New Wi-Fi Record Connection established between 237 Miles

A Venezuelan establishes a wireless internet connection between a PC in El Aguila and Platillon mountains, Venezuela, 237 miles distance with basic Linksys routers and hacked parts.

A Venezuelan techie apparently has set a new record for longest Wi-Fi link.

Venezuelan networking Guru Ermanno Pietrosemoli established a wireless connection between a PC in El Aguila, Venezuela and one in Platillon Mountain a distance of 237 miles. He used just the basic set of equipments such as Linksys WRT54 routers, antennas and a few hacked parts. You can see the presentation here how they did this. Berkley University collaborated with Pietrosemoli on this research and were able to establish this Wi-Fi record.

The previous record was 193 miles established between a balloon and an Earth bound PC, which cuts down the risk of signal bouncing obstacles.

Pietrosemoli was able to do this connection in the mountain ranges and boonies and didn't have much signal interference. He wants to extend this range even more if possible. His main purpose was to establish a Wi-Fi connection so everyone can use without any problems. In isolated areas where there are no cable options, he said Wi-Fi would provide them the internet connection.

Venezuelan establishing Wi-Fi connection. Image Ref: Wired.com

Here are the project contributors:

• This work was funded by ICA-IDRC
• Dr. Eric Brewer from Berkeley University provided the wireless routers with the modified MAC for long distance, as well as enthusiastic support through his collaborator, Sonesh Surana
• RedULA, CPTM, Dirección de Servicios ULA and Fundacite Mérida contributed to this trial
• Roger Coudé, author of the free Radio Mobile Software, which has been so useful to the international wireless community

Fantastic job by Pietrosemoli, if this setup can be offered as a commercial option, will be a great boon for developing countries and rural areas.