[Olsr-users] Ubiquiti Nanostation

[Robert Keyes]

On Sat, 6 Dec 2008, L. Aaron Kaplan wrote:

>
> On Dec 6, 2008, at 9:18 PM, Derek C wrote:
>
>> Hi Robert,
>> 
>> I'm using Nanostation 2s with Openwrt 8.09 with OLSRd (from the openwrt
>> feeds).
>> 
>> The lovely thing is that openwrt 8.09 will generate a bin file for the NS2
>> and you don't need to use the Ubiquiti mkfwimage application.

Very good to hear! Now, all I need is roof access, and some other people 
in my area to network with (I moved out of the city to the suburbs).

>> I have NS2s running in a housing estate now and they are working really
>> well - I think they are great.
>
> nice to hear - I will need to flash mine as well, they look neat :)
>
> So far I was using pc enginges Alix boards quite successfully. They are 
> great!

Alix boards are pretty nice. But for me, the decision for NS2 was based 
upon cost. I paid just over $50 for my NS2. How? By clever shopping. Let 
me explain:

You may be aware that Microsooft's search.live.com gives rebates on 
purchases from some retailers. Now, they have a special deal with ebay 
that you can also use to get rebates...I got a 30% rebate! But the rebate 
varies from day to day. You need to use ebay's buy-it-now, and pay with 
paypal, and have an account at live.com and be logged in to it. Then, 
search for something that triggers a link to ebay, such as 'ipod'. You'll 
see the rebate percentage for that day. Then follow the link to ebay 
through live.com, and you'll see that there is an icon showing that a 
live.com discount is active. You again verify this when you go to 'check 
out' at ebay/paypal. You pay the price, but then the money is returned to 
your paypal account. They say it might take up to thirty days, but for my 
purchases (I made several) the rebate was within one minute.

There are various restrictions and regulations that can present problems. 
Probably the most serious one is its limitation to residents of the United 
States (maybe ebay.de has a similar programme?). I imagine that this can 
be circumvented by having your paypal account set to use a US address and 
having the goods shipped to a US address.

I used this not only to buy an NS2, but a new Nvidia GTX 260 core 216 
Superclocked (high end video card) which I am going to use for it's 
computational ability, in such areas as DSP and crypto. I paid under $200 
for the card, brand new.

The reason why I am explaining my methodology here is that this 
live.com/ebay discount is a method for even non-technical people to 
contribute their efforts towards building wifi community networks. Non-US 
people may be able to get their US friends to help.

Oh, and by the way, I need a German bank account for another project. I'll 
trade a US one for a German one ;)

-Bob