Diary of a Not-spot: One man's heroic struggle for broadband Bringing connectivity to rural areas can involve lobbying MPs and signing petitions, but it can also involve knocking on doors, digging up sheep fields and climbing around on the roof in search of bandwidth. Over the last seven years I've tried all the alternatives, from satellite broadband to community networks, not to …
You need a parabolic wlan antenna. You have to build it your self and all. But this type of antenna should give you the range and the signal strength that you need for wlan communications for up to 10 km if your antenna is big enough.
Here are some basic instructions for this, http://www.educypedia.be/electronics/Wlan-antenna/wlan-antennas2.htm
I remember staying in Hilton of Cadboll about 30 miles NE of Inverness for a couple of weeks. Had to climb up the hill behind the house just to get 2 bars on my mobile, best and most relaxing holiday I've had in years!
Had to drive about 6-7 miles to get GPRS on my Voda-dongle, fantastic stuff!
Those Solwise boxes have TWO antennas. One is the omni sitting on top that you are all preaching about and the other is the 16Db panel which is internal and VERY directional. Those boxes will EASILY cover 5km without any pratting around with old satellite dishes, cantennas or other relics.
The problem here is the Fresnel zone, he needs more height not more gain.
Even after it's been pointed out more than once, people are still saying he should have used directional antennas. These units DO have a directional antenna built in - that's why they have a funny shaped front. On these, the R-SMA connection on top is connected to the 2.4G radio the unit also has - though I'm not quite sure as you can't use both at the same time.
And to all those suggesting the DIY approach with Pringles cans and old Sky minidishes, why ? You can buy high gain antennas off the shelf that are a) ready made, and b) far more likely to work without a lot more experimentation. Whatever external antenna is used, the 8610 will need the cover opening up to connect the external connector to the correct radio.
Mind you, the 8610 has now been superceded by the 5610 which has both better TX power and Rx sensitivity.
sure people read, they also like actually trying these things for real rather than just reading, and its clear a panel aerial while good for point to Multipoint in a given direction, these dish and cantana are Far More Focused and so More suited to this Point to single point usage.
but even using internal/external panels for this LOS 5km stretch doesn't explain the crap 300Kb/sec max he says its getting from these 22 Mbit /s max rated Real throughput these old 11g solwise radio's are rated for.
he states its still an ongoing project so he's far better off looking to hook up and test a few cheap 11N single aerial (non MIMO dual etc) USB sticks inside a cantana, ready made if he's got more money than common sense (southern English) , or home make (we assume he's a real scot remember LOL) and an hours work....
FFS I didn't say there weren't better antennas available than the panel ones built into these units. A pair of them should work reasonably well as a point-point link - and they should work over this distance. The same units can be used with an external antenna just by moving a link inside (attach the pigtail to the 5.8G wireless port).
What I do stand by is using a ready made antenna rather than p*ssing about with Pringle cans etc. Unless you know just what you are doing, I very much doubt you'll improve on a factory made antenna designed and built by companies employing people who actually understand radio ! You can get a variety of antennas up to about 30dBi off the shelf - but then you are down to fairly narrow beamwidths.
And I guess you didn't read either the article or the specs or the comments. These units are NOT 11g, they are 11b/g OR 11a. By default the internal panel antenna is connected to the 11a radio, and the external socket to the 11b/g radio. A software setting switches between them - they don't have simultaneous operation in two bands. By disconnecting the internal panel and connecting the pigtail to the 11a modem, you can use an external antenna for the 11a band. The EXT version omits the panel altogether and simply has an R-SMA socket for an external antenna.
Lest you think I'm just talking from armchair experience, I have a number of these 8610 and 5610 units in use and in stock. Going on the roof of the two story office building was "interesting" for an acrophobic like me !
Stuck a couple of 20dB dishes on them, OK a tad more expensive and lining up would have been more of a pain (use GPS for height and a simple compass for direction or use your OS map), but the extra 4dB and reduced frenzel would have been more than worth it maybe even the magic number 2Mb you're looking for (and still legal... just).
My parents live at the top of a ridge, surrounded by rocks and the phone/cable company were unwilling to install DSL or Cable networking without my parents shelling out $$$ of bucks. They were still on dial-up until I came up with a solution.
I modified a couple of DirecTV dishes and mounted a bi-quad antenna to each. On the back-end, I setup a pair of Linksys WRT54G routers (reimaged and using DD-WRT firmware), configuring each to be bridge repeaters. Both devices powered via PoE adapters. At my end, I installed the Cat-5 cable between the Linksys/PoE adapter to my PoE switch inside my house. At my parents end, I did something of the same but also added a wireless access point inside the house as well.
Using the DirecTV dish with the bi-quad antenna, the 2.4Ghz signal is amplified from the measly 3dbs to nearly 35dbs, thus providing a longer and much stronger wireless connection. Since my house is at the bottom of the ridge, but has near line of sight (NLOS) pathing to their receiver dish, I can actually transmit (broadcast) my wireless bridge signal the entire 5 miles easily. Wireless signal strength remains very high, except if there is rain or fog, but other than that, my parents are getting a stream of about 54MB/sec across my internal network to the Internet.
Similar instructions (how-to) can be seen at this website as well...
How-To: Build a WiFi biquad dish antenna:
http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/15/how-to-build-a-wifi-biquad-dish-antenna/
"Before I could spend money on something more reliable, Anthony called up to say he'd gone off the idea.
Given I'd signed a 12-month contract to provide him with ADSL, I wasn't amused, though more shocked than angry. We saw the couple a few times after that, but within a month they had receded entirely and decided to home school. These days they blank us in the street and ignore us if we talk to them."
What a couple of gits...I would have cancelled after about 2 months, paid the rest just to spite them...and make the company ask for their equipment back so they hassle the owners of address for everything.
You have to do it a few weeks after the relationship soured just in case!
Keep trying, it should work fine at this distance.
Once you have a link go back to the other end and improve that. Maybe better antenna, better radio or more power or more height. Then go back to the first end and repeat. If you get a signal strength of -80db or better (-70db perfect) then you will have the Clares full Internet bandwidth available.
Also talk to Geoff at MS Dist, his Nanostations are great.
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