Oops. I dropped my ISP's jury-rigged rooftop antenna - Did research - Will these replacement parts work?

-----Had to cut your links for aioe

Five star review and an offer if bundled with a Linksys WRT54GL 802.11b/g compatible with Open Source DD-WRT Looks like a bargain to me Sometimes I wish I lived in the USA. []'s

Sorry it's taking me so long to respond - but I only have hotspot connectivity.

I'm not sure it's an MC connector but it is really tiny and looks a lot like the "MC Card Plug (Male)" at that web site you kindly provided:

It's whatever goes on PCMCIA cards that have external antennas. :)

I brought the pigtail to Halted (HSC Electronics) today on Lawrence Expressway in Sunnyvale; but they didn't have the SMC male to MC male pigtail needed to test the existing bridge.

Am still driving around ... so will connect from the next hotspot.

Jeff is in the area (within a couple of miles).

I called the WISP who said I can use anything that works. I just have to give them the new MAC address.

So I never needed to 'clone' the MAC address of the bridge (that makes things easier).

The antenna is the easy part ...

I'm not sure what equipment to buy for the 'bridge' part because I don't really know enough about whether the "Ubiquity Bullet 2 HP" can do the job. Calling the WISP, they didn't know anything about the "Bullet 2 HP" but they suggested this "RB411" (RouterBOARD 411 with Atheros 300Mhz CPU,

32MB RAM, one LAN, one MiniPCI, NAND Storage with RouterOS Level 3 CPE support). They said I could call these guys in San Jose for the price: So, now, I'm pretty much trying to figure out HOW to select the right antenna and the right bridge.

For the antenna, I think that's an easy choice (more dBi is better); but for the bridge, I am not sure what's the criteria of import.

Looking at the specs for the RB411 suggested by the WISP, I can only understand ONE that matters to me (which is the capability for POE because I don't want a power supply on the roof).

All the rest of the specs don't seem to matter. The funny thing is there is no POWER spec at that web page. The old bridge was 200Mw; the desired "Ubiquity Bullet2 HP" is one watt.

This RB411 doesn't seem to mention the power.

What wattage would you look for? (The WISP source antenna is 1/2 mile away, line of sight).

RB411: CPU speed = 300MHz

Hi Jeff, Thanks for digging up these Ubiquiti outdoor routers that tie to antennas!

As you suggested, I called the WISP today who said I can use anything that works and all I have to do is give them my MAC address.

They suggested this router:

The only confusion I have now is how to select what's important among the choice of routers (for example, the spec sheet for that RB411 router doesn't even state the wattage).

May I ask you (and the usenet newsgroup in general) ...

QUESTION: What are the most important specs for choosing between two of these routers?

You guys are great!

It seems, from what all you guys said, the following are the MOST important issues for selecting WISP receivers:

WISP antennas ==> dBi & beam width (which are inversely related) WISP radios ==> power & compatibility with the ISP

Interestingly, in my area of the Santa Cruz mountains, neither of the two local WISP (line-of-sight) providers needs much to connect. One wants only the MAC address while the other doesn't even need that. There is no other setup, amazingly (no password, no encryption, no nothing).

Both prefer you buy the equipment from them but neither is supplying greater than 15 dBi antennas nor, more importantly, anything greater than

200mW radios (i.e., they call the 'router' a 'radio' when I talk to them).

One charges $300 for that crummy equipment and you own it and maintain it; while the other charges $400 and keeps ownership of the lousy equipment.

So, realistically, 15 dBi 35° beam width antennas will work with 200mW

802.11g/n radios out here in the boonies of Silicon Valley.

I've learned so much from you guys! I'm looking forward to the fun of playing with these radios & antennas, picking up as much as I can from the surrounds.

Anyway, I'll try to keep you informed because today I have to mailorder the antenna & router. My problem now is selecting the best one of the money and application. It's hard to do that with only intermittent (hotspot) connectivity. (My wife told me this morning "Life without Internet isn't worth living!")

I'm trying to be compatible with BOTH WISP providers, so that I leave all my options open.

Thanks for your help, Sam

Just to keep you updated, the first two line-of-sight WISP providers were only 1 Mb/sec download speeds (for the $50/month fee); but, in my search, I found a third line-of-sight WISP (with an antenna over by Alice's Restaurant) who is "up to 9 Mbit/sec" for the same $50/month charge.

Only this WISP is not 'normal' wifi; it's what they called "Motorola Canvas" wifi. :(

Problem is, the entire antenna/radio setup is different than "normal" WiFi! :(

So, for the $300 connect fee, you get the antenna & radio which remains their property ... (no fun to play with) ... but 9x faster speeds for the same monthy fee ... :)

... auugh. More decisions ... :)

That $75 EOC-2611P seems interesting as a complete package:

- 10dBi panel antenna (Vertical -3dB Bandwidth: 35°)

- 600mW 802.11g router (24 volt POE)

- Signal strength indicator LEDs

The antenna is a bit low on gain but the rest looks nice.

Precisely! :)

Thanks for the pointer as that's the kind of head start I need so that I expend the energy in the right direction!

Yes. It's MC. They're apparently designed to be the smallest 2.4 Ghz RF connector out there in common use so that it will connect to a PCMCIA card.

I visited SCZ yesterday for the SMA to MC male-to-male pigtail; nice place. Unfortunately, they didn't carry any MC pigtails; nor do they have outdoor equipment ... but they are a nice place to know in the future.

Frys is a great superstore

but they don't have any MC pigtails nor any decent outdoor antenna/radio equipment either. I tried them first - and picked up tons of stuff - none of which worked so I have to return it all.

I know that now!

I need male to male, SMA to MC ... but I don't have a clue as to the polarity of the two wires! :(

Yup. That's the connector. I have no idea the "polarity" of the two wires inside, but for sure I have a male to male "SMA male straight to MC-Card right angle Pigtail cable" - just as it shows in that picture:

This is perfect. I ordered one, just in case I'm going to resurrect the old 15dBi rootenna and 200mW router.

If I understand you correctly, that's EXACTLY what I have. There is a female SMC mounted to the backplane of the original antenna with a female MC on the PCMCIA ethernet card inside the antenna enclosure.

Thanks Jeff. I don't need you to do the building (but it would be nice, some day, to learn from you by employing you somehow in doing a setup!).

The WISP told me they only need me to give them the new MAC address. Another local WISP told me they don't even need that!

So it turns out that setup "should" be trivial!

Surfnet is the WISP who only needs the MAC address. Hilltop needs nothing whatsoever; any antenna will pick them up. Skyline Broadband Service uses the Motorola Canvas technology.

I didn't know about Etheric. They have a Loma Prieta tower which, they say, has an "FCC licensed private link" to their Etheric datacenter which, they say, loses 2 packets per hour as opposed to 200,000 packets per hour on an unlicensed link.

They will not let me install my own equipment though - and their service is a (they say) guaranteed 1Mb/sec for $85/month with, they say, 2ms latency (compared to ten times that for the other local WISP providers).

I don't really understand that (because it's non intuitive). I'll check it out as what you're saying is that I don't need a 1 Watt radio. Hmmm... but, can't the router automatically lower the transmit/receive power if it doesn't need it?

This is non intuitive. I don't doubt what you're saying (you know more than I do); but I'll have to figure out then HOW MUCH power I really want then, if it's so delicate a balance.

thanks for the input!!!!!!!!! You're a god send!

You could have phoned me. My number is on their wall of business cards and in my message signature. My office is near the intersection of Hwy 1 and Hwy 17. However, all my RF stuff is at home in Ben Lomond, so that's not going to work. Oh well.

Assumption, the mother of all screwups. I hope you're correct.

Surfnet likes Mikrotik hardware. I have a Routerboard 133c you can have. However, two problems. One is that I can't find where I hid it. The other is that I had to clear the password protected settings, which also cleared the firmware. Without a pricey license from Mikrotik, it's useless. Stick with the Ubiquiti radios. They work.

Yep. It does go down in storms, lightning hits, fiber cuts, and long term electrical failures. I have several customers on Etheric. Good stuff and works well. Here's Visio diagram of one:

I dived into the settings on their ubiquiti Rocket M5. It's a fairly complex setup and I would not expect you to be able to get it right. The also don't want to try doing installs over the phone, which tends to take forever after the first mistake. Better to have them do it right the first time.

Nope. That's a major problem with wi-fi and the FCC rules. There's no provision for automagic power control. Almost every other service type that's been available since about 1985 has had automagic power control, but not wi-fi. There are some wi-fi devices that claim to do this, but I don't recall which ones.

It's not a delicate balance. It's just a bad idea. Two examples.

Wireless mesh network was running single radio (store and forward) outdoor poletop radios maximum power (1 watt into 6dBi antenna). Packet loss was very high. Users would connect, move a little, and instantly disconnect. After much politics and little technology, I convinced them to lower their poletop transmit power to about 50-100 mw. Things magically improved. They were causing most of their own interference.

Local abuser was running an open access point with a 5 watt amp into an 8dBi panel antenna on a tall downtown building. You could see his SSID all over town, but it was almost impossible to connect. While his transmit range was many miles, he could only hear the typical

20-50 mw laptop perhaps a few hundred feet.

You really are over-complicating things. If it's just a B wireless, and you have a good signal, and the only control is a MAC address, you could get excellent reception with a common parabolic, 8 meters or so of cable, and a PCI or USB adaptor on your PC. I have the images here, but they are in Portuguese:

Roughly halve the prices, they are in Reais.

Try this, borrow a laptop, check it's MAC address with the WISP, go up on the roof with it. If you get good reception with it's tiny inbuilt antenna, the setup above will work fine. I used a setup like that with the WISP transmitter a mile away for years, before I got my DSL. Am I right, Jeff, or did I miss something ? []'s

I just found the Routerboard 133c. uFL connector for the radio, but I have a uFL to N pigtail and an aluminum box that fits.

I also found an MC to N male pigtail. With two adapters, it will go to SMA male. Ugly, but functional.