Point to Point wireless internet link......

[BillyGoat]

As a bit of a requirement for the bungahell project HERE I’ve realised that I need some form of security as the project moves on. If someone comes in, I need to know - I can be there in 10 minutes and family/friends in less.

I had a couple of choices here:

Phone line for an alarm and dialler
a. Downside is a 12 month contract
b. There is an installation fee of around 100 quid!!!!
c. Need to buy the alarm and dialler (don’t have spare stuff)

A broadband line for cameras/security/alerts using the internet
a. Expensive without a phone line (see above)
b. 12 month contract
c. Previous line wasn’t reliable – lots of service issues

3G/4G with a MiFi router
a. Don’t usually have Ethernet ports which I need
b. Ongoing costs of data regardless of if it’s used
c. Poor coverage of WiFi

The issue with all of the above is the contract length and cost. I’m hoping I won’t have the place for much longer than is needed, so don't want to end up paying exit fees for contracts I can't use. I needed a better alternative.

My parents’ house is within line of site, so I thought I'd look at a point to point (PtP) wireless link so I could use their broadband. Some requirements for me to do this were:

1. It had to be reliable kit – no homebrew stuff this time
2. It’s got to look discreet. My parents aren’t keen on having stuff bolted to their house
3. It needed to be PoE (Power over Ethernet), so the equipment didn’t need a power socket nearby – they were going to be on TV masts/Chimneys after all!
4. It had to be 5GHz stuff as there are lots of houses between and a quick walk show LOTS of already wireless networks (excluding other stuff sat on the 2.4 band) which MIGHT make the links less reliable.
5. It would be good if I could sell it after and recoup the cost of the PtP links
6. If the link is lost, I need to be told about it so I can sort it out.

I decided on these: http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/product ... com5kituk/ and these brackets for mounting (pole one side, gable end the other): http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/product ... ti-nbu001/

There are lots of models, so I done all the calcs to work out if the kit was up to the job. It was - and then some!!!

Ubiquity offer an online link calculator that projects signal and speed based on location, height and equipment. Plugged some details in and voila! If you want to try it, go to http://airlink.ubnt.com/ and click away!

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You can see the two houses, the distance and projected speed. Don't forget the earth isn't flat - you may need to overcome large distance links with height. That's the fresnel part. One is on the gable end, one on a big TV mast over the house - no issues here.

Link is around 70-80 metres all in. Not a difficult link by any means.

I have the network cable, crimps, plugs, boxes, testing stuff – so that is all cost neutral.

Capable of upto a 150mb links and able to cover a distance of 15km, they pretty much ticked all of the boxes. Plus, if you’ve not used it before, Ubiquiti kit is lovely to work with.

I have to tip my hat to Broadbandbuyer too. I made a mistake with the order and forgot the second mount so I just stuck another order in and paid the extra postage. They rang me up to check what I’d done, realised it was a mistake and refunded the extra shipping and put it all on the same order. Top service.

Ordered Friday on 3 working day and looksee what arrived today………

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Initial impression is good. I got them out the box, set them up, firmware updated them and configured them (more on that later). It was only in the house a, but I got the full speed links and everything working in under 20 minutes, fully configured, secured and done!

I won't get to install them until later in the week, which I'll document, along with setup, but here is a little look......

One of the Loco's. You can see it's not big or obtrusive, I'd say most people wouldn't have a clue what they were looking at.

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The back of it. You can see it's got signal strength LED's so that setting up is easier if you don't have access to the laptop/tablet while configuring.

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The bottom panel clips off to reveal the reset and Ethernet port. The single cable provides the data link AND power using PoE (Power Over Ethernet). That means that at the other end of the cable, power is injected down the line making installation MUCH easier as you don't need to worry about having to get power nearby.

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Here you can see the PoE injector - quite simple:

1. Power cable - durrrr
2. POE - goes to the Nano via cat5/cat6
3. LAN - goes to your router/network switch/PC

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In the box, you only get mounting straps - basically cable ties. They can be strapped to a pole or something, but offer little in the way of aiming/adjustment. The brackets I ordered can be pole mounted or wall mounted - I'll be using both installation methods.

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Crack the box open - I hope you like jigsaws

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A couple of bits slot together to lock onto the Nano quite easily.....

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A couple of screws make it secure. I think it has a bit of movement in it that could be improved (and I will with some tape/packing). It won't make a difference, but I don't think it's as good as it could be). It also has brackets for the other Nanostation models, so don't get TOO confused

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The other side is a ball joint that allows aiming. You can turn the bit around with bolts either way. That way is for wall mount, the other is pole mount (it becomes a clamp). Quite clever really.

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The finished article, ready for mounting:

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I'll go through setup later, but here is a quick squizz at the setup page - you can see the link info during testing on the bench. They offer LOTS of features you might never need/want - but it's good to have them! It's basically saying STOP SHOUTING AT ME!!!!!!

The important bits for us later are the signal and throughput. Anything upto 100mb on the link would be good for me. I don't need that much, but it's what the broadband connection is, so seems a good a target as any.

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Happy for any questions so far.....I'll do some more on setup later. So far, I'm very happy with my choice. It's more a ramble at this point.
BG

[Rorschach]

Very nice. I considered a similar setup a while back but couldn't get permission to mount the necessary parts (shared ownership property) so we had to go with an independent source. Luckily we managed to get some cracking deals over the years and have paid very little for the broadband, still not as cheap as sharing a single source but not bad.

[kellys_eye]

Now that's the kind of technical reporting that would appeal to anyone - great stuff BG

[Chop]

Nice one BG, even I understand it.

15KM range is immense! Pop your password up I'll see if I can log in

[BillyGoat]

Annoyingly, I thought I'd have a go at a video and the first part need updating as it's just wrong for the majority of people. The rest is "OK" though. If anyone can be bothered, have a look and see if it makes ANY sense or just babble.



I'll re-do (and part 2) it if it adds to the whole saga - I just chucked it together while I had a tea and break at work. It IS 11 minutes.....so you won't get them back if you watch it, that's just the way it's got to be.



Thoughts?

BG

[Bob225]

Its all so simple these days, if you using standard cat 5e/6 cable be aware in can go brittle in a very short period of time outside, lsoh does a bit better ideally you need proper exterior utp or over sleeve it

[BillyGoat]

Simple is good though! You can turn on advanced mode in these too if you need the 'other stuff' (VLAN for management interface, IP aliases, firewall, static routes, trafic shaping, monitoring, etc). Plus, you can fine tune the frequency hopping, power, etc.

I'm not sure it's much more complicated than years back - maybe you've got numb to it and it's super easy!

Both sides will barely be exposed to the sun - would expect many years out of them before they go, which I hope the place is LONG gone before that happens, but good point if anyone is doing it permanently.

I've got black outdoor UV rated stuff, purple lsoh spare, but I'm using the grey Cat6 as I've got a garage load

[Cannyfixit]

Well done BG what ever it is you have achieved

[BillyGoat]

Nothing yet.....lol

[Bob225]

Simple is good though! You can turn on advanced mode in these too if you need the 'other stuff' (VLAN for management interface, IP aliases, firewall, static routes, trafic shaping, monitoring, etc). Plus, you can fine tune the frequency hopping, power, etc.

I'm not sure it's much more complicated than years back - maybe you've got numb to it and it's super easy!

Both sides will barely be exposed to the sun - would expect many years out of them before they go, which I hope the place is LONG gone before that happens, but good point if anyone is doing it permanently.

I've got black outdoor UV rated stuff, purple lsoh spare, but I'm using the grey Cat6 as I've got a garage load

Numb - possibly most consumer grade equipment is idiot proof these days

yes when I first installed a 1km link there were untold calculations just to set up the antennas, dbi losses on the connectors and coax to take into account, no POE, etc. if you wanted in outside you stuck the AP in a sandwich box and use home brew POE both ends of the cat5

[BillyGoat]

Well, the weather looked good but I had to pull my finger out and get the link up and running. I'll have to re-visit the setup videos later. Just not had time with work!

First things first, the parents side of things - where the Internet is coming from. As it turns out, they have changed their package for a better price, so it's only a 60mb down link with 3mb up Takes the pressure off getting a mega link though - not like it matters anymore.

I'd hoped the loco would fit on the TV aerial, but it offered ZERO line of sight, so went back to the backup plan (much to my parents delight) of it being on the front of the house, on the gable end. Forgot to photo the installing bit, but it was just two screws done up NEARLY tight, so it could still be aimed later. Nothing someone with a drill and 20 minutes couldn't do.

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Once the bridge was mounted on the wall and the cat6 (it was free - use what you like) cable was threaded through the loft, it was time to put some ends on it. First, I stripped back the sheeth and removed the internal cable guide .....

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Order the cables nicely....

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End on and CRIMP hard.....mmmmm crimpy. Now, it IS solid core and I usually wouldn't do it. It's not big and it's not clever. If they were going to be there a long time, I'd have put some socket boxes inside the loft and ran some patch leads or used stranded to the loco's, like a good boy.

Risks crimping onto solid core: the cable not terminating correctly. Failing prematurely. Intermittent connectivity.

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Still, I could check to was at least working once I'd crimped both ends on, I've got a crappy testing tool with a remote unit. So, I clipped the remote test on on one side.....

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Connected the test unit to the other side, in the broadband (coat) cupboard and pressed the big test button - success.

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Next, it needed power and broadband connecting. So, I connected the Virgin router to the power injector. Then the cable to the outdoor bridge and finally power. Easy - no messing around with outdoor sockets/extensions. Power injected down the cat6 to the outdoor link unit.

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Here's the parents coat cupboard....no one can accuse them of not letting me do what I like... You can't even see the PoE injector!

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Here is the finished article. I didn't tie the cable up, as it gave a nice curve and drip loop naturally. Plus, no one cares.

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Once that was done and powered, I needed to go up the road to do the next one. Mounted a new bracket for the aerial (the old one used to be on the chimney that was taken down). 4x 10mm holes, a little level and some bolts later and the old TV aerial was up.

Bolted the nano link on the pole, again quite loose for aiming later.

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Next was to aim to the loco in the right direction. I didn't use a laser pen resting on the top for an aim....oh no I didn't And it wasn't definitely a green one that you can see in the day light!!!!

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Repeated the same as before with the 8p8c ends (cat 5 RJ45 plugs) and powered up the unit - full strength first time, full compliment of LEDs!!!

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A bit of tidying later (some cable ties, a bit of tape and doing the bolts up) and it looked alright from the road.....you'd not notice unless you was looking for it.

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Connected my laptop up inside as a quick test at the bungahell side, instantly connected to my parents internet. Ran a speed test and got what they do inside their house using wifi - even the latency surprised me!!! I wasn't expecting 8ms - the bridge has literally added 1ms to the link - that's hardly worth writing home about.

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Finally, logged into the bridges for the official stats. The link is a bloody good quality and has locked on at 240mbps either way!!!!!!

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While the above won't mean much to most, it basically means I can make full use of their internet, with some wiggle room. I can now get on with my next mini project that makes use of it. I'm half way through making my next post....

I've got a special box (cheap thing) there testing the link reliability and logging enabled for a day or two while I'm doing other stuff. I don't expect any issues, but you never know. There is that much overhead there that I can't see the links going down any time soon.

Final thoughts?

- The kit is quality to work with and setup - no complaints with the software side of things.
- The mounts are CRAP and feel tacky. Had to modify the parents side as it wouldn't face far enough to the side
- Should have used proper patch leads, but I don't care for now
- Link speed has impressed me far more than I thought it was
- 5GHz was the right choice, well done me
- When I'm done, I'll sell them on - can see me getting my cash back from anyone who's seen them running
- Why has my posting sig changed - come on, fess up.......

So, if you've got a shed/garage/parent/friend who you want to link up with (shared broadband/office/network) cheaply and easily and you've got a line of sight - you can do far worse than buy these bits of kit.

Yeah, you could do networking cable or fibre links, but it's a lot of work or you might not own the right of way. You could use powerline, but I'm not a fan. WiFi repeaters suck ass for MANY reasons too.

Hope it's been of any use......any questions, happy to help or put in missing bits.

Cheers,

BG