PowerNOC's All-in-One WORT54G
I recently got my hands on another PowerNOC product for some testing. The WORT54G Outdoor Wireless Client Router is an outdoor-ruggedized power-over-ethernet capable wireless router with an integrated 14dBi directional antenna.
I was a bit surprised by what I found. Click the "read more" link to learn the deep, dark, secrets of the PowerNOC WORT54G.
The PowerNOC WORT54G inside its integrated antenna/housing.
What is it?
PowerNOC sells 3 versions of this device:
Front view of the All-in-One WORT54G
The PowerNOC alongside its parent, the LinkSys WRT54G.
The Hardware
I was only a little shocked to find out that the WORT54G is a repackaged WRT54G.
The model number suggests that this might be the case, and clicking around the PowerNOC site reveals that they aren't exactly trying to hide the fact:
Their support page, for example, has the source code for their flash images (as well as the binary) available for download.
And this diagram of their "standard" outdoor enclosure quite openly admits to being "a WRT54G Outdoor Case"
The WRT54G itself needs little introduction. It is probably the most widespread and affordable embedded Linux machine ever.
Poor Man's Power Over Ethernet, Part 2
The last PowerNOC product I reviewed cleverly solved the POE problem by including some 3M splices and instructions to cut the power cord and splice the two sections of it to an unused pair in the Cat5 cable. The WORT54G takes this a step further by soldering jumper wires and a 1N4003 rectifier diode between the power receptacle and the appropriate pins on ethernet port 1. Voila! real power-over-ethernet.
A closeup of the POE modification, a diode and jumper wires
Power can be supplied to the PowerNOC by splicing the negative terminal of the power supply to both wires of the brown pair (pins 7 and 8) on a standard Cat5 cable and splicing both wires of the blue pair (pins 4 and 5) to the positve terminal of the power supply. Both wires of each pair are used to reduce the resistance and increase the current capacity of the cable.
The PowerNOC can also be powered by a standard 802.3af power injector or by a POE capable switch. The industry standard 48 volts might be a bit harsh on the WRT54G's voltage regulators, though. If your equipment supports a lower voltage, it is probably a good idea.
The Antenna/Case
The weatherproof enclosure/antenna that comes with this version of the PowerNOC WORT54G is a Pacific Wireless RT24-14 "RooTenna" (available from the manufacturer for $47.95 at the time of this writing)
The RooTenna is not limited to being used with PowerNOC equipment, and can be used with any wireless device that will fit in the enclosure, including a standard WRT54G. The device is held in place with nylon ty-wraps that are threaded through anchors inside the enclosure. The aluminum back of the RooTenna is sealed with a gasket and is held onto the antenna/front with 8 screws. Cables are run through a plastic cable gland in the backplate, and there are 4 threaded mounting rods protruding from the backplate.
I liked the RooTenna enclosure better than the steel enclosure of the standard PowerNOC devices. There are wasps here in Mississippi that will fill any kind of small hole with mud and turn it into a nest. Any unused Ethernet port on the standard (steel) PowerNOC enclosure is protected from rain, but accessible from the bottom of the box. The gasket-seal and cable gland of the RooTenna look like they would be much more resistant to water and wasps.
The Software
PowerNOC's branded firmware image looks and feels alot like Sveasoft Alchemy. Client mode and Bandwidth Throttling/QOS is turned on by default, traffic on the wireless port is limited to 512kbps down/384kbps up, which makes sense in a WISP environment.
Since PowerNOC has made their firmware available on their site, you can learn more about it by loading it on a LinkSys WRT54G and test-driving it than you can from reading about it in this article. One caution, though -- the current PowerNOC firmware will NOT work with v4 or v5 LInkSys hardware. I found this out when a co-worked "bricked" two (v4) routers by loading the PowerNOC image on them and I had to do the "short pins 15 and 16 on the flash chip" trick to bring them back from the dead. Hardware V3.1 and below worked fine for me, though.
Conclusion -- Is it worth it?
PowerNOC markets these devices mostly to the Wireless ISP (WISP) market. List price for this equipment runs from $279-299 for single units to $169 in quantities of 100 -- too steep for the home user, but dirt cheap compared to outdoor WiFi gear from Tropos and Alvarion.
It is certainly possible to make a WORT54-like device yourself for much less that what PowerNOC charges for one, especially if you are handy with a soldering iron. If you don't need POE, it is even easier.
In other words, I (personally) wouldn't buy one because I am a cheapskate who likes to tinker. I would, however, recommend them to a customer that needed 100 wireless CPE devices -- right now! -- and wanted an "out of the box" solution with no "hacking" required.
That's the beauty of Capitalism