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RChadwick

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Posts posted by RChadwick

    Poor Wifi Signal Range

    in WiFi Pineapple Mark IV

    Posted

    I can confirm I had this issue as well. Horrible signal. I replaced the pigtail with a new one I happened to have around, and the signal was fine. Also, while I was changing the pigtail, the cable actually pulled out of the SMA connector. Maybe a bad batch? Fortunately, they're cheap on ebay, and easy to replace.

    Testing Usb Devices

    in WiFi Pineapple Mark IV

    Posted

    Thanks for the replies. I wanted to test the usb ports/hub/devices before moving on, and scratching my head over mysterious symptoms. I was hoping to find something that can test over and over, revealing any errors, but I'll give these a try. Thanks again.

    Mk4 Usb Port Problems? Read This.

    in WiFi Pineapple Mark IV

    Posted

    I just took measurements to confirm this. If you want to reliably use your MK4 Wifi Pineapple with something plugged into the MK4 USB port, you need to power it with 7 to 15 volts. If you're not using the USB port, you can get by powering the MK4 with 5 volts from a USB port.

    The reason is because the hardware uses two separate regulators. One lowers the input to 3.3v the wireless hardware uses, and the other lowers the input to 5V for the USB port. Problem is, these regulators need a volt or two to work. So, if you expect to get 5V out, you need to put more than 5V in. For those interested, here were the results of my quick measurements:

    With 5V input, the USB output voltage varied between 3.90V and 4.10V, with no load

    With 5.5V input, the USB output voltage was 4.6V, with no load

    With 6V input, the USB output voltage was 5.03V, with no load

    I didn't plug anything into the USB port (A load), and suspect these voltages will go even lower with a load.

    Depending on the USB device you use, it might work with a 5V input, but don't expect it to be reliable.

    Questions About Ap121U Hardware

    in WiFi Pineapple Mark IV

    Posted

    Another issue... USB Ports I think originally were supposed to put out an even 5V (Been a while, I could be wrong), but 5.5V seems popular nowadays. If I'm right about all this, a 5.5v USB port will work much more reliably than a 5V USB port. I still wouldn't run it at 5.5V personally, but it might be somewhat reliable in some circumstances. Maybe that's how Alfa claims this can run from a USB port?

    Questions About Ap121U Hardware

    in WiFi Pineapple Mark IV

    Posted

    I wanted to chime on this topic after I actually took some measurements, but from looking around inside, I'm reasonably sure of this. There appears to be two step-down regulators inside the Alfa. One likely steps the 12V down to 3.3V required by the chipset, and the other likely steps the 12V down to 5V for the USB port. Problem is, these regulators need a volt or so to work, so the 5V regulator really needs 6 or 7 volts to work properly. If you run the MK4 from a 5V supply, my guess is the unit itself will work fine, but anything plugged into the USB port will be running on a flaky 3 or 4 volts. From reading the forums, it seems at least some USB devices work on the lower voltage, but obviously some don't. If you're using the USB port, you'll either need 7 to 12 volts, or a powered USB hub. Personally, I wouldn't run a USB device at 4 volts. Just asking for trouble.

    I won't be able to actually measure the voltage on the USB port until Tomorrow or Tuesday. Will post my findings when I do.

    [How-to] Enable Usb Mass Storage With Swap Partition

    in WiFi Pineapple Mark IV

    Posted

    That did the trick. For anyone else that comes across this problem. It looks like updating the firmware with the usb drive in was the difference. If you update the firmware and reconfigure things you might wanna do it with the usb drive out. Second time around and I am back up and running.

    Thanks for the help.

    I'm wondering if this might have been a one-time issue, or if it's always recommended to remove the USB drive when updating? I wanted to mount my 32GB Sandisk Cruzer fit inside the MK4, and it'd be a real pain to unplug it.

    Connecting 'internet' And 'non-Internet' Networks

    in Business and Enterprise IT

    Posted

    I'm setting up a network for a small business. Since there is extremely sensitive data on the network, and I want to go the extra mile, I'm dividing the network into two totally separate networks. One will be connected to the Internet. On here will be secretary's computers, computers with non-essential data, and the web server. The private network will have No connection whatsoever to the Internet. I don't wish to incriminate myself, but lets just say the only way I'll feel comfortable saying the private network can't be hacked is if it's physically disconnected from the Internet. My problem is, I need to share files between the networks. I'd like it to be automated, not a sneakernet. At first, I was thinking of a serial connection, running something like ZModem on both ends. I suppose this is still Plan B, but I was hoping for something faster, more modern, and something simpler to deal with (No separate ZModem program). Then, I was thinking of a small NAS that had both a USB and Ethernet connection. However, I've heard you can't use both at the same time. On the one I found where you can, the USB connection is actually a network connection. Now I know I could probably come up with something like this using a managed switch, or maybe a computer with certain protocols disabled, or maybe just a firewall. What I want is something I couldn't hack into, assuming I knew the entire network acrhitecture, and all passwords. If I can configure something to disable access, I can configure it to enable access, right? I can't be the first person who thought of this. How does everyone else share files securely between networks like this?

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