Enhancing the wifi and buying more parts

Yesterday I fixed the choke points in the parish wifi network.  Today involved more diagnostics, improving, and enhancing the deployed router configuration. Johnny and I went around the parish looking at the wifi speed at various point (router/access point) of the Wifi network.  When I previously instructed Johnny to put the routers on different channels, I did not take into account the wifi signals from other sources that would be present around the parish. Reconfiguring the parish routers to broadcast on a less busy channel would make the wifi connection to the router more optimum. 

Looking at the speed in the lounge 

Looking at the internet speeds from the secretary's office

Therefore, I downloaded the free version of inSSIDer on Johnny's computer so that I could look at the different channels that the routers broadcast on. I then told Johnny that for the routers to work more efficiently, each router should broadcast on a different channel so that it does not overlap with the signals from the other routers and become less strong. We switched the channels of the two main routers that the missionaries used so that the signals would be stronger and the internet would be more consistent. Below is a picture of the tool inSSIDer and all the wifi signals in the parish (click to enlarge)!

using inSSIDer, a tool that diagnoses the channels of surrounding wifi

 I also tested out some old routers that Johnny had. I checked to see if they are still functional, but I couldn't get them to work because they are either unresponsive to a reset toa  factory settings or they reboot itself randomly. It would be nice if these routers function so that Johnny can use them as replacement if the deployed routers failed in the future in the hot and dusty Piura weather.

Repurposing and testing out the old routers

I went with Johnny to downtown Piura to buy some new equipment for the parish. Downtown Piura was absolutely amazing. They're definitely more technology and food based, because in the 2 blocks that we walked, we passed through 6 different chinese restaurants and 5 shops selling computer equipment. While we went through every shop, I found out that the prices compared to the prices of the equipment from the US were definitely more expensive.

However, while looking through the stores, we found the cheapest prices at a store that Johnny's friend runs, which was great!

At Johnny's friend's store

Taking a taxi! One sols takes us back to the parish.

Chinese Restaurant in Piura, Peru

One of many Chinese Restaurants in downtown Piura

 One of the menu which was posted outside the restaurant.

This is the entrance of the Chinese restaurant.

Here I come.....

Wonton soup (Sopa Wanton) and roast duck (Pato Asado). Popular  Cantonese food.

It is very delicious and fresh.

Chinese restaurant are very popular in Piura, Peru. Just in a short perimeter of the town, there are more than 6 chinese restaurants called chifa. It’s name literally means eat rice in Mandarin. Even though they have the Cantonese and Hakka influence, most of the dishes are very much infused with Peruvian taste. I managed to look at some of the menu and here are some of the translations (from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chifa#Typical_chifa_dishes)
We had Chinese food on the 2nd Thursday while we were here. It is a nice treat and quite an experience to have Chinese food in Piura, Peru. The roast duck is just amazing. it is moist and succulent.