In alt.internet.wireless A. Dumas  wrote:
> Computer Nerd Kev wrote, on 20-04-2019 03:32:
>> A Pi ZeroW is on its way. I might see how I go with the onboard
>> WiFi for starters, Perhaps putting a heatsink on the WiFi chip
>> will help against the burn-out issues as it's presumably due to
>> something overheating.
>
> I saw that earlier in the thread but that seemed like bullshit where
> they manually tried to boost the power to the wifi chip, maybe removing
> a resistor somewhere or otherwise cranking up the voltage, I don't know.
> Don't do that, obviously.

I do plan to add an external antenna. With RF anything is possible,
but in theory I don't think that should increase the risk, and if the
Pi needs to use less power or do fewer retransmissions, that may help
prevent overheating in relative terms.

> Bandwidth will be the issue, wifi up & down on all channels (uplink,
> clients) going over 1 shared USB2 connection, including storage traffic
> if you want something a little more reliable than an sd card. Maybe you
> figured out it will suffice in your situation but I fear for the
> practical result.

Well I know that this is simplifying things, but I currently get
< 300KBytes/s speed with 3G mobile broadband (poor reception, I do
hope to increase that with 4G and the better antenna, but I do
alright with it). USB2 can in theory manage 60MBytes/s, so if you
have 300KBytes going in to the Pi from the modem (granted there will
be some extra handshaking data going to/from the modem as well, but
presumably not that much), then there's a lot of bandwidth still
there for getting the data to the WiFi interface.

> Of course, putting this all together won't be a one time job, you'll
> have to maintain it and that would ultimately put me off; you're just
> shifting the work to a dead end.

Using OpenWRT (which I am already) at least means that if something
breaks after an update, there should be clear instructions on how to
get it working as a router again. On the update side of things the Pi
is a big advantage as well, because currently updating the OpenWRT
firmware requires wiring up the serial port via a level converter,
remembering how to start/configure the tftp server software (my
traditional stumbling point) while the router is connected to a PC
via an ethernet cable (NOT a broken one - kept me confused for quite
a while last time), then hoping that it doesn't get interrupted
mid-way and brick the thing (which is why I especially like having
the spare (actually spares)).

For the Pi I can just write an SD card image, and keep an old card
with the previous install in case it doesn't work. Heaven!

Granted there may be easier processes with some other routers (though
the ones that I found when choosing last time were mostly harder).

That said, using OpenWRT means that configuring my HTTP - HTTPS proxy
will be a lot harder. Still much easier than trying to keep all of my
preferred software and hardware compatible with HTTPS though.

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