Pair of Ubuquiti power station 2 or 5 bridges, 5 would be preferable, under $200 per end.
http://www.ubnt.com/downloads/ps5_datasheet.pdf Peter Boone wrote: > Hi NANOG, > > I'm looking for some equipment recommendations for a wireless bridge between > two locations approximately 500-800 meters apart. The current setup for this > company has been extremely unstable and slow. I don't have a lot of > experience in this area so I was hoping someone could give me a few > pointers. > > Currently, both locations are using Linksys WRT54GL's flashed with DD-WRT > firmware (Yes, 802.11g. All extra bells and whistles are disabled in the > firmware. They were set up for WDS so other wireless clients could connect > to the same access point, with varying degrees of success. Not very > important). They are connected to SmartAnt 2300-2500 MHz 14 dBi directional > antenna mounted on the roof (extended pretty high for perfect line of > sight). I'm not sure when they got these antenna exactly but I'm told it was > when WiFi was very new. The network is very small so both locations share > the same subnet (192.168.1.0/24). > > They have gone through numerous Linksys access points over the years. The > wireless settings are tweaked as best as possible, and we have found the > connection to be most stable when the TX is limited to 6-9 Mbps. > > We have explored other options as well. An internet connection at each > location + VPN is out due to very slow upstream speeds (the buildings are in > an industrial area, ADSL is the only option.) The max they offer on regular > business accounts is 800 kbps up. T1 lines are even slower and even more > expensive. They won't offer us any other solutions such as fibre. We have > considered running fibre/coax but there is too much construction activity > and other property in the way. > > I'm looking into RouterBOARD right now, considering a RB433AH and R52H > wireless card, but I'm not sure this will actually solve the problem. It's > difficult to determine if the issue is with the antennas or access points > (for example, after a good thunderstorm, the wireless link will be down for > at least 12 hours, but will fix itself eventually. Resetting either access > point will keep the link down for at least 30 minutes. Using an airgun on > the access points tends to make them more reliable, even if they are clean > and dust free. From the admin interface, each access point will report > seeing a very good and strong signal from the other, yet they refuse to > communicate until they feel like it a few hours later.) > > Any suggestions welcome. I'm sure you can tell cost is a bit of a factor > here but it will be easy for me to justify a higher price if I'm confident > it will be effective. > > While I'm at it, I've been reading along on the list for over a year now; > thanks everyone for sharing your real world experiences :) > > Peter > >
