NanoStation Loco

[mdesmarais]

Another endorsement- Mine came in, and is currently hap-hazardly mounted on the second floor (tied with a piece of string to one of those wall mounted kid height measuring things) and it gives me coverage over our entire 1 acre lot. Setup was fast and easy. Thanks for the posting Pete!

 

[pete_c]

I decided to utilized two of them on my friend farm for a bridge set up which I will be doing in the next couple of weeks. I will document said endeavor with some pictures.

My friend build a new home on the farm (its been 3 years now and he hasn't moved in yet). The newer home is lower than the older home and he doesn't want to put up a tower for the wireless broadband antenna in the new home; so he will continue to utilize the "old" broadband wireless internet.

I suggested he would be better off putting a bridge between a building he owns in town (connected to Comcast) and the highest house on the farm than to utilize the currently wireless broadband provider.

 

[pete_c]

Work2Play,

Looking to start to upgrade wireless to N speeds and thinking of getting the Ubiquiti Nanostation M5.

Have you played with this model?

 

[pete_c]

mdesmarais,

Did you install your Nanostation outside?

 

[mdesmarais]

Nope, it is indoors, on the 2nd floor. My property drops off steeply though, so the unit is probably 40-50 feet above the back of the back yard. I will mount it higher indoors, but I need to fish a cable up to do that, so it probably won't happen until the fall when I don't want to work outside anymore. ;-)

 

[pete_c]

Thanks mdesmarais

 

[tmbrown97]

Pete - I don't have any experience with the Nanostation yet - I've been sticking strictly with the Picostations - the M2 HP Specifically to get the N speeds.


I helped someone with an install very recently - took an alternative approach to installing it that worked really well - but I'm finding it too hard to document with just words so I'll try to diagram it out later.

 

[pete_c]

Thanks W2P.

Historically my only experience many years ago was with Cisco bridges which were really kind of cost prohibitive for the DIY person.

Thinking maybe of checking a ~2.5 mile wireless bridge feasibility thing.

 

[JonW]

I just ordered a Ubiquiti PowerAP N router. Seems like it's power and interface are very similar to the Nanostation/Picostation units.

I'll let you know how it works when I receive it.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

The guys at Streakwave booth at this year's CES show were touting the Ubiquiti Rocket M5 for cheap long distance point to point solution.

 

[pete_c]

This weekend checking on the 2.5 mile feasibility.

The house on the farm is on a hill. From just doing BBQ's on the deck of the house you can see the nearby town where the apartment building is.

The apartment building is 4 stories with a flat roof.

Found this:

The cheapest way to get a link that is going to have some sustainability to it is going to be using ubiquity products. They are considered "Carrier Grade" and have a proprietary TDMA protocol to mitigate interference from other AP's on the same channel. Since you're only going to need around 3-6mbit at the most, I'd recommend using a Ubiquity Nanostation M5 at both ends. Light, comes with POE injector and has a range of about 11 miles PTP between 2 of them at reliable MCS-12 - 15. They are also MIMO devices, which helps if there is some unusual RF activity in the range selected. All devices can be either a AP, AP WDS, or Client / Client WDS. Configuration is straight forward, and they are high power transmitters.
Recommended configuration flying blind:
5mhz channel spacing, Enable AirMax, enable encryption, set to AP WDS / Client WDS, configure in the upper most channel (use Airview spectrum analyzer thats built in if you're up to it) and
Set transmit power to 23 DBM, aim em approximately straight at each other, and go for it.
These things have a fairly wide azimuth antenna, but at the distance specified, it will not be an issue. The devices range from 80 - 120 depending on where you get them.
Another cheaper option from the same company is the BulletM5HP -- Same concept, just NOT MIMO, and attaches to any antenna of your choosing.
Be sure when buying these things that you upgrade to 5.2, most all of them come shipped with it, but just in case.
They are also low latency, especially compared to say 2 linksys WAP11's. Typical ping times on mine is about 0.3 MS per link at 20mhz width, at 3 miles a pop, and 1.7 with a 31 mile link running 40mhz channel width. The higher the channel width the more latency and more interference. Stay away from the highly populated 2.4 b/g band for best results with a PTP link that is NOT going on a tower. Also, be considerate of others... there is likely a tower some where near by that is in the line of transmission of your equipment.. try and use Airview to find a dead channel, and then only use the required amount of transmit power to get -63 signal.. This is being nice since its the ISM band and its anyones game, but why screw with some one if you dont have to? Also when aiming be advised that on most antennas down tilt / uptilt is much more of a game changer than left / right, since the beamwidth is usually tighter.
Hope this is of use.

Here:

Wireless Bridge

 

[chedemefedeme]

I install these professionally and use them in a variety of deployments I manage. I have 3 of them on my roof powering a local security camera network after a rash of vandalism, even.

Almost all of Ubiquiti's equipment runs their airOS software. They are excellent about not locking down features and functions in this. This means that the nano and picostation products, while meant to be client bridges or point to point bridges can be used just fine in a variety of other configurations.

I've used them as normal access points and WDS access points with great success. At one event during SXSW in Austin my company networked we used 5 of these radios to successfully get almost 500 people online in a 3 story building. At one time we had over 200 at-that-very-moment simultaneous active, downloading users (presenter was having the room follow along) with no congestion or issues. These radios are ridiculously affordable for what they can do.

Ubiquiti also has some stupid powerful dishes for long range point to point. I've done several miles at over 100mbps, but you can go quite a bit further than that with proper aim and conditions.


Main point to consider here is that the software is pretty much unlocked. These units are very flexible and you can use them in any way you need. Just choose 2.4ghz vs 5ghz wisely. That's another topic.

 

[Ira]

I am using a cat5e cable connected to a switch on my home LAN, then running about 150' underground to my shop, where it is connected to another switch. I have several wired LAN devices (PC, Brultech, USB-to-ethernet server, etc.) connected to the switch in the shop.

If I want to replace the underground cat5e cable with a wireless bridge setup, do I simply buy two of them and plug one into the switch in my home (where the underground cat5e cable is now) and the other into the switch in my shop (where the underground cat5e cable is now)? And once everthing is configured, I basically have the same LAN capabilities as I did with the cat5e (except it isn't gigabit LAN speed over the bridges)?

Thanks,
Ira

 

[pete_c]

Ira,

Personally I see no reason why you would want to replace what you already have in place for a wireless bridge. There won't be any more benefits utilizing a bridge for your environment that I can think of.

Are you running Gb right now between the shop and the house?

 

[Ira]

Ira,

Personally I see no reason why you would want to replace what you already have in place for a wireless bridge. There won't be any more benefits utilizing a bridge for your environment that I can think of.

Are you running Gb right now between the shop and the house?

The only reason I'm thinking about it is it would eliminate the possibility of a lightning strike getting to my LAN (home or shop) via the underground cat5e cable. Of course there's still the possibility of a lightning strike getting to my HA system (and then possibly my LAN) via the Elk databus cat5e cable that runs in the same conduit, unless I go wireless with that, also.

I'm running gigabit between shop and home now (all my switches, routers, etc. on my LAN are gigabit), but none of the devices in the shop take advantage of it, or really need it. The PC in the shop is seldom used, and the other devices have very little traffic.