Thomas' Proposal for Wifi for Cocofest 2024

Primary Goal: Provide Wifi Internet for streaming presentations.

Secondary Goal: Provide Wifi Internet at retro speeds for retro computing.

Non Goal: Provide Wifi Internet for cell phones to watch YouTube.

Proposal:

Thomas has purchased ($188) three mesh routers "Eero Pro 6", plus he already has 2 more. That'll make a 5-node mesh.

We want to place the primary router outside, where Thomas says "I usually get 10 to 50 Mbit up with a good line of sight".

Try for line-of-sight from the outdoor Mesh node to an indoor mesh node, and another line-of-sight from that indoor node to the streaming computer (Consider a good Wifi antenna on the streaming computer). Better yet, Wired ethernet from the indoor node to the streaming computer.

What the Cocofest Conference, or someone who is not flying, can help with:

We need either 110V AC, or 12V DC (and ultimately 9V DC), at the outdoor mesh node.

Several alternatives:

Can the hotel provide 110V, and someone bring a big orange extension cord? Then we can use a wallwart to power the mesh node.

Or can someone (who is not flying) bring a good 12V (LiFePo4?) battery with a good amp-hours capacity. [notice, LiFePo capacity is temperature-dependent.] Then we'll apply a buck converter and regulator for the 9V the mesh node actually needs (around $20).

We can also get USB C PD 12v adapters and a bunch of giant USB c PD batteries

TODO: Determine the current draw at 12V of the mesh node.

Q: What mobile provider will we use?

T-Mobile, if it works well. "T-Mobile doesn't cost me anything at all."

Otherwise, Verizon. "Takes about 10 minutes to provision, costs about $40."

Q: Does each mesh router have an RJ45 LAN connection on it, too?

Yes.

But really, what will our bandwidth be?

It depends on many things, but mainly closeness and line-of-sight-ness.

"100 GB Verizon plan on US Mobile is $40. I can set that up in like 15 minutes if T-Mobile rate limits suddenly."

How much bandwidth does streaming to YouTube need?

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/78358?hl=en

Could someone measure what we actually use, next time Coco Nation broadcasts?