Long Range Non Line of Sight Wifi Bridge

[joe39562]

Back Story:
I'm extremely aggravated with comcast right now.  I got fed up with them almost 2 years ago cause they were incorrectly billing me.  Every month it was a different amount and I had to call and complain to get it fixed.  They were more expensive than directv anyway.  So So directv offered me an agreement for 2 years at less than 1/3 the cost of the comcast bill.  Verizon phone was much cheaper as well.  When I downgraded comcast to internet only it was $35 a month.  Now its 2 years later and comcast has creeped the bill up over time to $75 a month.  To put it in perspective they offer a triple play at 109 a month.  My combined verizon and dtv bill is only 90 a month.  Ive tried to negotiate with comcast to give me a better rate and they are only willing to do $5 for 6 months which isnt much and Ive got no other internet providers around.
 
So...
I have an office building that is 3 miles from my house that I have comcast buisness class internet at.  The 3 miles is a good deal of trees and such.  Ive come across these Long Range Non Line of Sight Wireless Bridges.  Has anyone ever used one such as this one:
 
http://www.radiolabs.com/products/wireless/900-mhz-wireless-bridge-link.php
 
Does it work well?  Has anyone done anything like Im suggesting?  Losing my $75 a month comcast bill would be awesome!  Does anyone have any suggested models to use for this?

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

You definitely want to stay with 900 MHz band with that distance and obstacles in the way.  I would probably look at the Ubiquiti line though as they are a more familiar product line for this application.

 

[drvnbysound]

I'll be very interested to find out if you A) get this working and B) what kind of Internet speeds you have over said link.

There will obviously be latency added because of the wireless connection, but I'm curious of the throughput that you can achieve on a 900MHz link. I don't know where you are located (suburban vs. urban area), but realize that there are a lot of 900MHz devices out there, so it's very possibly to have interference somewhere along that 3-mile stretch.

 

[joe39562]

Just measured it with google earth.  Im in a very rural area.  About 2 miles of trees and 1/2 mile of open field.  Theres about 4 houses in between not literally in the path but near the line of sight path.  I would anticipate that much interference, but the trees are my problem.

 

[tmbrown97]

I do a bit of engineering in this area - if you'd like me to take a look and offer any suggestions, feel free to PM me the coordinates in Google Earth.  I've done a lot of microwave/wireless links (In fact I'm putting together a 12-mile one right now).
 
Also as BSR mentioned above - look at Ubiquiti - about 1/4th the cost and probably a much larger and more widely used product with a good support forum as well.  I've worked with many of the products in their line - I think they'd fit your application well.

 

[gatchel]

+1 for Ubiguiti Networks stuff. Inexpensive, functional and easy to set up. I have set up a few links set up at a few friends places and so far so good. One in operation for over a year.
How high can you go for line of sight? If not you are probably stuck with 900 mHz band.

If you do go with the Nanostation series or other, make sure to order the mounts if available. They make life easier.

 

[joe39562]

On my house I can get to 35' but the office is only about 20'.  How far are the ones you have used and was it through a wooded area?

 

[gatchel]

Some trees at one location but the distance was only 1/4 mile maybe a bit longer. Definitely not a full forest or wooded area in between. I used the Nanostation Loco M5's.

 

[dgage]

This isn't a solution for the original poster but does speak to the quality of the Ubiquiti units.  Based on recommendations by BraveSirRobin and Work2Play among others, I finally ordered the Ubiquiti Unifi access point as my Netgear WNDR3700v2 was annoying me generally slow and problematic wifi.  I just installed it and so far it is great.  I used to lose my wifi signal when I went out to the driveway or to take dog out in the back yard.  I tested with my phone and I had full bars about 70 feet away at my dog's little area.  Tonight I went down to the fence at the back of my yard, which is over 100 feet away and I still had a decent wifi connection.  Time will tell on the reliability but the only negative reviews complained about the setup but I didn't even use the book and had no issues but then again I am a computer guy.  So far I'm pleased.
 
David

 

[lxgoldsmith]

Can someone help me figure out a similar situation of about 1/2 mile nlos through 300-500ft forest? I can probably get above the other buildings if I can find some adequate poles to mount on. 
 
P.S. Do I need licencing for this? I don't know anybody in the area that does this professionally.

 

[az1324]

Check out the ubiquiti forums.

 

[tmbrown97]

Success depends on a few factors, like how much speed do you need, and how dense is the stuff in the way, and/or can you get above it?  Give some more details and I can help you at least prequalify what you're trying to do.
 
Re: License - generally speaking, no you wouldn't get into the licensed frequencies.  You certainly could if you needed to for higher bandwidth or to avoid interference, but you're talking about a HUGE jump in price to do that and that's typically not within the budget for most home users.

 

[SoulkeepHL]

I can't speak to using them as a long-range point-to-point link, but I'll throw in my 2 cents as another satisfied Ubiquiti user.  Their new Zero-Handoff WiFi AP roaming is quite trick.
 

Can someone help me figure out a similar situation of about 1/2 mile nlos through 300-500ft forest? I can probably get above the other buildings if I can find some adequate poles to mount on. 
 
P.S. Do I need licencing for this? I don't know anybody in the area that does this professionally.

 
Adding to what Work2Play said, the only other cause that comes to mind for a license is if you'd want to run a high-power solution (FCC limit for transmit power is 1 watt), but again, that would also quickly require rather expensive gear.

 

[SoulkeepHL]

Also, I was finally able to dig up the article I read years back about a guy struggling with a long-range point-to-point setup.  Here's the original article I remember:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/03/not_spot_diary/
 
 
And it turns out there's an update to it (in which the author starts using Ubiquiti gear as well!):
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/03/not_spot_no_longer/

 

[tmbrown97]

The last unlicensed link I installed was using 5ghz over 13.6 miles and we attained 25 mbps throughput - granted, those were more expensive radios than Ubiquiti because they were carrier grade, but just goes to show that power shouldn't matter too much if you have the right combination of radios and equipment.  Often times, cranking power will make things worse, not better - unless you have everything else dialed in and just need a little more output power - it will not compensate for bad alignment, interference, etc - and instead can make things worse.