Longhaul WIFI

[OZisKTB]

My place is in a cell blackout area, no cable or other broadband. Have enough experience with satellite to know I'd rather do without. I can a tower 5 miles from my place that the cable company uses. They don't mind giving me internet on the tower, but won't shoot the signal to my house. Plenty of open air between the tower and my place, but I live on a ridge with really tall trees. My place is not a good spot for a 150' guyed tower, I may be able to get a good line of sight to the tower near by, and then dogleg a signal to my house.

Anyone with experience shooting WIFI 5 miles or more? I know enough to know I need to work this out before buying $2K or more worth of equipment.

 

[stuckmotor]

At this moment, I'm trying to figure out how to WIFI through the wall between the den and the bedroom. I probably won't be much help.:confused3:

 

[k0ua]

I don't have a lot of practical experience, but I know ranges of over 200 miles are possible.. The longest link I have ever set up was just 500 foot. It is all about path, and antenna's This link will tell you more.

Long-range Wi-Fi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[DuckSlayer1017]

We live out in the sticks and my wife runs an online business from our house. The best option we found was having a T1 line installed by the phone company. We pay about $130/mo but its a lot better than satellite and has unlimited data. It may save you a lot of headache.

 

[OZisKTB]

Duck Slayer, I'll check on it. Our phone line runs underground for a mile, including a couple hundred feet through a National Park and then under my asphalt driveway. Don't know if the existing copper will work, or what it will take to upgrade.

Thanks for an option I had not considered. I'll talk to Netelos and see what I can work out.

 

[newbury]

Look into cantenna.

Basically small cans used to shoot wifi in a tight beam over a distance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6LkQ53vRJI one example.

/edit - or here's a commercial solution
♠ WiFi | Wireless Bridge Kit - RadioLabs -

 

[techman]

Rather than a cantenna, over that distance I would buy a 2.4 ghz yagi antenna. Something like Amazon.com: The Silver 25 Dbi 2.4 Ghz 802.11b/g Wifi Yagi Antenna Rp-sma Wlan: Computers & Accessories

You will also need a good router with external antenna capability. The antenna is quite directional and will need to be aimed.

paul

 

[MossRoad]

My place is in a cell blackout area, no cable or other broadband. Have enough experience with satellite to know I'd rather do without. I can a tower 5 miles from my place that the cable company uses. They don't mind giving me internet on the tower, but won't shoot the signal to my house. Plenty of open air between the tower and my place, but I live on a ridge with really tall trees. My place is not a good spot for a 150' guyed tower, I may be able to get a good line of sight to the tower near by, and then dogleg a signal to my house.

Anyone with experience shooting WIFI 5 miles or more? I know enough to know I need to work this out before buying $2K or more worth of equipment.

At my employer we used to use a Cisco Aironet on each end of a 17 mile link with no amplification. Only directional antennas. They were up on towers and line-of-sight. I do not remember the model numbers, but I do remember they were $800 each, plus antennas, cables, tower rental, etc.... plus hiring a tower monkey to install the antennas. Tower rental was based on dollars per height footage. It wasn't cheap. We did it to send data across state lines, back when telephone lines were taxed for crossing state lines. It was cost effective at the time. Today, we have switched the remote facilities to (of all things) Comcast for business. Its all VPN's and internet now. About $100 per month per remote office.

So, first you have to see if you have line-of-site to an internet service provider. If yes, then...
See if you can have a site survey done at your location to see if their signal is present and usable. If yes, then...
Evaluate service and equipment costs and yes or no decision.

 

[sseelhoff]

Might be cheaper to build your own Starbucks.

Then the wifi is "free."

 

[boggen]

WISP (wireless internet service provider) it is not cellphone internet. a completely different thing. and those operators will be more use to dealing with long distance wifi.

at moment using exceed satellite. and don't have a problem. though wish i could get a WISP connection. for higher bandwidth and cheaper cost. but... *shrugs* i am staying away from cell phone internet, that is a joke.

 

[oosik]

I've had great service with HughesNet satellite internet service for over five years. I'm remote also - satellite TV, satellite internet and - WAHOO - absolutely no phone. Life is great!!

 

[MossRoad]

I've had great service with HughesNet satellite internet service for over five years. I'm remote also - satellite TV, satellite internet and - WAHOO - absolutely no phone. Life is great!!

In all honesty and not to sound mean spirited.... you are the only person I have every heard that is happy with that service. I'm glad its working well for someone. :thumbsup:

 

[TomSeller]

Might be cheaper to build your own Starbucks.

Then the wifi is "free."

Might be expensive drinking enough coffee to keep the place open.

 

[oosik]

Recently they upgraded their service to what they call "Gen 4". I'll be the first to admit - prior to the upgrade all I could say was - well, at least I have service. Now things up/down load fast. Nothing like fibre optics but good enough and its not that expensive.

 

[MossRoad]

I am spoiled with streaming video on demand over internet with no data limits. We have rural property that we'd like to retire to.... I'll be out of luck for affordable internet access there. No cable. No DSL. Weak cell. ZIPPO except for satellite. Maybe someone will have some wireless that reaches in that direction, but the property is around a ridge from the line-of-site of the nearest town.

 

[Ken45101]

You are trying to do this to get cellular data service? First of all, make sure that they have decent throughput! Around here, AT&T cellular data is terribly slow, even with a good cell signal. Last evening the data rate was 0.05Mbp, virtually worthless. I tink AT&T must be using two tin cans and a string for their tower to Internet connection . Yes, they have 4g cell to tower but apparently nothing adequate beyond the tower.

We have Exede satellite at home and it is much, much better than cell data which we had for a couple of years.

 

[OZisKTB]

I worked closely with SATCOM providers in the military and know what it takes to provide consistent service; primarily a team working to make the system work. Where finger pointing is possible, satellite is built in, white knuckled frustration. Tried EXCEED since they were using newer technology I understood. Spent a weekend of endless finger pointing, and intentional organizational barriers JUST GETTING AN INSTALL. Will do without before building significant stress into my life.

 

[charlz]

WISP (wireless internet service provider) it is not cellphone internet. a completely different thing. and those operators will be more use to dealing with long distance wifi.

at moment using exceed satellite. and don't have a problem. though wish i could get a WISP connection. for higher bandwidth and cheaper cost. but... *shrugs* i am staying away from cell phone internet, that is a joke.

This what I have at the house. We are too far out for DSL or Cable. I don't know if this is the exact antenna I had originally but it looked at lot like this one:

Amazon.com: Directional Hi Gain WiFi Internet Antenna with LMR Coax Cable to Connect Routers and Access Points - High Boost Long Range Commercial WIMAX Panel Amplifies Wireless Signals 19 Dbi (45 feet - 15 meters Times Microwave or Andrew US Made 400

I had 3mbps service and it would 'burn through' the couple trees a few hundred yards away that blocked my line of site to the tower which is miles away.

Then they 'upgraded' the service to 5mbps and I needed a new antenna. The new antenna looks like a small Dish or Direct TV antenna and it will NOT burn through trees, I had to have the antenna relocated to a clear line of site.

 

[kco]

You could take a look at Wifi radios similar to Tranzeo products:

Broadband Wireless Products - Tranzeo Wireless Technologies Inc.

Tranzeo went bankrupt and is trying to reincarnate under Charlotte Resources Ltd. The Tranzeo website is still active. You can likely get a pair of Tranzeo 2.4 GHz radios for under $100 from Ebay.

We had internet using Tranzeo for a few years. Our service was flakey, but that most of that was due to the configuration and a lack of understanding by the supplier. It was a complex system to get service to me. It went through three repeaters(total of 6 radios) before reaching my radio. Even so, we got got up to 3 Mbps.

Your setup would be a simple point to point between two radios.

I believe the radios use about 8 watts average with power fed through power over ethernet(POE) via a power adapter that looks like the old square "brick" used for modems, etc. If possible you would want to plug that adapter in to some source in your provider's enclosure.

Other frequencies are available. Higher frequencies such as 5 GHz have higher data rates but shorter range. Higher frequency units also are more affected by obstructions such as trees. The 900 MHz models will go through some trees but have lower data rates and cost more.

Our service was flakey due to the complexity and we changed to cellular when it became available. I owned four of the seven radios that served my place and gave them to the service provider when I no longer needed them.

Wireless radios should work for your situation.

For more information you can get the manuals from the Tranzeo website.

 

[zing]

The pringles can wifi antenna is pretty well known, so starting from there and searching the internet should get you lots of hits on homemade antennas, as well as possibly some cheaper ones you can buy. Five miles is a long way, but if you have a clear line of sight, it should be do-able from your end. Internet requires two-way communication though, so I am not sure what the ISP is willing to install on that tower to receive your data back to them.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pringles+can+wifi+antenna