Posted: 9/1/2012 8:26:17 AM EDT
|
I have a office in a rural area and currently there is no ability to get anything faster than 768kbps DSL.
My brother who lives 5.15km (approx) away from me has a internet connection that is at near-fiber speeds. So, I'm curious about the possibility of long-range wifi if at all possible. I'm trying to get the scenario set up on cloudRF.com but I can't find the exact kind of antenna I need to attempt to pick. |
|
Quoted:
I have a office in a rural area and currently there is no ability to get anything faster than 768kbps DSL. My brother who lives 5.15km (approx) away from me has a internet connection that is at near-fiber speeds. So, I'm curious about the possibility of long-range wifi if at all possible. I'm trying to get the scenario set up on cloudRF.com but I can't find the exact kind of antenna I need to attempt to pick. Are sure that what you want to do is legal? FCC might take umbrage. I would check first before spending money. |
|
Pretty much has to be line of sight with no obstructions.
enGenius has some gear that we have used for shooting the network from a main office to a warehouse at similar distances. Looking about $200 or so for the gear, I think we paid about $90ea for the antennas on each end. |
|
There are often enterprising Mom'n'Pop type ISP providers serviing rural areas with line of sight wireless.
My local provider has a mast antenna on top of the local grain elevator and they set me up with a little directional antenna that communicates with that. Costs me $50 per month, unlimited. The catch is that you need a clear line of sight to their antenna. I receive at 3.4 Mbps. Transmit at 0.5 Mbps. Works well. The grain elevator is about 4 miles away. No issues with rain, etc. but occasionally (once every year or so) the antenna on the grain elevator gets a lightning strike and gets knocked out for part of a day. Check with a local independnet computer shop or your local chamber of commerce, they may be able to tell you if there is one in your area. My ISP is owned by a couple who pretty much do everything themselves as a side busines. |
|
i would call and talk to Engenious sales. link
I've helped setup the EOC5611P (using A) at two different locations, but there were only half a mile apart. I know they can operate at a longer distance than that. I would get a recommendation from them and go from there. |
|
Quoted:
There are often enterprising Mom'n'Pop type ISP providers serviing rural areas with line of sight wireless. My local provider has a mast antenna on top of the local grain elevator and they set me up with a little directional antenna that communicates with that. Costs me $50 per month, unlimited. The catch is that you need a clear line of sight to their antenna. I receive at 3.4 Mbps. Transmit at 0.5 Mbps. Works well. The grain elevator is about 4 miles away. No issues with rain, etc. but occasionally (once every year or so) the antenna on the grain elevator gets a lightning strike and gets knocked out for part of a day. Check with a local independnet computer shop or your local chamber of commerce, they may be able to tell you if there is one in your area. My ISP is owned by a couple who pretty much do everything themselves as a side busines. Yeah , I've checked them out, they would be offering me the exact same thing I want to do myself @ $70/mo for 3mbps when I could get 35/15 by running off my brother's connection 5km away. I understand it needs to be LOS however is there a way to determine if the few obstructions are too much? I found a 90ft or so tree I could mount one antenna on, just don't know about on the other connection. |
|
You can use DD-WRT to do this, all you need is two ddwrt compatible routers (~$30 each), some LMR cable (~$50 ish), and two antennas (~$30 ea or more). You can also build the antennas yourself and its not very hard, I have a few examples I made here.
ETA: I never realized LMR400 was as expensive as it is... its probably going to be more than $50 for it. Also, are you shooting across any water? Water really fucks up RF... we had one link at 2.4 Ghz shooting across 200' of water and a total link length of 1200', that would barely pass. The RSL's were -70 some, we have installed the same setup over 25 miles with RSL's of -40. Quoted:
Are sure that what you want to do is legal? FCC might take umbrage. I would check first before spending money. 2.4 and 5.8 Ghz are Unlicensed bands, so long as you do not exceed a certain wattage of output. I believe that it is 4 Watts, and that is pretty hard to break with cheap equipment. |
|
Quoted:
I have a office in a rural area and currently there is no ability to get anything faster than 768kbps DSL. My brother who lives 5.15km (approx) away from me has a internet connection that is at near-fiber speeds. So, I'm curious about the possibility of long-range wifi if at all possible. I'm trying to get the scenario set up on cloudRF.com but I can't find the exact kind of antenna I need to attempt to pick. you need LOS (or radio horizon, which is about 1.15 x LOS) which infers enough height, directional antennas, enough power to get a decent link budget, and a compass. i recommend you work on setting this up now, while the leaves are still on the trees. if you set it up in the winter you may be asking where your signal went next April. water contained in the foliage introduces a ton of attenuation. again, get the antennas high enough to clear the terrain and you are good to go. the downsides of getting the antennas "high enough" are 1) expensive low loss coax [Times-Microwave LMR400 or better] and 2) protection from lightning. ar-jedi |