Point to Point Wireless link

spareparts · Post by **spareparts** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 10:19 am

I need to link a remote site back to the MPOE. Downside is that the remote site is across the river (Upper Hudson River) Line of sight is 1.2 miles, clear in all seasons. The initial plan was to use 2 high gain yagi's. (already have)

Right now, I'm leaning toward using the Linksys WET54G Does anyone have an alternative suggestion?

firegood · Post by **firegood** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 10:52 am

cant speak for that specific model, but i have used a wre54g and they are a royal pain to set up. The last one took me upwards of 4 hours. i also dont think you can get the wireless signal to go that far.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 11:20 am

Since it sounds like this is for a commercial/gov't interest, I'd be looking into the Moto Canopy system. That way, you've got support when (not if) something breaks.

Just my $.02.

spareparts · Post by **spareparts** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 2:18 pm

This is not a public safety application. I'm trying to make life a little easier for a bunch of Museum volunteers by providing access to their existing DSL service from a remote site.

The two locations in questions are Albany & Rensselaer. Since I have the antennas & one router, I was wondering if there was a better way to make this work for them. (buy 2 new units rather then a second WET54G)

Post by **wavetar** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 3:13 pm

You should be able to do what you want, provided your cable runs are short & made with quality cables & your antennas have the required gain. I'd think 12dB at a minimum would work for you. I'd recommend a Canopy link myself, but at a cost of a single router compared to a couple thousand $$, you have nothing to lose trying it your way.

Todd

va3wxm · Post by **va3wxm** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 5:59 pm

The HSMM group in our ham club has set up WRT54G access points around tall buildings and line of sight using gain antennas has been well in excess of 2 miles.

Of course they're running the "special" firmware so the RF is up a little bit.

They've also experimented with 900 MHz gear and routinely get 15-20 miles range with 1 watt PA's and speeds of 500-700 kbps.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:22 pm

Beware, I've heard mention that the newest WRT54G APs aren't hackable like the older versions. Could be wrong, just what I've heard.

va3wxm · Post by **va3wxm** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 4:45 am

No, you're correct. Although I seem to recall hearing that Cisco was releasing yet another version of the 54G because of the uproar from the hobbyists wanting to run custom firmware.

Post by **alex** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:29 am

Yes - and they are going to have 1/2 the memory that the current hackable version of the 54g has.

I've been tempted to get one and install asterisk on it just because I can.

-Alex

mr.syntrx · Post by **mr.syntrx** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 8:58 am

No messing about with Linksys gear for me, I bought a Soekris board, on which I can run anything I please.

I've got a few Soekris net4511's mounted in outdoor cases with 24dBi mesh parabolics, running OpenBSD and ipsec over the link with hardware acceleration, and they run beautifully.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 8:09 pm

mr.syntrx wrote:No messing about with Linksys gear for me, I bought a Soekris board, on which I can run anything I please.

I've got a few Soekris net4511's mounted in outdoor cases with 24dBi mesh parabolics, running OpenBSD and ipsec over the link with hardware acceleration, and they run beautifully.

That would be the Right Answer, without going to commercial hardware.

firegood · Post by **firegood** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 3:04 pm

mr.syntrx wrote:No messing about with Linksys gear for me, I bought a Soekris board, on which I can run anything I please.

I've got a few Soekris net4511's mounted in outdoor cases with 24dBi mesh parabolics, running OpenBSD and ipsec over the link with hardware acceleration, and they run beautifully.

K now i have been looking at these, and i am confused on how you have your wireless. do you have a expantion card? i cant seem to find a model that has bulit in wireless, although it does mention something about antenna connectors.

techie · Post by **techie** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 2:48 am

firegood wrote:
mr.syntrx wrote:No messing about with Linksys gear for me, I bought a Soekris board, on which I can run anything I please.

I've got a few Soekris net4511's mounted in outdoor cases with 24dBi mesh parabolics, running OpenBSD and ipsec over the link with hardware acceleration, and they run beautifully.
K now i have been looking at these, and i am confused on how you have your wireless. do you have a expantion card? i cant seem to find a model that has bulit in wireless, although it does mention something about antenna connectors.

None of the Soekris boards have built-in wireless.. but depending on which board you get, yu can add either PCMCIA or MiniPCI wireless cards.

The cases are available with holes for antenna connectors, but again you have to provide them yourself.