Just curious how far your Wi-Fi access point is from your desktop computer

But unlike the rest of us here, you're like a leaky toilet that just keeps going on and on.

Reply to
Fox's Mercantile
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<snip>

<snip>

Follow-up to my own post.. But I think I nailed that one.. Was speaking to and employee of my competition today (the employee and I go way back and we both worked for Pacific Bell) and he mentioned his boss is at Wispalooza right now and apparently Ubiquiti is demoing their first

60Ghz transmitter... Which is... awesome. I love Mikrotik routers but have never been happy with their radios. So was a bit unhappy that I was going to have to use them for 60Ghz. Their alignment function (for example) is utter crap. Ubiquiti wins that hands-down. Easy to read, easy to figure out.. etc.
Reply to
Johann Beretta
<snip>
<snip>

Yeah I'd probably recommend UBNT. They tend to work out of the box. But this word "common" is.. misleading. The average user needs to fill his house.. Not acres of property. Most folks like in Condos / Apartments / Track Homes. Here in the rural areas there is a need for additional range to be sure. In fact I just installed a Rocket M2 with a couple of

8dbi omnis for a customer today.

To be totally fair, the average/common user takes a router out of the box, plugs it in, and that's the end of it. Most folks don't even know that their router has a UI. <snip>

I'd say MikroTik takes the UNIX approach. Separate tools, that each do one thing, packaged together. This, at least partially, explains the stability of a MikroTik router. The fact it's powered by a custom Linux kernel certainly doesn't hurt either.

The spectrum analyzer? Airview is, in my experience, absolutely worthless and I've been gently pushing for UBNT to fix it or discard it. It doesn't work AT ALL. The spectrum analyzer waterfall may/may not work, but the implementation in the AC line of radios is absolutely useless. I've can look at it, see I have a "noise floor" of -106 (on a given frequency), run a site survey and pick up a foreign transmitter at

-60dbm on that exact frequency.

I'll concede that maybe it's only used for "non wifi" transmissions. But they don't tell you that and it's counter-intuitive. To me, any transmission that's not my own is "noise". It's a potential source of interference. So no, I don't rely on it and don't use it as a general rule.

<snip>

If you're in a rural area, that's fine. But please do remember that every foot you push your signal out is another foot where it's potential noise/interference to someone else. 2.4GHz has exactly 3 non-overlapping frequencies at 20 MHz. That's not a lot. 1, 6, 11. Anything else overlaps another channel. If you're blasting a signal out that goes

10,000 ft beyond what you need that's not good.

My own opinion is that none of this gear is for "lay people". It's far too easy to violate transmission limits and there's always the potential of interfering with an operational WISP (unlikely in the 2.4 band, but still possible) and then maybe you're f****ng over dozens of people.

Honestly I'd almost like to see most of this gear require at least a technician's FCC license to install.

Well, as I pointed out in an earlier message, that power is only going to be legal if you're judicious about being totally honest in the configuration.

The term is "wireless bridge" or "wifi bridge". Both are accepted definitions in the WISP business.

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<snip>

And far beyond if one lies in the configuration. But here I'm beating a dead horse.

<snip>

No. I refuse to use them. I have... philosophical differences with UBNT delving into the consumer side of things. Ubiquiti became a multi-billion dollar company by making WISP gear. Now I feel as if that side of the business is being shoved into the background as they try expand into the home markets. Same reason I won't buy anything named CISCO any more. Linksys buys Cisco, who were well known for having some of the best routers and switches that money could buy, and then slaps the name CISCO on every cheap piece of shit they could think of. CISCO, in the span of a few years, became a joke. I had purchased a couple of small CISCO switches and what do I find? Yeah.. Linksys internals...

Nope. Maybe later firmware has it, but I tried for over a year and no luck..

<snip>

Well, Bullets are single chain, so... The Rockets are vastly superior.

<snip>

How far away is the pool? C'mon, you'd be far better served by slapping a nano on the outside of the house and aiming it at the pool. Lets not forget that an over-saturated link (too much power) is worse than a signal that's too weak. The latter affects only you, the former affects anyone within several thousand feet or more.

It's this kind of mentality that drives me up the wall. And it's not just you. It's a lot of people. Unlicensed spectrum is a common resources. It doesn't take too many "average joes" with knowledge but no experience to screw up that shared spectrum for miles in any direction. It's not a surprise though. "Tragedy of the Commons" is a phrase that has been around for centuries because it's something that happens time after time after time. I'm sure I was guilty of it when I first started, but experience has taught me.

<snip>

This is one of the few things my competition and I actually discuss.. Frequencies. It's just as bad for me to interfere with him as vice versa. If I put a transmitter on a frequency he's using it's going to screw up my transmissions and it will screw up his transmission. Everyone loses. Thus, we communicate as best we can.

My rule of thumb is to avoid his frequencies as best as possible (and he does the same). I'll stomp all over a home router before I'll f*ck up his transmissions. If I can't find a free frequency then we'll talk and see if we can jiggle shit around a little bit. Maybe he moves 5 Mhz up and I move 5 Mhz down (as an example). There is a vested interest in cooperating because if he (or I) do not, then I will stomp on his frequencies if I have to and he'll do the same.

<snip>

Many/Most? of those tools are open source. Mikrotik has a few custom tools and has made modifications to existing tools. My one complaint with MikroTik is that they are mostly leeches when it comes to the software. They'll happily take an open source tool, tweak it to be a bit better and then refuse to share those changes with the community (which is required for GPL and LGPL but not BSD licenses). There's been talk over the years of FSF (Free Software Foundation) suing them over it, but it's never progressed much past talk. They may have corrected their practices over the last years, but a decade ago they were downright assholes about it.

<snip>

Yep. It was all over the news. Our own electrical monopoly did a similar, albeit much smaller scale, shutdown as well. Luckily I was not in an affected zone.

I decided at the outset to go solar when at all possible. I have only two sites on mains power. The rest are on solar and have battery banks that will power them for up to a week in total darkness. Needless to say, we don't have total darkness for that long in So Cal. Even on a pretty cloudy day the sites will still be generating power as I have oversized the solar panels as well. My goal was to be able to charge the batteries, from near empty, to full in a single day of sunlight. Right now it takes me about 3 or 4 hours to recover after 3 or 4 days of heavy cloud cover. My recovery times for night usage is on the order of an hour or so, maybe 30 mins in the full brilliance of the Summer sun.

Reply to
Johann Beretta

You just can't make a post without knocking or denigrating someone. Your superiority complex has to show.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

On 10/16/19 8:02 PM, Arlen _G_ Holder wrote: <snip>

No surprise there as it's in a rather dumb location. Interfaces / WLAN1 / Near the top (10th button from the left in my router)

Reply to
Johann Beretta
<snip>

I am fairly curious as to why you have not addressed the point that I have made a couple of times where it's trivial to put a PowerBeam (for example) into a configuration that violates FCC transmit limits.

I apologize if I simply missed it. But in the event I did not, why have you not addressed this?

In the event you did not see it, are you aware that using a PowerBeam M5

400 (as an example) with "Feed Only" on the wireless tab but, in reality, having the feedhorn inside the 400mm dish, and the transmit power set to maximum, will violate FCC transmit limits for the 5 GHz band?

Do you concede that Ubiquiti has made it trivial to violate transmit limits by allowing a user to uncheck the "calculate EIRP limits" box in the configuration?

Mind you, I'm not advocating these options go away as I can think of a few situations where they could be handy (and legal) to have? Specifically it is possible to build a custom dish for the transmitter that would fall somewhere in between the two options (Feedhorn only &

400mm dish) that would be, at worst, a gray area.

Furthermore, not only can one violate limits, but one can do so well inside the DFS bands. Do you concede that this presents a real public safety problem if such a configuration is done near an airport using TDWR radar? (yes I know the word radar is redundant here, but I use it for clarification for lay persons)

Reply to
Johann Beretta

Hi pjp,

Most of this thread covered silly semantics, and then the post you responded to covered legal limits, where I apologize for those two:

On semantics, the precise words don't matter when you're trying to get something done - like you just asked how and if you can do it.

On legality, it's like wasting time cautioning everyoine who buys a ski mask not to rob a bank using it ... it's just not the time and place to worry about breaking the law, since you have to TRY to break the law.

Dan showed you "could" break the law, which I appreciate, but that's like saying you could break the law by using a ski mask to rob a bank, which is to say there are a few other things involved after you buy the equipment.

So now to your question ... there are others who can advise you BETTER than I can, so I'll let them trump me ... but to help you where I can... let's clarify the questions, first.

From what you said we know...

  1. You're a km a way from the RV
  2. You want WiFi at that RV
  3. Presumably that WiFi will be "beamed" from your house (or vice versa)

The first and most important question, is whether you can visually "see" the RV. Where I live, we can see for scores of miles, so that's not such a silly question. But if you're in dense woods, you won't be able to visually see the RV.

If you can SEE the RV, then certainly all the stuff we're talking about will work. Even if you can't see the RV, we can "make" it work, but, really, "most" of this thread was about Line Of Sight (LOS) transmissions (mostly, although you can go shorter distances through structures since radio waves are really just fluctuations in electical & magnetic fields).

If you can "see" the RV, the kilometer isn't going to be a problem (although we have to look at the "gain", mostly from the antenna, on both ends).

First key question: o From your roof or from a window or from a pole on the ground or from a treetop within a few hundred feet of the house ... can you "see" the RV?

Reply to
Arlen _G_ Holder

Hi Johann,

Wow. Thanks for that suggestion as, you're more aware than anyone where, that the MicroTik RouterOS must have at least a hundred or more different "menus", many deeply nested, where there could be hundreds overall.

I think with your help, I may have gotten close, although it's NOT intuitive what the steps are to get it to actually work.

By way of comparison, here's the Ubuqiti AirOS align sequence result:

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Here's a screenshot I just snapped for you of the RouterOS align result:

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Where that was obtained on Windows 10 Pro by running these steps: o Doubleclick on "winbox.exe" & up pops "MikroTik WinBox Loader v2.2.18" o Log in to the RouterOS "WinBox v6.28 on RB411" IP address as 'admin' o Left click on the left panel of menus item named "Interfaces" o That brings up a new window titled "Interface List" with 9 tabs o Those 9 tabs are: Interface, Ethernet, EoIP Tunnel, IP Tunnel, GRE Tunnel, VLAN, VRRP, Bonding, & LTE o In that "Interface List" are 3 items: bridge1, ether1, & wlan1 o Doubleclick on "wlan1" & up pops an "Interface <wlan1>" window with 15 tabs o Those 15 tabs are: General, Wireless, Data Rates, Advanced, HT, HT MCS, WDS, Nstreme, NV2, Tx Power, Current Tx Power, Advanced Status, Status, & Traffic o At the right of that same "Interface <wlan1>" window are 13 "buttons" o Those 13 buttons are: OK, Cancel, Apply, Disable, Comment, Torch, Scan, Freq Usage, Align, Sniff, Snooper, Reset Configuration, & Simple Mode o I click on the "Align" button and an "Alignment (Running)" window pops up. o That window has a pulldown set to "wlan1" & 5 buttons to the right o Those 5 buttons are: Start, Stop, Close, Wireless Alignment Settings, & New Window o In the middle of that window are 8 tabs o Those 8 tabs are: Address, SSID, Rx Quality, Avg. Rx Quality, Last Rx, Tx Quality, Last Tx, & Correct (%)

I must be close, but when I press "Start" or "Stop" the window header definitely changes from "Alignment (Running)" to "Alignment", so, I must be close ... but I don't see where I'm supposed to see the signal strength graphical values (and I don't hear any beeping sounds either).

The radio is "working" because when I press "Snooper", I get a long dynamically changing listing of all the radios it can 'see'.

Likewise, when I press "Sniff", it shows sniffed packets. Same with "Freq. Usage", I see the frequency & noise levels. Also, when I press "Scan" I see a list of access points & information. Even "Torch" does something, although I don't know what I just torched.

Am I close?

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I don't know where to look to see the signal strength numbers or graph.

Reply to
Arlen _G_ Holder
<snip>

No graph. You just get a single row of numbers

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As you'll recall, I don't generally use MikroTik radios. This screenshot is from the single operational 'Tik CPE device I have.

Supposedly you can get audio feedback if you input the target MAC into the alignment settings, but I haven't been successful.

This video is crappy but does a decent job of explaining how it works

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I think to get audio feedback requires linking to another MikroTik device, but I'm not positive. MK wireless is where my knowledge breaks down.

Reply to
Johann Beretta

On 10/16/19 11:43 PM, Arlen _G_ Holder wrote: <snip>

I should have added, in my previous post, that I have not used WinBox for alignment, so I cannot help there. The few times I've done an alignment (2 or 3 times max) I used the web interface.

Reply to
Johann Beretta

On 10/17/2019 12:40 AM, Arlen _G_ Holder wrote: ...

...

Au contraire, good buddy. It's precisely where precision is _most_ important.

Reply to
dpb

Hi pjp,

It's good that you can "see" something at the RV, as this stuff is line of sight (LOS), where the distances are immense LOS, but they suck otherwise.

The way you get LOS in trees, of course, is to mount the antenna on the tree (which we do all the time), and at home, the way to get LOS is you mount the antenna on the chimney (which we also do all the time).

Or on a pole (which we do all the time too).

As long as you can see the antennas, you're good to go, where we can deal with the Fresnel Zone later.

Once you have two antennas pointed at each other, all you do, physically speaking, is connect the home end to Internet via Cat5 cable, usually to a router switch but it could just as well be directly to the modem or whatever you get your Internet from.

At the RV you have a couple of choices depending on what "device" is at the RV, where you don't need anything else if you're going to plug the Cat5 cable directly into, oh, say, a desktop at the RV.

Often, if you're going to go to all that trouble, what we do is find a spare SOHO router lying around (we have tons of them, as you can imagine), and we just plug the RV antenna Cat6 into that "RV router".

That's the best setup, which gives the most flexibility at the RV end.

Essentially, you have the same Internet at the RV as you have at home. a. At the RV, mobile devices can connect to the RV router b. Laptops and desktops with WiFi can connect to the RV router c. Desktops without Internet can connect to the RV router switch etc.

Notice while my original "pool" example is only hundreds of feet of range, so you can skip the second radio in the case of hundreds of feet - your "RV example" is a kilometer, which is likely too far for more mobile devices and laptops to send back to. (There are people here who can do the math since all this stuff is well known to them - where there are web sites which allow you to run the calculation.)

Without even running any calculations, you'll notice I'm suggesting a radio & router on each end, because I know that works in all circumstances if they can "see" each other (i.e., LOS).

There's lots of good stuff in any search where those are the basics:

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Reply to
Arlen _G_ Holder

Thanks for that information that it's not a graph; just a row of numbers.

At this point, I'm not going to worry about aiming that antenna, as the Mikrotik routerboard and miniPCI 802.11n WiFi card is working just fine with signal strength of about -40 dBm in "bridge mode", through multiple physical obstacles (walls and floors).

I do agree with you on two things about that Mikrotik interface: o It's like Linux - it can do everything o But you have to find it first and then you have to know how to use it

The Ubiquiti AirOS router GUI is more like home Netgear/Linksys stuff.

I'm like you, in that my only MikroTik equipment was what I got for free when I replaced all the nearby neighbors' Mikrotik stuff with Ubuiquit Nanos (at that time), which we subsequently replaced with 2.4GHz rockets, and then, finally, 5GHz rockets.

Some people kept their old equipment, the rest asked us to cart it away. o I save all sorts of things (want a dozen satellite dishes, for example?)

Yea. I saw that in a video, where the other end of this Mikrotick radio is a normal SOHO router (Netgear, I think), and not Mikrotick CPE.

I'm ok. I'm sure I 'can' get a visible & audio alignment output out of the Mikrotik equipment - but what I learned from you is that you were right when you said they "hide" it, much like Linux is often characterized by Windows or Apple folks.

For the purpose of this thread, I wouldn't recommend Mikrotik to the laypeople, where I'd recommend, as you did, Ubiquiti.

Specifically, I'd "start" with the PowerBeam and then move up or down from there, based on what the customer needs are.

We have our first 'customer', in pjp who asked this question here:

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You can help him too, by adding value to the response posted here:

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Where any help you can provide will be passed on to pjp accordingly.

Thanks for that advice, which I agree with you and appreciate the help. o I agree with you on the fact Mikrotik took the "linux" route (sort of).

Luckily, we've replaced all the Mikrotik CPE with Ubiquiti by now. o And even then, we went through a series of Ubiquiti CPE

From bullets, to nanos, to powerbeams, to M2 rockets, to M5 rockets. o Sigh. We made a _lot_ of mistakes.

The funny thing I learned is that perhaps the biggest mistake was in trying to buy the smallest device that "fit the requirements".

In hindsight, it would have been cheaper, in the end, to buy the biggest device that fit the requirements.

That is, in hindsight, it just wasn't worth the money attempting to save by buying the "least powerful device" that would work - where we should have bought the most powerful device that we could reasonably afford.

Even so, the switch from 2.4GHz to 5GHz was basically inevitable, over the past ten or so years I've been doing this stuff for my home and for others.

Reply to
Arlen _G_ Holder

Hi Johann,

Thanks for reminding me of the Mikrotik web interface (I've always used the winbox.exe executable), where I just tried that web interface into RouterOS v6.28, which, by all appearances, is "similar but different" from what it looks like inside of WinBox.

One thing in the web interface which is VERY different is that windows get replaced when you click buttons, whereas in Winbox, windows just pop up all over the place, and remain.

Using a variety of browsers...

I tried the same sequence, but received the same result, exactly. a. Log into the web interface of RouterOS v6.28 as admin b. Press "Interfaces" (top left under "Quick Set")

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c. That brings up "bridge1", "ether1" & "wlan1" in the "Interface List" d. Left click on "wlan1" which brings up "Interface <wlan1>"
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d. Click on the "Align..." button, which brings up "Alignment (Running)"
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Same as before with Winbox. o "Align" does nothing (that I can tell) o "Scan" spits out (AP, #, BSSID, SSID, Band, Width, Freq, Strength, Noise, S:N, Name, Version) o "Snooper" spits out #, Freq, Band, Address, SSID, SIgnal, Freq %, Traf %, Bandwidth, Networks, Stations. o Frequency Usage spits out usage and frequency and noise floor for a dozen items o "Sniff" lists packet information such that things move in the display o "Torch" does something, who knows what, but things are moving in the display

As before, I'm going to be like Apple people and just give up, as I'm not going to worry about it, since the radio is pushing signal through floors and walls just fine the way it is, given I have about -40 dBm of signal strength on a desktop that has only Ethernet.

Thanks for trying to help me; I appreciate that, but let's not waste time on this MikroTik alignment stuff as your point is well made that they hide things, but Mikrotik took a Linux-like approach, and, we mostly use Ubiquiti anyway.

The person who needs help, I think, is pjp who has the 1km where he's only got a small window LOS into the trees where he parks his RV away from the house.

Reply to
Arlen _G_ Holder

  1. Router (with DHCP)
  2. Wi-Fi (802.11 b, g, n)
  3. Antenna (with horn)
  4. Switch (not shown)
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Reply to
Arlen _G_ Holder

Hi Paul,

In summary, all pjp needs is to be able to "see" each antenna.

I agree you can go pretty far line of sight, as you just shared with us, where I happen to live on a mountain surrounding Silicon Valley, where I can likely see for more than 20, maybe 30 or more miles in some directions, but only five or ten miles in others.

At WiFi frequencies, the distance pjp can attain will depend on how "clear" his line of sight path is from the home to the RV.

If he can "see" the antenna, then, in our experience, the obstructions in the Fresnel Zone aren't going to kill his signal, as long as he chooses a powerful enough setup.

In the clear, I doubt there is a single Ubiquiti CPE radio that wouldn't treat 1 kilometer as child's play though. A kilometer is nothing for WiFi.

What pjp needs, mainly, is simply the following: a. A radio at his house that can see the radio at his RV. b. A radio at his RV that can see the radio at the house.

I didn't think of this, until you brought up distances, but pjp doesn't really even need AC power at the RV since these radios are about as flexible as anything on this planet when it comes to power supplies.

They're usually able to handle from about 12 VDC to about 24 VDC at about 1 amp to 2 amps peak, which, if pjp only wants the radio working when he's literally sitting in the RV, he can do by mooching off the RV battery.

I haven't ever needed to do that; but it sure seems possible (and, if not, one of the folks on this ng will be glad to ream me with facts).

The main requirement pjp needs is each radio has to each the other. o The radios are about $100 (give or take) depending on the radio

For example:

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o Bullet
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o LiteBeam
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o NanoBeam
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o PowerBeam
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etc.

I've never used them, but maybe these "nanostation" pairs would work:

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They're designed to mount with "no tools" (or so they say).

Reply to
Arlen _G_ Holder

It's not the same. A ski mask is for skiing. You can't accidentally use it to rob a bank.

An uneducated person can buy a powerbeam, intend to use it for wifi, and accidentally (because they don't know better) choose the wrong option in the configuration, and break the law.

It's a drop down menu. It can be clicked on accidentally. These devices are not, and have never been, meant for the general public. The rockets are even worse.

Reply to
Johann Beretta

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If the system/signal is circular polarized, the Fresnel zone will have no effect, because a deflected circular polarized signal changes rotation upon deflection and the result is to become virtually invisible to the receiver, regardless of whether it arrives in phase or out of phase. For example, a RHCP signal that hits a street, or a wall, or anything else, then becomes a LHCP signal, and is therefore invisible to the RHCP receiving antenna, regardless of whether it arrives at the receiver in-phase or out-of-phase.

In other words, if you happen to be using circular (or at least elliptical) polarization on your link, you can forget about the Fresnel Zone. Most Wi-Fi hardware uses linear (vertical and horizontal) polarization. With linear polarization, the problem is that at various radii from the direct line of sight, the direct signal cancels with a reflected wave, forming "rings" of high and low signal levels. The rings with no signal or total cancellation are where the reflected path is some multiple of 1/2 wavelength longer than the incident path. This does NOT happen with circular polarization, where the polarization changes "sense", where the polarization changed from (for example) RHCP to LHCP when reflected. The receive antenna "sees" both the incident RHCP wave, as well as the LHCP reflected wave. However, since the receive antenna cannot hear the wrong "sense", it only "sees" the incident RHCP wave and no cancellation occurs. So, if you want to build a link that isn't ruined by Fresnel Zone effects, think circular polarization.

Also, if your path goes from a mountain top, to ground level in a valley, and you have to deal with a temperature inversion layer, chances are good that when the inversion layer is particularly noticeable and at some specific altitude, the signal will disappear for a while when it decides to wander off along the inversion line. You might be able to visually see the other end of the link, but can't get a decent RF signal along the same path.

Also, please consider the effects of fade margin or system operating margin. This is how much stronger the signal happens to be than some reference level, usually somewhere near a minimum usable signal level or BER (bit error rate). This fade margin statistically translates to the amount of time per year your link will be down. SOM Reliability Downtime dB Percent per year 8 90 876 hrs 18 99 88 hrs 28 99.9 8.8 hrs 38 99.99 53 mins 48 99.999 5.3 mins 58 99.9999 32 secs For wi-fi, I like 20dB as a good but arbitrary fade margin for calculations.

Lastly, the various link calculations and data sheet specifications tend to be for the BEST case situation. In other words, reality sucks and your results will follow accordingly. Whatever happens along the path, environment, or with the equipment, will ALWAYS increase losses and decrease range. I can post (for find in the Usenet archives) how I do a link calculation if anyone wants it.

Note: I had some surgery Monday, am recovering normally, but feeling lousy. I need some time to recover. Please forgive me if I don't reply to questions and comments immediately.

Bah Humbug(tm).

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

NOTE TO THE VERY MANY PEOPLE WHO ENDLESSLY QUIBBLED ABOUT TERMINOLOGY: o Now is your golden chance to actually add adult value to help pjp

Hi pjp,

Thanks for confirming that (a) there is 120VAC at the RV, and that (b) the RV is stationary, which means a radio mounted in a tree pointed at the house, within a few hundred feet (or so) of the RV, is feasible.

Only one more thing matters, but not all that much. o What is the "compute device" at the RV end that will use the Internet? a. Is it just a desktop or laptop (in which case, nothing else is needed)? b. Or, will it be cellphones and tablets (which don't have Ethernet ports)?

If it's a single compute device with an Ethernet port, then you don't need anything else at the RV but the treetop radio. If you want multiple devices at the RV which are all Ethernet enabled, then you just need a small switch. If you want cellphones and tablets at the RV, then you need an access point, most easily obtained by plugging in a spare SOHO router.

Up to you - as you'll get DHCP over Ethernet out of the treetop radio.

BTW, the fact you have AC power at the RV is good, but I don't see why you couldn't power the radio with the RV battery, but I haven't tried that - but plenty of people use solar to power radios (I just don't have any experience with it).

If you're gonna plug in a switch (or router) at the RV, then you likely will need AC power, so it's nice you have the AC generator handy at the RV.

All you need then is a matching set of two radios, and a length of Ethernet cable to get to the radios (where the power over Ethernet, which comes with the radios, is almost always placed within a meter or two of the AC power).

HOUSE RADIO:

  1. You plug in the house POE to AC power (near the home SOHO router).
  2. One end of the house POE goes into the home SOHO router.
  3. The other end of the house POE goes into the rooftop radio.

RV RADIO:

  1. You plug in the RV POE to AC power (usually very near the RV).
  2. One end of the house POE goes into the rv radio.
  3. The other end of the RV POE goes into a laptop (or into a spare router).

If we think of signal in terms of the one-way "Internet flow", it goes... a. From the house modem to the house POE to the house radio over cat5 b. From the house radio to the rv radio over the air c. From the rv radio to the rv POE to the RV laptop over Ethernet

I can't imagine that every radio on the Ubiquiti site wouldn't treat a puny kilometer as child's play, but I've learned, over time, that the most powerful radio is usually the most satisfactory (I can't really explain why).

You can choose whether you want 5Ghz or 2GHz, depending on, well, I'm not sure, where I can only think of two reasons, each of which counteract: A. If you need to penetrate "some" foliage, the 2.4GHz is better B. If there are other homes nearby, then the 5GHz is less noisy.

Given almost any radio on the Ubiquiti site would work, I'd suggest you go there and look at your price tolerance, where I'd start by looking at the aforementioned $100 PowerBeam radios first, since they're kind of in the middle of the pack:

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Here's a two-pack, for example, at Amazon:

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Where you can certainly pay something like half that price for other stuff: o $47 Ubiquiti NanoStation locoM2 2.4GHz Indoor/Outdoor airMax 8dBi CPE

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But I have no experience with that 'smaller stuff', but where, I'm sure, others on this ng can let you know if those $50 devices work well enough for you outdoors (which they may very well do well for you ... I just don't have any experience with them myself).

I don't think you can go lower than $100 total cost for the two radios though, and, as someone noted, there are "nuts and bolts" things you may need (like cat5 cable to run up to the roof & tree) that I'm not counting, mostly because we always do just fine with screws and nails lying around, and where Ubiquiti pretty much gives you everything you need but the J-arm or pole itself.

Having said all that, the WISP guys (or the self-described "communinication techs" on this newsgroup (quite a few quibbled about decibels, for example), should be able to advise you on what actual POWER you need at a puny 1 kilometer, as I don't bother with the calculations since all my equipment is overkill for such puny distances to thow WiFi.

BTW, this is a guy who apparently outfits RV parks with WiFi:

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His site "may" have ideas for you specific to RVs.

NOTE TO THE VERY MANY PEOPLE WHO ENDLESSLY QUIBBLED ABOUT TERMINOLOGY: o Now is your golden chance to actually add adult value to help pjp

Reply to
Arlen _G_ Holder

Arlen has to make a disparaging remark in most every post. Makes him feel better about himself.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

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