with a grain of salt. Even if the router can do 3900 feet outdoors, the client in your laptop certainly not going to be able to reply that distance with any sort of power. Ditto for punching through concrete walls. The station blasting like mad is only half of the equation.

[colek42 @ Dec 7th 2006 7:34PM]

Thats not that far...about 550 ft [(sqrt(1,200,000 ft^2))/2]=548ft. It is nice marketing though, 1.2 Million sounds like quite a bit.

[chenry @ Dec 7th 2006 7:47PM]

wow sound like fun!

[KYDS3K @ Dec 7th 2006 7:50PM]

wow, i'd like to see that one British author who claims she can "feel" wifi come within a few feet of this . . . her head'd probably EXPLODE!

[LukeA @ Dec 7th 2006 8:20PM]

That's a 625 ft radius.

[atomicthumbs @ Dec 7th 2006 8:47PM]

If you have a ham radio license, you can use up to 100 watts on Wi-fi and other Part 15 services (like Bluetooth).

[Thrall @ Dec 7th 2006 8:54PM]

"yeah if it has more than 100mw of transmit power on 802.11b or g it is in violation of fcc regulations."

My WRT54G running DD-WRT is sending its stuff out at 250mw and it seems fine....

[Lee @ Dec 7th 2006 10:24PM]

@atomicthumbs:
True, but the rest of the rules that govern the amateur radio licenses would make it slightly difficult to utilize said abilities. Mainly, the rule about identifying your station every 10 minutes.

[Paul @ Dec 7th 2006 10:25PM]

"umm, yeah if it has more than 100mw of transmit power on 802.11b or g it is in violation of fcc regulations"

You couldn't be more wrong.

I work for a small ISP in northern California that does some wireless shots to homes/businesses outside the range of more conventional internet.
I'm not sure what the limit (if there even is one) on transmit power for 802.11b/g is but it is undeniably no less than 400mw, and I'm 99% sure you're even ok going up to 2 watts, although I know for sure you are fine going up to 1 watt.

[Paul @ Dec 7th 2006 10:33PM]

A quick source to back up my previous post

http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/1428941

"The FCC eases EIRP limitations for fixed, point-to-point systems that use higher gain directive antennas. If the antenna gain is at least 6 dBi, the FCC allows operation up to 4 watts EIRP. This is 1 watt (the earlier limitation) plus 6 dB of gain."

"When using omni-directional antennas having less than 6 dB gain in this scenario, the FCC rules require EIRP to be 1 watt (1,000 milliwatts) or less."


So 1 watt omni and 4 watts for a point to point airshot using directional antennas

[Paul @ Dec 7th 2006 10:44PM]

"wow, i'd like to see that one British author who claims she can "feel" wifi come within a few feet of this . . . her head'd probably EXPLODE!"

While I doubt being sensitive enough to radio waves to be able to feel your average home router, you CAN feel high powered radio waves.

There is a clock tower my company has some equipment in and at the top are 16 sector antennas owned by cingular wireless, each transmitting at 5-10 watts. When you step onto the top floor you can FEEL it...

[clayton.coffman @ Dec 7th 2006 10:59PM]

Id rather have a very short range Wifi solution (say no bigger than a normal office sized room, (or even a desktop) for security.

[BradStar @ Dec 7th 2006 11:48PM]

I was going to be a little confused there..

And then I saw the m was for miles, not meters.

Stupid metric system...

[Mile @ Dec 8th 2006 6:46AM]

Did they buy Orinoco? Looks like my old Orinoco WAP from the 90's.

[Vagrant @ Dec 8th 2006 8:23PM]

Grab yourself a card that can "push" the signal back. As previously mentioned, just because you can "see" the AP, doesn't mean you can transmit back to complete the connection.

Demarctech has 200mW cards. Both PCMCIA and miniPCI. I have the PCMCIA card and you can slap an antenna on it and b00m.
http://www.demarctech.com/products/reliawave-rwc/reliawave-rwc-200mw-atheros-802.11bg-mini-pci-card.html

[Joe Anderson @ Dec 14th 2006 4:03PM]

Of course WiFi gives schoolkids cancer: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6172257.stm