NanoStation Loco

[pete_c]

I've only been close (lightning) once in the last 30 years. That was in the old house. It took out one network switch and one serial port on my HA server.

Here in the newer home I ran the sprinkler wires alongside the home. I do have at least 6 (think maybe 8) cat5e wires running from the house out to various area from about 75 feet to about 100 feet. I did install an industrial strength surge protector (last year). The outside cat5e's are utilized for security cams and motion detectors so they plug into the Zoneminder security cam server (directly) and into the HAI OPII panel (directly).

Typically lightning takes the shortest path to ground. I have a friend I helped last year after he his home was struck by lightning. It took out TV's, computers, switches, etc. He did have multiple cables run outside the side of his home without any lightning arrestors. For whatever reason he has multiple 2 wire extenstion cords haphazarding connected in the ceiling of his basement providing electric to various parts of his family room, living room, etc (not sure why he did this other than cost?).

You could put lightning protection on the cat5e if you wanted to. I can say you are "probably" OK with it; but on the side of caution it would be better to protect it a bit more. I left my Rainbird rain sensor in place after replacing the Rainbird controller with the Rain8's. I did connect the rain sensor to a wireless sensor instead of a direct connection. But its mounted off the corner of the roof. I don't know if I really did anything by making it wireless considering its leads are adjacent to ground both in the manifold box and in the controller box. I think I've just been lucky.

Many many years ago in the 1970's (communications was with CB radios) a friend and I set up a comm link between two homes about 3-4 miles apart. We used short 5-8 foot masts on flat roofs. As we were setting his antenna up a storm was brewing. We were able to connect the outside stuff and we were doing the inside stuff. We ran his antenna cable to a location inside of the home (living room). We were taking a break; just chilling for a bit sitting in his living room and all of sudden we heard (very loud) some wierd noises. We looked over at the CB Radio coaxial cable which was just hanging out from the wall and saw repetitive sparking between the end of the coaxial cable and the power outlet which was probably about a foot away. I'd never seen anything like this before. It didn't cause any damage but it was a sight to see.

 

[chedemefedeme]

I wouldn't go to the trouble to replace an existing functional hardline with a wireless bridge until damage happens. This is because some locations, geophysically, somehow have more tendency to be affected by lightning than others. I have some customers (and my own house) where I've gone years and years without problems with hardlines between structures. Then I have other customers who have had them damaged multiple times (one of them 2 times in a year!!) and we were forced to switch to wireless.


A hardline is always preferable in point to point setups...wireless just exists for when it is difficult or impractical. The Ubiquiti makes some awesome bridges that I love working with but you don't see them in my back yard. I'm all GigE to my freestanding structures and will be until it shows to be a serious issue.

 

[pete_c]

I have an inwall (in a box) HD Communications POE AP/FW. The reason I bring up HD Communications is that they seem to have a line of bridges and AP's which look exactly the same as the Ubiquiti ones except at higher costs. Are they the same ones relabeled?

 

[tmbrown97]

Something else I just found - apparently the ubiquiti routers can be reflashed with NG (Next Generation) firmware which makes it compatible with CloudTrax.com's mesh networking setup.

http://dev.cloudtrax.com/wiki/ap51-supported-devices

 

[pete_c]

So looking at the following 2.4Ghz solution for an approximate 3.3 mile bridge from the top of a two story apartment building in town to the "farm". The apartment building has Comcast BB cable.

Airmax

The one on the apartment building will be on a short maybe 8 foot mast. Any suggestions relating to testing said apparatus or methodologies I can utilize for the line of sight testing?

I'm looking at NLOS "what ifs".

Farm
41.377404,-87.20322

Apartment
41.326541,-87.199114

Calculator shows:

3.46 miles distance

356.6 degrees bearing base to remote (base being apartment building)
176.6 degrees bearing remote to base.

 

[chedemefedeme]

The nanobridge is a perfect pick for your 3.3mi shot. It will, however, require line of sight to function properly..or in some cases at all. If you need a solution that is NON line of sight you probably want to consider something in the 800mhz to 900mhz range rather than 2.4 or 5ghz. It will perform slower but hold steady and penetrate trees and such better.

Ubiquiti has actually announced a 900mhz version of the nanobridge. I can't say whether or not it is shipping cause I haven't ordered one or played with one yet.

If you must go through trees this is what I would go with. If you have anything more than one or two trees in the way this may be a no-go.
If you can get enough elevation to have pure line of sight you can go with 2.4ghz or even try for 5. It really depends on the location which is best but for a 3 mile link you MUST have line of sight with those.


Edit: As for testing line of sight..get up there with binoculars and a compass and sight out your target? If you can see it your radio can too. Its how I do it being a smaller installer without some of the fancy laser/gps testing stuff.

 

[pete_c]

Thank you for the suggestions chedemefedeme.

Would the 900Mhz work say if there were a few trees between the apartment building and the farm?

 

[chedemefedeme]

Thank you for the suggestions chedemefedeme.

Would the 900Mhz work say if there were a few trees between the apartment building and the farm?

As I've said, line of sight is way way way optimal. You can get away with _some_ trees. How many will depend upon your location and the distance of your link. Use an extremely focused product like the nanobridge and spend quality time aiming it well. Don't just aim it to where it works, aim it to where you have no doubt remaining the numbers in the (rather good) built in signal strength and alignment tools could get any better. This is essential because when it rains a tree becomes an even more difficult obstacle to go through.

Nobody can say for sure with your situation. At least I can't promise you anything because I pretty much try to avoid trees at all costs. All I can say is use lower frequencies and aim dead on if you must pass through trees. Again, your overall performance would be better with a 2.4 or 5ghz product up on masts with line of sight. 800/900mhz products will have lower throughputs, sometimes significantly.

 

[pete_c]

I've noticed now too that the 900Mhz bridges have come down some in price. I am going this weekend to check out what direction I will be heading to and what I will be ordering.

Here are my two options (personally not paying attention to a time frame; looking more for best methodology).

1 - the old house on the farm is currently using wireless broadband at about $70 per month. They are now capping him monthly internet. The current wireless company did a quick site survey on the new home and stated that he would need a much higher mounting mast for their wireless service and it was not really too feasible/cost effective?. I would put a wireless bridge between the older home and the newer home as the quick way. I told him though basically it'll be wireless to the old house; wireless to the new house and use of both another wireless AP in the new home with the wired cat5e. The houses are separated by more than 300 feet but less than 1000 feet. Fiber was an option but to me not worth it for bridging a wireless connection. The capping now is being done because the wireless broadband provider is the only one in the area; so its kind of a monopoly ISP provider to all of the farms in the area. DSL would work if the infrastructure was updated; but its not been updated and very antiquated althought he distance to the town's CO is reasonable.

2 - put in a 800/900Mhz 3.5 or so mile wireless bridge from the new house on the farm to the apartment building with comcast internet at a cost of around $50-70 (?) per month.

I have told him that the Comcast wired to wireless connection would be a bit better than his capped legacy wireless connection; if it can be done.

The topology of where the farm is puts it higher than where the apartment building is. I'm thinking of maybe trying to utilize a bright lamp (large zenon 12VDC lamp) on the farm maybe towards dusk and looking for the lamp with binoculars from the apartment buiding to see what kind of line of sight exists.

 

[tmbrown97]

just an FYI, 3 hops of wireless (PC <> Bridge <> ISP) is going to add a whole lot of latency. You might be able to improve performance by tuning the MTU settings and such; it's been years since I've done that, but was required when putting a satellite connection up to a wifi AP.

 

[pete_c]

Thank-you Work2Play

Today with current wireless BB provider there is much latency.

Bridging the existing bridge across another bridge will add some more latency.

I'm guessing that a wireless bridge to the CC ISP connection might be a bit better?

 

[tmbrown97]

You had mentioned something about Comcast at one point - if you can get comcast, personally I think that's ideal - to reduce at least one wireless hop. Doing a wireless access point with an AP hop back to the source where comcast is will work pretty well.

 

[pete_c]

Thanks Work2Play.

 

[pete_c]

I did a check yesterday and because of the topology between the farm and the town there's probably no way I'll be able to utilize anything feasibly.

There is a water tower adjacent to the apartment building which I do not see from the roof of either of the two homes on the farm.

Checking the distance though between the old and the new house and its only about 240 feet; earlier distance estimates were not mine. The distance makes it feasible to utilize Cat5E between the houses and most likely we'll do this in the next week or so.

 

[gatchel]

I just received 2 NanoStation Loco M5 units that I will be deploying at a friends house to link up his garage this week. These devices are really cool...Very well thought out and very installer friendly.

I am also using the ToughCable and connectors for the install.

I'll post back the results.