Wireless Broadband?

kishi asks: "My office needs to ditch 7 dedicated phone lines and 7 dial-up ISP accounts. Roadrunner (which I use at home) isn't available and two different DSL networks have told us 'yesnomaybe'. It has been 'yesnomaybe' for 11 weeks and we're still paying $175 for dial-up access. Hyperoam offers wireless broadband. Do any of you Slashdotters out there have any experiences (good, bad or indifferent) with it? I need more information on wireless broadband before I take the plunge and get rid of something that works for something that might not."

Obvious advice...

[Mike Connell]

> I need more information on wireless broadband
> before I take the plunge and get rid of
> something that works for something that might
> not.

I don't know anything about the wireless broadband stuff, but I can offer you some very good if very obvious advice - DONT GET RID OF WHAT YOU'VE GOT UNTIL YOU'RE *SURE* THAT THE NEW STUFF WORKS.

If you've already waited 11 weeks, keeping the old dialup around a few more weeks after you change (if you do) won't (I hope) kill you...

0.02,

Mike.

Find a local ISP to work with... (includes how-to)

[Myrcurial]

Please note: I run a regional semi-rural ISP - we do this kind of work every day.

The trick with wireless broadband is usually that you are in an area that is seen as "unfashionable" to the large regionals and nationals.

Find yourself a local ISP - somebody that has some bandwidth and a bit of a DIY attitude. The gear to provide a point to point 2mb connection including antenna, cable, lightning arrestor, radio and short mast is less than $1000. The demarcation on both ends is ethernet. Note that you do need visual and radio line of sight as this gear doesn't go around corners well. Here's a good shopping list / procedure guide:

• find an ISP with an office or POP within about 5 miles of you - you need to be able to see his roof from your roof or you'll have to buy a tower
• arrange with the ISP to purchase bandwidth delivered at his POP as ethernet
• purchase equipment:
  • 2 Teletronics 2mb 802.11 access points
  • 1 Linksys etherfast cable/dsl router (1 port)
  • 2 24db grid antennas
  • 2 2.4GHz capsule type lightning arrestors
  • 2 teletronics to N-Female jumpers
  • 2 lengths LMR600 M-M suitable to reach from radio location to point where the cable leaves the building
  • 2 lengths #6 ground wire to reach from lighting arrestor (mounted on outside of building where cable enters building) to the ground in a straight line
  • 2 copper lug clamps to connect ground wire to body of lightning arrestor
  • 2 8 foot copper clad steel grounding rods with clamps
  • 2 10 foot sections 1" schedule 80 metallic water pipe
  • 2 sections of LMR600 M-M to reach from the lightning arrestor up to the antenna
  • high quality electrical tape (Scotch 33)
  • butyl rubber fusion tape
  • UV resistant (black) cable ties
  • misc mounting hardware
• Install gear on buildings
• set one AP in AP mode, set the other in infrastructure mode
• set up IPs
• surf fast!

This will give you serious net connectivity at a very reasonable price (compared to a telco T1, you'd see payback within about 2 weeks) in a way that is easy for both the ISP and you to deal with.

Here's the connection sequence starting from the ISP running to you:

• connect ethernet from ISP's hub/switch to teletronics radio
• connect teletronics to N-Female jumper to radio
• connect first length of LMR600 to the jumper
• drill 7/8" hole and pass cable outside
• attach cable to correct port on lightning arrestor (usually marked "to radio")
• attach grounding lug to lightning arrestor and mount on building exterior
• attach ground wire and drop to ground
• hammer ground rod into the ground (this might take a while)
• attach grounding cable to ground rod
• attach antenna feed cable to lightning arrestor
• wrap the lighting arrestor and cable ends completely in the scotch 33 tape
• wrap the taped connection in the butyl rubber fusion tape - follow package instructions
• wrap again with scotch 33 TWICE
• mount mast to roof
• run cable up on roof and up mast cable ties where necessary
• mount grid antenna per package instructions (some assembly is required - these are usually 2 feet by 3 feet
• visually align antenna with other site
• fine tune alignment with AP software
• once alignment is confirmed, tighten everything down and wrap the antenna connector as described above

At your end, follow the same instructions, just add the linksys in as a NAT connection between your network and the public IP you got from the ISP.

There are a few other little tips and tricks - if anyone needs help, email me.

There are other product offerings that will work just as well, but only the teletronics gear is this cheap and has been field proven in this kind of environment with no 'engineering' assistance.

For a good topical discussion on this, [e-mail] be careful though, this is a high volume list. [mailto]

Most of what you need can be had from www.wpcs.com [wpcs.com] or www.tessco.com [tessco.com].

ricochet

[mrzaph0d]

ricochet.com [ricochet.com] I haven't used it personally, and it's not available everywhere, but for $70 a month it's supposed to give you access at up to 128k (up to of course). it allows you to use the service anywhere they have the antennas setup, which is in most major cities and most major airports. i think they also give you access to dial-up accounts for when you're in an area that doesn't have it yet. you'll have to go through a reseller to get it, but i've heard good things about it and may be getting it soon myself.
"Leave the gun, take the canoli."

MMDS

[AlfaWolph]

I actually admin at a business where we use this so-called wireless DSL known as MMDS (Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service). And it really is just like DSL but wireless and with more latency. So you have the same amount of bandwidth but don't even try gaming with it. Our service is provieded by Worldcom in a trial for busnisess in the Memphis area. The center is on the highest building in the city and has a certain radius i believe of 10 miles. all it requires is a 20-30 foot antannae on your roof (depending on how high your building is). Things like masses of trees will apparently weaken the signal but it doesn't require line-of-sight. It's even raining right now and it works just grear. Like I said earlier, i can't see anyt donside using it other than the latency- but you still get all the bandwidth, and a tall antannae on your roof. :)

Wirless Broadband

[Chanc_Gorkon]

As far as I know, there is no clear choice, for me, for wireless broadband. The miniute you try to take the same stuff and run it wireless you run into all sorts of problems. In amateur radio, using AX.25, we were doomed to 1200 baud when 28.8 and 14.4's modems were all the rage. Now, 9600 baud packet radio is common in amateur radio, and 14.4 is on the horizon with many TNC's available that can do 14.4. The reason they are behind is bandwidth. The faster the connection, the more bandwith it takes so they have to figure out how to fix it so it doesn't eat bandwith. We used to wire TNC's thru the mike connector, but now most mobile rigs have a RS-232 connector that connects the audio straight to the discrimintor on the transciever. Why am I saying stuff about ham radio when talking about broadband wireless? Well, mainly I am because most of the problems that happen for us will happen or is happening for the wireless broadband techs. You see, bandwith is limited in wireless and always will be to a point. There are only so many frequencies that we have access to at a certain point in time. The higher the frequency goes, the least amount of area it will cover(usually). The FCC and WARC and other orginizations around the world have to be responsible when they hand out band space. It's going to be real difficult to get Roadrunner or DSL type speed up and going because of the problems you have to account for when designing such a system. Oh, it will be possible someday, but now, to get something that will be as fast AND reliable at those speeds without a wire is going to be difficult. One suggestion I have is DirectPC. That is, when they come out with their two way system. I don't know if they have a business plan you can sign up on, but it may be an option. Even it's stuck around 400K. I may be missing some of the newer technologies, but nothing will be as good as a wire now.

Are you sure wireless is the way to go?

[cr0sh]

Actually, are you sure broadband is the way to go? Right now you have seven dialup accounts, at a cost of $175 per month. While not cheap, broadband may end up being more expensive.

It sounds like what you have is seven "business" dialups. In the broadband industry, providers charge extreme fees for installation and monthly charges, just because you are a business - not much is different between @Home and @Work - just some wording in the contract (and possibly better service when you need it). I am certain DSL is the same way.

Are there any landline based solutions? Could you do a "bonded" dialup or maybe ISDN? Will your downlink bandwidth needs be greater than your uplink - or vice-versa (ie, will you be surfing more, or will you be running servers - or do you want to do both)? If you are doing surfing mostly, with only an occasional upload to update your website being hosted by another provider, ISDN or a bonded dialup (or maybe some kind of 56K lease line setup), using NAT on the backend and a firewall - may be a good option.

Make sure there isn't a landline option available to you, before deciding completely on wireless. I am not saying wireless is a bad thing (in fact, I think it is one of the cooler techs on the market), just that you should look at all possible options.

I support the EFF [eff.org] - do you?

Other wireless issues

[PerlStalker]

I work for a rural ISP that does wireless in the San Luis Valley in Colorado. The problems we run into are mountains (duh) and range.

Since we're in a valley, mountains are not much of a problem accept around the fringes. However, range is a problem. Many of the schools that we have wired are between 20 and 30 miles from our towers. This creates all sorts of problems and usually begins to limit performance. Under 20 miles, we can usally get up to T1 speeds.

All I can say is good luck.

PerlStalker

Good stuff

[MrT]

I haven't used Hypernet, but the service at my place of employment from Agile Communications [agile.com.au] is very good. We have a AeroNet 2 Mb RF bridge which is fast, cheap and easy to use. We can go to 10 Mb at our option. The inherent advantage of wireless over wired is the main selling point. Fibre costs a small fortune in this area. The only disadvantage we have encountered has been some minor issues with antenna configuration which the service providers resolved. FWIW I think Aeronet has recently been purchased by Cisco. We're looking at a Cisco end-to-end voice/ip solution at the moment, it's all compatible.

Like...

[Graymalkin]

the other guy said, is wireless broadband (or even broadband) the way to go? An ISDN or leased line can be had for a decent price and are usually pretty available. You can maximize bandwidth by putting a NAT server between you and the internet with cache'ing set so you only need to download the bare minimum of a page's components. Another option is to use something like DirecPC which has a fair downstream bandwidth but is limited to your modem upload speed (and severe latency). The drawbacks to all of these is a high initial cost (networking equipment and wiring along with ISDN/Leased line charges) but I think it is still more affordable than wireless broadband. Wireless just isn't "here" in quality and quantity that would make it a real option in my opinion.

wireless

[theryan]

It is GREAT! Make sure you purchase the equipment from the vendor direct... many ISPs try to get a buck or two off you.